It started with a question in a parking lot: do you bank with Navy Federal? Then a stranger's story. He could not get into his own account at the ATM, he said. If you helped, he would pay you through Zelle or Cash App, and to send the money he only needed to log in on your phone.
That is how a federal indictment in Norfolk describes the opening of the parking lot scam. Once the phone changed hands, it alleged, the group applied for a loan in the owner's name through the credit union's app, which can pay out within minutes. On September 25 the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced that eleven people had been sentenced for their roles, to terms from four months to three years and six months.
What the indictment describes
The August 2025 indictment alleged more than the release says:
- A face lock did not stop it. When someone refused, the group sometimes pushed "by physically taking the mobile device from the mark and holding it to the mark's face to obtain biometric access". In another instance, one of the group sitting in the car made a firearm visible.
- The overpayment trick. The group then said it had sent back too much money, pointed to the owner's newly swollen checking balance, and asked for the difference.
- Hiding it. They deleted the email alerts. Sometimes they also deleted the banking apps and would "return the victims' mobile device to them in airplane mode", so no alert arrived until the owner reconnected.
- Coming back. When someone caught on, the group would get in touch, up to days later, to say they knew where that person lived.
The indictment put reports of this scam in the district at more than 500, with losses of at least $2 million: district-wide figures it does not attribute to these defendants.
The sentences
U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker imposed them between May 5 and September 24:
Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud:
- Rodney Demetrius Thornton, 40: three years and six months
- Jordan Pugh, 34: three years and four months
- Laterrance Octavia Parker Jr., 25: three years and two months
- Steven Carter Jones, III, 33: three years
- Troy Lee Davis, III, 26: two years and six months
- Jamaica Lavonta Sumner, 26: a year and nine months
Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in a separate case:
- Corey Deshawn Smith, 32: two years and seven months
Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering:
- Joy Davis, 48: two years and six months
- Andrea Holley (no age given): a year
- Lois Irene Staton, 33: six months
- Persia Brown, 25: four months
If it happened to you
The case page asks anyone who believes they were a victim to send its Potential Victim Form to USAVAE.Parkinglotscam@usdoj.gov with the title "Parking Lot Scam", or by mail to the Norfolk office at the address printed on the form. You attest to it under penalty of perjury, and it asks for any police report or report to your bank or credit union. Neither gives a deadline. On restitution, the page warns: "It is not a guarantee of payment."
What the record does not say
- What each defendant admitted. The method above is the indictment's allegation; Hugin did not read the plea agreements. Corey Deshawn Smith's charging document (2:25-cr-128) was not available.
- The money. Nothing read gives restitution amounts, the loss tied to these eleven, whether members got money back, or whether a form filed now still counts.
- Jones's date. The release says "yesterday" (September 24, by its date); the case page, last updated May 29, listed September 21.