From time to time, I’ll post about strange goings-on that might give fiction writers ideas for their novels and screenplays.

In Kalispell, Montana, in the northwest corner of the state, a man has been bailing young women out of the Flathead County jail – women who didn’t know him – apparently to coerce them into sex by threatening to revoke their bail if they don’t agree. According to an account in The Daily Interlake, the problem didn’t come to light immediately because the imposter didn’t post bail directly. Instead, he went through a commercial bonding firm. When one woman refused to go along with the man’s demands, he withdrew his payment without telling her, leaving her susceptible to re-arrest.

According to a later report in The Missoulian,  sheriffs’ deputies have discovered that the man is posing as a pastor ore retired police officer. He gives the bonding firm the impression that he knows the woman, and insists that she live with him as a condition of the bail. A local bondsman suspects that another inmate is giving the imposter information about the women. Sheriff Chuck Curry, who believes three or four women have been involved, told The Missoulian that the case is tough to investigate because the victims are hard to locate. “These are people who have been incarcerated, so sometimes they’re not the easiest people to come up with,” he said. “They aren’t all coming forward.”

Imagine the fictional possibilities.