Police nab ‘Military Mistress,’ suspected of scamming a dozen men

A woman charged with theft in Pierce County is suspected of stealing from more than a dozen military men across the country over the last 20 years.

Bobbi Ann Finley is now jailed in Tacoma. She was charged in 2011 with posing as a Marine and stealing more than $2,400 from a woman she met in a Pierce County bar.

“She was obviously on the run and doing this to make a living across the country,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s detective Ed Troyer. She left the area and a few months later, in 2011, was captured in Alabama and sentenced to prison for theft by deception.

Finley, 37, was the subject of an ABC News 20/20 investigation in which she was dubbed the “Military Mistress.” Investigators believe she has married at least 14 men, given birth to nine children, and drained thousands of dollars from bank accounts in several states.

“And now we see how many kids, ex-husbands, and annulled marriages she’s had,” said Troyer. “She’s a professional con artist. Unfortunately, she targets military people.”

According to a Declaration for Determination of Probable Cause, Finley met a woman in a bar in Pierce County, posing as a Marine, and convinced the woman to let Finley write her checks for the victim to deposit. She told the victim she was from out of state and the banks would not cash her checks. Finley then was given money from the woman’s account totaling $2,455.

The woman took off. “In the meantime, she’s out scamming people across the country, in and out of other jails, but we held the charging papers because we wanted her held accountable to what she did to our military people out here in the state of Washington,” Troyer said, adding it’s possible there are other victims in Washington.

Pierce County sheriff’s detectives traveled to Alabama this week to arrest her before she was released from prison there. Finley is reportedly wanted in several other states.