Pennsylvania

Police: Man Extorted $13,000 to Keep Affair Secret

A western Pennsylvania man has been jailed on charges that he extorted $13,000 from another man in exchange for not telling the alleged victim's wife that he was having an affair.

Making matters more unusual, state police say, is that the affair involved the suspect's girlfriend.

Online court records don't list an attorney for 30-year-old Thomas Wingard Jr., of Uledi, who is jailed in Fayette County until his preliminary hearing Dec. 1 on charges including robbery and extortion.

Police say Wingard's girlfriend invited the alleged victim to her home in late September or October.

That's where police say Wingard confronted the other man with a baseball bat and took $120 from him after threatening to tell the man's wife about the affair.

Police say Wingard took at least $13,000 from the man in subsequent meetings.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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