Ebert appears to be the much lamer twin of the Barefoot Bandit. Instead of flying airplanes to the Bahamas, Ebert stands accused of taking money from a woman who needed gastric bypass surgery and stealing more than $100,000 in cash and merchandise from victims in Oregon and Southwest Washington, often by "creating the illusion that he is a successful millionaire."
According to court documents, on August 25, 2010, the fake millionaire happened to be speeding down SW Broadway in his Porsche Boxter. He began arguing with a passenger and at the stoplight on SW Broadway on Madison, swerved the Porsche across two lanes of traffic and attempted to turn the wrong way up Madison. In doing so, he struck a person on a bike who was stopped at the light and happened to be none other than Portland's bicycling harpist Halley Weaver, who hauls her harp around town busking. Luckily, Weaver did not have her harp with her at that moment. But the impact torqued her back and badly cut her foot.
"I'm glad the car was so low off the ground," says Weaver. "If it wasn't a Porsche, this could have been way worse."
Weaver says Ebert was incredibly apologetic, offering to run off right then and buy her a new bike. Over the next few months, he kept promising to pay her bills, by when he actually ponied up a $2,500 check, it bounced. Finally in March 2011, Weaver worked with local bikey lawyer Mark Ginsberg to file a legal complaint seeking $7,434 for medical fees and emotional pain and suffering. Then the news broke about Ebert impersonating an OHSU doctor.
"I laughed so hard, I couldn't believe it," says Weaver. Ebert has not yet responded to the legal complaint seeking the cash, so on August 8th, Ginsberg filed another legal memo demanding the money. $7,434, by the way, could buy about one-seventh of a new Porsche Boxter.
