"Man spends lifetime using 38 different aliases" joke

SAN DIEGO (AP) - For four decades, a Carlsbad man used fake resumes, degrees and identities to secure a wife, money and several jobs, including one as a fire chief and an accident investigator.
But Robert Fay Garcia's secrets are finally out. He was sentenced Thursday in San Diego federal court to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $56,900 in restitution for collecting Social Security benefits using three identities.
He obtained one alias by claiming he was homeless, even though he lived in a mobile home, officials said.
Throughout his life, 70-year-old Garcia has used at least 38 names, posed as a retired Marine colonel and a former prisoner of war in Korea, said Jim Rogers, a special agent with the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.
"And those are the identities we know about," Rogers said. "He was never really who he said he was."
Garcia's first conviction involving an alias was in 1958 for forgery. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was in and out of prison on various charges including auto theft, prison escape and aggravated assault. In 1980, he was arrested for using counterfeit military documents, however, he did not appear in court for sentencing.
Garcia has used fake identities to secure many jobs, including security chief at a Laguna Hills hospital, a fire chief in Coachella, a fire captain in Del Mar and a senior accident investigator for the Orange County.
Garcia's latest downfall came last year, when his probation officer wondered why the ex-convict's car had license plates issued to veterans who had received combat awards, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat, the prosecutor in the case.
Garcia, who has been married several times, even duped his latest wife, who believed she had married a war hero.

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