MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University Police Department announced that it has joined a national search for an alleged serial scammer who was located in Morgantown earlier this week.
WVU PD said Jerry W. Buracker, 65, was allegedly seen entering a building at the downtown campus on Tuesday.
According to Department Chief Sherry St. Clair, Buracker is accused of entering while wearing a high-visibility construction vest and carrying a clipboard, where he falsely claimed to be a building inspector, and where he later allegedly stole personal checks.
“So we’re looking for a male by the name of Jerry Buracker, he is a 65-year-old white male, and he was dressed as, like, a construction worker,” said St. Clair. “He actually came into one of our academic admin offices and committed a theft.”
According to St. Clair, Buracker is also accused of attempting to cash the stolen checks at local banks using an employee’s signature that he had collected by requesting a sign-off on the fake work. After entering the building on the WVU downtown campus, Buracker then attempted to travel around to Morgantown area local businesses to attempt the same scheme. Buracker was allegedly seen targeting a business in Westover.
“As far as we can tell, it’s the only building he’s been on campus, but there is a case that the Westover PD is handling with him right now with similar circumstances,” said St. Clair.
As part of the investigation, it was discovered that Buracker is wanted on at least 11 other outstanding warrants for alleged theft and fraud in other states. According to St. Clair, Buracker was confirmed to be active in Virginia, Maryland, and other parts of West Virginia. The Westover Police Department is confirmed to be investigating the report of his appearance in Westover.
“He had several warrants out of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia for the same thing, so there are outstanding warrants for several states from him,” said St. Clair.
Buracker is white, 5 feet 9 inches tall, with gray hair. At the time of the alleged campus crimes, he was driving a rental vehicle — a 2025 black Hyundai Elantra with an Alabama license plate, AOCP5EN. Anyone who has information about Buracker’s location or other information that may be helpful to investigators is asked to contact WVU Police by phone at 304-293-3136 or in person at 886 Chestnut Ridge Road.
“If you see him, what we’re doing is asking just to call us right away, don’t approach or anything, and we will have an officer respond right away,” said St. Clair.
Tips can also be given anonymously via the LiveSafe app.