Con Artist Uses Charm and Lies to Steal Car, Police Say : Crime: Man who claims to be an assistant to a rock star also disappoints a group of quadriplegics.

A charming scam artist claiming to be an assistant to rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen successfully used his chicanery in the San Fernando Valley this week, convincing a nurse to give him the keys to her convertible, police said Thursday.

Then the man not only stole the car but disappointed 22 quadriplegics, whom he had promised the musician would visit and possibly play for.

The thief, calling himself Steven Brokaw, briefly checked himself into St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard Monday night, complaining of chest pains.

While there, he won over staff members by saying that he was an assistant to Van Halen and that he was going to get them all tour jackets, said Detective Tim Wisenhunt of the Los Angeles Police Department.

During a conversation, the man told Carol Balta, a nursing supervisor at the hospital who also works with quadriplegics at New Start Homes in Chatsworth, that he would give her and her daughter tickets to a Janet Jackson concert. He also promised that he would ask Van Halen to stop by Tuesday to meet the quadriplegics and maybe play a few songs.

True to his word, the man arrived at New Start about 9 a.m. Tuesday, but without Van Halen. Nevertheless, he assured Balta that the guitarist would arrive later. In the meantime, he offered to take her red convertible, which he noticed was dirty, to a nearby carwash, claiming he knew the owner. He never returned, Wisenhunt said.

“I really believed him,” Balta said. “He followed through. He had the kind of personality where he could sell the Man on the Moon. But I can see now he had it all planned.”

The man left a Camaro in the parking lot. After checking the car’s license plate, Wisenhunt discovered it was stolen and quickly realized this was not the first victim of the scam.

Two weeks earlier in Antioch, near San Francisco, a hospital nurse had given the keys to her car to a man who came to the facility complaining of chest pains.

“He actually took her out on a date, then took her car,” Balta said.

The woman told police that she was too embarrassed to cooperate with them.

The man was captured on videotape by St. John’s surveillance cameras, and police plan to distribute his picture to the public, Wisenhunt said.

According to people who had come in contact with him, the man had an exceptional knowledge of the Valley and police suspect that he was or is an area resident.

Van Halen’s manager denied that the man worked with the rock star and said that Van Halen is considering playing for the kids, according to Balta, an Oxnard resident.

“He was so smooth and so good,” she said. “I just want this guy caught.”