Man arrested for hosting satellite laser beam healing scheme

Police say a man tricked an elderly couple into believing laser beams from satellites could cure disease. The Mower County Sheriff's Office arrested Ronald Renken on Monday. Sheriff Terese Amazi says in her 25 years in law enforcement, she's never seen anything like it. She says Ronald Renken who's accused of swindling an elderly mower county couple out of more than $6,000 dollars, is lucky he's not facing more serious charges. A criminal complaint suggests Renken claimed laser beams from a satellite could cure the man's diabetes at price of more than $2,300.

"I've never heard of this one before obviously, it's just unfortunate that people believed him," Amazi said. Amazi says Renken, met the couple after selling them a water softener several years ago. "The elderly man said he had a lot of health problems and they got to talking and the the water conditioning person said he would sell them supplements that would cure them as well as this satellite that would beam from outer space being tweaked in Germany," she said. Investigators later learned disease isn't the only problem Renken claimed laser beams could cure.



He runs a business out of his home in Stewartville called Care Free Water Products, according to the criminal complaint he told the couple that a laser beam could be sent down from a satellite and clean their well of lead and iron. He charged the couple more than $4,000 for that service. Amazi says the result of Renken's scheme could have turned out much worse. "The real tragic part is he also told this man to quit using his medications that he was cured and that obviously wasn't the case," she said.

Amazi says Renken also told the man's wife she had cancer all over her body and offered her the same treatment at a discounted rate. The couple then contacted their daughter who works at Olmsted County Medical Center. "It definitely alarmed her and she brought her parents in to make this report," Amazi said. Amazi says if the man with diabetes had been hospitalised or even died because of going off of his medications Renken would be facing additional charges. They are looking for more people who may have fallen victim to his satellite scheme.