BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH | Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who is possibly scamming older residents, with at least one of them in Manhattan so far.
According to police, the first incident occurred June 2, around 10:30 a.m., when an 82-year-old Queens resident received a phone call from a stranger saying that the senior’s grandson had been arrested. The mysterious caller told the man he needed to pay his grandson’s $10,000 legal fees in cash. The grandfather agreed to pay the caller outside of the senior’s home.
A second similar incident occurred on June 12, at 10 a.m., when a 93-year-old woman on Manhattan’s Upper East Side received a phone call from an unknown male caller stating that her grandson had been arrested and she needed to pay his legal fees. The woman agreed to pay the caller $9,500 in cash outside of her home near Madison Ave. and E. 86th St.
The third incident occurred June 15, at 3 p.m., again in Queens, when a 94-year-old man received a call from an unknown man stating that is grandson had been arrested and asking for legal fees to paid in person and in cash. The senior man agreed that the caller could come to his home and he would pay him $9,500.
Police describe the man wanted for questioning as between the ages of 20 and 30, and last seen wearing a dark track suit with animal-print stripes.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Tips can also be submitted on on the Crime Stoppers Web site, WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All tips are strictly confidential.
