Grandma Helps Bust Scam Suspect After Teaming Up with Police
A 73-year-old Long Island woman beat a scammer at his own game and tricked him into getting arrested. “Bored grandma — 1, bad guy — 0,” the woman, identified as Jean, said. An unknown caller phoned the grandmother on…
A 73-year-old Long Island woman beat a scammer at his own game and tricked him into getting arrested.
“Bored grandma — 1, bad guy — 0,” the woman, identified as Jean, said.
An unknown caller phoned the grandmother on Thursday morning, telling her that police had arrested her grandson after a car crash, she told WCBS.
A “crying man” pretending to be her grandson could also be heard during the call, Jean said. The caller said her grandson needed $8,000 to be bailed out of jail.
The problem? Jean said she doesn’t have a grandson of driving age.
“Apparently they thought they had the big fish. They actually thought I was gonna give them money,” she said, according to WNBC-TV.
Realizing it was a plot to hoodwink her, Jean decided to Scam the scammer instead, playing along as a gullible, worried grandmother.
“I played stupid grandma. ‘Oh, my poor grandson,’ I told the guy. ‘Please don’t tell his mother,'” she recounted. She agreed to hand over the $8,000.
While the man was en route to her residence to collect the money, Jean, a former 911 dispatcher, called the police.
Officers arrived at the scene and hid their vehicles. Some went inside her home to prepare for the clueless scammer’s arrival.