By Yehudit Garmaise for BoroPark24
Police are searching for two suspects who have been working together to make off with nearly $30,000 since May 31 by telling unsuspecting senior citizens that they have relatives who are desperately in need of thousands of dollars to be bailed out of jail.
On June 8, an unsuspecting 77-year-old Boro Park man handed the crooks $10,679, police told NBC.
The next day, a 74-year-old woman in Queens was asked for $6,800 after telling her the same lie that she had relatives who needed her financial help, the smart lady was able to reach the family member whom the perpetrators were claiming needed her help.
Realizing that she was being scammed, the woman confronted the suspect, who then ran off without stealing any cash.
Moving on to their next mark, however, the undeterred suspects returned to Brooklyn 90 minutes later to target an 88-year-old woman who gave the thieves $13,900, police said.
The suspects started their stealing rampage on May 31, when an 83-year-old Queens man forked over $5,000 to help what was thought was a relative in need.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported in any of the cases.
Authorities released surveillance images of the suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. Police released the images of the suspects.
I recognize one of the men! He is an incredibly nice person!
I didn’t even know I had a first cousin in Wyoming who was totally broke without any food in his run down apartment until this tzadik in the photo told me about him. So I gave the tzadik my credit card and he wired $5000 to my cousin on the spot! You don’t run into angels like that too often. I’m just glad everything worked out fine.
However, the guy forgot to give me back my credit card, so hopefully these surveillance videos will help identify him so I can get back my credit card from him and give him a small reward for helping my cousin.
Luckily these are very small amount of money. Insurance will cover the losses. Hopefully the release of the relationship was swift.