Scammed In The Home Depot Parking Lot: Jerks Convince Elderly Man To Hand Over $9,000
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel two scammers convinced an elderly man that they'd found a bag of money in a Home Depot parking lot — and that they'd split it with him if he gave them a "good faith cash payment."
It's a scam you probably have seen depicted in movies and on TV — but it apparently works. The Broward, Florida Sheriff's Office says that an 83-year-old man was loading some plants into his truck when a woman approached and complimented him on on them.
Moments later, another man arrived and said he had found a bag containing $68,000 and two checks. The man said he worked for Home Depot, and would share the money with them if no one came forward to claim it, Detective Michele Fernandez said. He promised to deposit $18,000 of the money into the elderly man's account, on the condition that the victim give a $9,000 "good faith" cash payment.
The victim went to a nearby bank and withdrew the money. Once he drove the pair back to Home Depot, they disappeared.
Parking lots are hotbeds of crime! Keep your wits about you, and if someone says they "found some money" — call the police.
If you recognize this woman, contact the Broward County Sheriff's Office at 954-493-8477.
West Park: Suspect sought in elderly fraud [Morning Call]
Surveillance photo of West Park fraud suspect (BSO / January 13, 2009)
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Comments:
It's sad that people are this gullible.
I refuse to feel bad for people who are A: this stupid, and B: this greedy. The old guy deserved to loose every penny of his $9,000. Sorry, but them's the breaks.
Reminds me of the last time I was at HD, there was a woman driving around (with a baby in the car). She told me a hard-luck story, about needing gas money to drive 100 miles home.
Seeing the kid, I felt bad for her, and gave her a fiver (I didn't want to see the kid get harmed). I never, never give money to people on the street, but did this time for some reason.
2 days later, I saw the same lady with the same hard luck story in the same parking lot. I confronted her, and she sulked off.
Certainly not the same level of scamminess, but a warning to watch out for HD parking lots nonetheless.
My guess is that no one here will fall for this. This story would be more useful running in AARP's magazine, or Reader's Digest.
This scam was being run regularly and successfully around the University of Chicago campus a few years ago. It's not just the elderly who are vulnerable to this kind of fraud.
I'm sorry. I hate useless comments as much as anyone... but... it had to be said...
He handed OVER 9000!!!1
@copperheadclgp: Parts of me agree with you, but, having just fought with my aunt and a review board at a nursing home about making her stay there instead of living at home.... The advanced age of that man makes me wonder if he didn't have all his mental faculties intact. Taking advantage of the elderly is despicable.
@Anneth: Hey, I remember that. If I recall correctly, international students/hospital visitors were particularly targeted (or maybe just particularly vulnerable).
I believe this is the scam known as the "pigeon drop." Such a cute name for such a lousy-ass thing to do.
I don't feel all that sorry for this guy. He wasn't guilty into the crime with promises of helping dying babies or sick puppies, he handed over the money so he could get more money! Greedy!
Ah the most ironic of scams...taking advantage of the mark's own greed to screw him over.
Why do these businesses have the same poor security cameras and give the public grainy pics?
That woman could be anyone.
@pb5000: I'd be willing to bet the elderly victim wasn't exactly a shining example of intelligence in his youth.
Just because you're older doesn't mean you're suddenly exempt from the "idiot" label.
People who can't tell the difference between "loose" and "lose" shouldn't go around calling other people "stupid."
Maybe that's not fair; I suppose it's possible that you're not stupid, just ignorant.
@AngrySicilian: Yeah, but if my elderly family members are any indication, they don't trust anyone when it comes to money, due to the "times" they came from. It's why I always stop and check the bottoms of drawers on furniture being thrown out for envelopes taped there. My Grandmother used to keep savings bonds taped there.
@CandyRaver: Because higher resolution pictures take up more space to store. When you're recording 24/7 it becomes too expensive to store high quality pictures.
I cannot wait till Florida falls into the sea.
That's just sick.
Didn't this happen on Golden Girls?
Last week in Orlando a woman was scammed out of $10K by 2 folks who claimed they won some country's lottery and that they needed $10K to claim the money.
How do people fall for this stuff?
@boogermike: Ha! We had the same thing here at Hopkins in Baltimore, this guy would stand out in front of the RoFo (Royal Farms) and tell you this hard luck story about needing gas money to drive home. One day in the library this girl was telling us about it and we laughed and said she got scammed for like $10 but she REFUSED to believe that the man would lie to her so we walked down to RoFo and there he was still trying to drive home.
I've seen this story many times. Last time I was at the bank putting in my paycheck and a woman came up asking for $10 for gas so she could make it back home. Ummm TEN dollars? I'm not filling up your tank lady. I gave her $2 just because she looked desperate.
@boogermike:
i have a similar story, though not about Home Depot.
My fiance stopped at the Delaware House rest stop off 95 & saw this girl freaking out crying about how her boyfriend left her there with no money & only her phone.
a week or two later we are going back to NJ again & stop at Delaware House, and we see the SAME girl doing the same routine.
a couple weeks later his parents are coming down from NJ & stop there. they see this girl & give her $20 because "What if it was our daughter in that situation?"
we told them that it was a scam because we'd seen her twice before.
@boogermike: This is why they need to make it illegal to give money to pan handlers. People like you are the reason people do this scam. If you "good samaritans" were risking arrest by giving these scammers money, the practice would go away.
@Anneth:
I'll go with the timeless moto: "A fool and his money are soon parted".
For the old guy, I feel bad, but for people that fall for it outside of that...hope there was a lesson learned.
@boogermike: i had this encounter in a denny's parking lot, only it was a guy and his just-found-out-she-was-pregnant wife.
i always tease my mom because she's been telling me since i started driving that parking lots are the most dangerous places, playing out awful scenarios unrelated to driving. i guess she was right all along. ;)
@Wyndikan:
Before that, I said: "Hey Wyndikan, what's the scouter say about the money he handed over?"
@boogermike: I was in a Borders parking lot a few years ago, and some guys in a van tried to sell me some speakers...yeah. no sale there.
In the college town where I used to live, there was a couple that would just walk up and down the residential streets, saying that they "just needed enough money to get gas so they could make it home to Danville." They were out there every day.
@nsv: It's still good to know. And something we can print out and bring to our elders to make them aware.
@calquist:
Exactly...a moral person would have said "you guys should turn that money over to the police or Home Depot so it can be returned to the proper owner." Instead, he wanted to cash in on someone else's misfortune, and paid the price.
Don't hand out any money to someone in the street.
If you feel the need to give anything away give it to a charity that will use your $2 -$10 to save a life somewhere.
There are always groups of people hanging out in our Home Depot car park. I wish the store would move them on for loitering.
Not only that, but how come these idiots have all this money, but here I am with 2 college degrees and couldn't hand over 9,000 if I wanted to!
A yes, the Pigeon Drop. It's good to see the classics never fall out of style. First Ponzi, then this and next... Hold on a second - I just got an email notifying me of a minor Spanish nobleman who's unjustly being held by the Queen's corrupt bailiff, and only needs a couple of my doubloons to be freed from her dungeon!
@boogermike: Circuit City parking lot. Woman asks for cash for a Greyhound ride because she busted her car's axle and is late for work. I ended up giving her what was left of my parking garage change. (I'm such a sucker.)
@bonzombiekitty: Most stores don't give a f- about what happens in the parking lots anyway. Unless they were inside the store, it probably wouldn't matter. (In a lot of places, the outside cameras are just dummies anyway)
@copperheadclgp: Sure he's greedy, but aren't we all? I find it difficult to believe that there are many people who would turn down a free nine grand that they honestly believed they were going to get.
I feel a little better that this happened in South Florida and not here in America.
@Corporate_guy: I wholeheartedly disagree. If I have money I will give to anyone who asks for some. What they do with it is on their conscience, not mine. Though I do not practice, for trivia's sake, that's common in Islam from the actions of Muhammad.
That said, this is not a case of begging, this is greed. Someone asking me for $5 for a tank of gas is one thing; asking me for $9000 with the offer of something in return is another. I would not give $9000 freely, and I wouldn't give it in this case either. For what it's worth, my personal limit is usually $10.
Yes, me too. I lived in Miami Beach for a while. I moved there after a stint in Singapore. Guess which one gives you the stronger "stranger in a strange land" vibe??
So.Fla. citizen here, this is about the 15th parking lot/store elder scam story I've heard about in the last two weeks. Something is def. going on down here or the bad guys are just copying each other.
@Saboth:
More like "a fool and his money were lucky to be together in the first place."
-Gordon Gekko
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This sounds eerily familiar to my Christmas vacation. At a rest area in Ohio some guy walked up to the car and stated he was going around the place asking for $18 from everyone towards a new radiator/brakes/oil/gas/something stupid, because his "car" was "broken down". I just said I didn't carry cash on me. I wanted to ask, "You have a phone and a credit card? Call a tow truck."
@JustThatGuy3: The second that grams starts confusing "its" with "it's", it's* time for the retirement home lock-down. Not because I'm a callous grandson, but because it bugs me that much.
* Ohhh, and believe you me, did I quadruple-check its** usage.
** Quintruple!
(agree w/ your sentiment, in case that's not clear :))
Oh, Florida...how much I miss thee..