Con Men to Elderly Man: 'We Trust You,' Then They Steal $5,000

An elderly man was cheated out of $5,000 in cash by tricksters, his daughter told police. 

An elaborate ruse by two unknown males on Jan. 17 resulted in the man handing over his cash and later realizing he had been defrauded. 

It started at a Wells Fargo Bank at Rockbridge Road and Lawrenceville Highway, when the man was approached by a suspect who claimed to need a ride, saying he was from Jamaica and had inherited money from an uncle who had just died. 

A second suspect joined them and they left in the elderly man's car. The first suspect showed the man "a large sum of money folded up," according to the police report, saying he didn't want to put the money in the bank "because he wouldn't be able to take (it) back out."  

The man drove to the Bank of America in Tucker and the second suspect went inside, emerging soon after with "what appeared to be two stacks of bills in the amount of $10,000." The man was asked if he could then go inside the bank and do the same, but he replied he could only get about $5,000, which he did.

One of the suspects said to him, "to show that we trust you, I'm going to leave the $10,000 with you, and you can drive around the block and come back." The man complied and when he returned the two suspects were where he had dropped them off.

The suspect then said, "to show us if we can trust you, you give us your $5,000 and drive around the block, and we will be right here." When the man returned, the suspects were gone. He waited for about 20 minutes and then realized he had been deceived, police said.