ENGLEWOOD — Englewood Police said they successfully stopped a phone scam that almost cost an 86-year-old man thousands of dollars.
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Police said the man got a phone call on Friday from an unknown person claiming to be his son, who said he had been arrested for a car accident involving a pregnant woman and needed $10,000 for bail.
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A second caller, posing as a court employee, instructed the resident on how to pay the money. The victim handed an envelope full of $10,000 cash to a courier who later arrived at his home.
After the resident handed over the money, a family member quickly contacted the Englewood Police Department. Utilizing surveillance footage and police databases, officers tracked the courier’s vehicle and identified a cell phone number linked to an unsuspecting Lyft driver.
The driver, who was already en route to Cleveland, returned to the police station with the unopened envelope of cash. The money was returned to the victim, who reported receiving four additional scam calls that day.
“We know this isn’t an isolated incident, as we’ve had the exact same scam call received by another elderly resident earlier this summer, and that resident just happened to stop at the police station on the drive to the bank to withdraw the cash,” Chief Corey Follick said in a release.
Follick urged residents to remain vigilant against such scams, emphasizing that no legitimate police agency or court will request bail payments over the phone.
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