Ft. Lauderdale Cops Release Tape Of Con Man
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Reliving a nightmare Mary pointed to a computer screen showing a surveillance video and said, "There he is."
As the surveillance video streams by, Mary watches the scam where she was taken for a ride by a very convincing con man. It began with a man milling around her car as she pulled into the Publix parking lot at the Coral Ridge Mall on January 15th.
"Mary" is not her real name, but what happened to her was very real. She said she was still embarrassed that she could be so easily fooled and does not wish to be identified in this story.
Right as she parks,the man can be seen going up to her car, and then suddenly her door wouldn't shut.
"There," she said, as surveillance video shows the man touching her car door. "Now what did he do there that where my door wouldn't shut?"
"Now he's got her, hook, line and sinker!" said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective April Reddish as she watched the same video. Det. Reddish figures the scammer targeted Mary, maybe even followed her.
"Unfortunately, she has no idea, she's fixin' to be taken for thousands of dollars," said Reddish.
"This is a scam with a capital "S"," asked CBS 4's Ted Scouten?
"Absolutely!" responded Reddish. "He's a professional. He knows exactly what he's doing."
Here's how it works. With a slight of hand, the con man does something to the door and then tells his victim it's her lucky day because he just happens to be a mechanic. He even convinces the woman to let him drive her car to another part of the parking lot so he can fix it.
"Like a doe-doe bird, I go around to the other side, open the door and I get in," said Mary. "A fly in the trap!"
"What was the cost?" asked Scouten.
"$3,000," said Mary, "He duped me out of three thousand dollars!"
She even let him drive her to the bank, in her own car, to get that money. It was money Mary couldn't afford to lose.
"You can't trust anybody today! I don't know how to describe it. They'd steal the gold out of your teeth if you kept your mouth open long enough," said Mary.
So far police know of a total of three people who've been scammed here in the Publix parking lot at the Coral Ridge Mall.
Anyone who recognizes the man in the surveillance tape or knows where he can be found is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS(8477) .
