Sadly, older people are often seen as easy targets for scammers and criminals. However, one Long Island grandma wasn’t going to put up with it and took matters into her own hands when she was targeted by a would-be scammer. She beat him at his own game and not only didn’t fall victim to him but also got him arrested!
- Jean, 73, received a strange phone call earlier this month. According to reports, the man on the phone claimed he was her grandson and he was in trouble. He’d been arrested for drunk driving and needed help getting bonded out of jail. Obviously Jean wasn’t buying this — her grandson wasn’t old enough to drive, let alone drink, and the guy on the phone sounded nothing like him. “I knew he was a real scammer,” Jean later told CBS2. “I just knew he wasn’t going to scam me.”
- Most people would just hang up, but not Jean. She kept the scammer on the line and tried to catch him out. She played along with his lies, pretending that she was buying what he was saying. At one point, the man put her on with a second man who claimed to be her grandson’s lawyer. The “lawyer” claimed they needed $8,000 for bail ASAP.
- The story got more and more twisted. After speaking to the “lawyer,” Jean was then put on with a third man claiming to be a bail bondsman local to her area who kindly offered to pick up her money and drop it off to the “grandson.”
- Jean had a brilliant idea. Deciding to improvise, Jean suggested that the bail bondsman should pop over to the house. “I told him I had the money in the house [and to come collect it],” Jean said. “I figured, he’s not going to fall for that.” Incidentally, he did fall for it and decided to head over to her place.
- She called 911 and told them to hurry. While she waited for the scammer to arrive, she put a bunch of paper towels in an envelope, hoping to pass it off as money. However, she never had to try that out since police were waiting for the “bail bondsman” when he turned up at her door.
- A 28-year-old man was arrested and charged. According to police, 28-year-old Joshua Estrella Gomez was charged with attempted grand larceny, and everyone in Jean’s hometown of Seaford is hailing Jean as a hero.
