Massachusetts

Mass. Police Praised for Stopping Grandmother From Getting Scammed

A woman told police her mother had received a call from someone claiming that her grandson had been arrested and needed $25,000 for a lawyer so he could be released

FILE photo, a person receives a phone call from an unkown number.
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Three Massachusetts police officers and a dispatcher are earning praise for preventing a Florida grandmother from losing $25,000 to a scammer.

Dracut Sgt. Lawrence Flynn, Lt. Wilmer Buote, Detective Megan Farley and dispatcher Andrew Talmacci went into action on April 3 when a woman called Dracut and Miami police to say her mother had sent the money to an address in Dracut, Chief Peter Bartlett told The Sun of Lowell for a story Friday.

The woman told police her mother had received a call from someone claiming that her grandson had been arrested and needed $25,000 for a lawyer so he could be released.

The package had not yet been delivered, so the officers intercepted it.

An IRS phone scam took an unexpected turn when police say the man involved showed up at the victim's door in New Hampshire.

"The ability to recover funds for the victim of a scam is an incredibly rare occurrence," Bartlett said in a statement.

"I am very proud of these officers and dispatcher Talmacci for their dedication and thorough work, which resulted in the recovery of a large sum of funds for a well-meaning person who had unfortunately been targeted by someone with ill intentions," he said.

The incident remains under investigation.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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