Guys, I need some help. Happened upon a situation today that I feel compelled to intervene in but getting nowhere with local law enforcement. If anyone has a friend, brother, etc that might be able to assist…
Today is my wife’s birthday so I stopped at a dollar tree to get her some balloons on the way home from work. As they were being inflated I halfway overheard a conversation between an elderly man and the cashier about him buying a 1960 corvette and having it shipped from Canada.
The guy was exiting the store as I walked up to the register and the cashier was shaking her head saying “must be nice.” I said yeah that’s a cool car. I then noticed the display at the register still had his order on it, showing a $500 Apple gift card. The cashier said that guy had been in there every day for weeks, each time buying $500 to $1000 in gift cards and has told her that’s how he was sending the money to the Canadians who had the car as they were in a different country so wouldn’t take USD. She says he told her the car was $90,000.
Well anyone who knows much about scams knows Apple and other gift cards are their bread and butter. That coupled with the “out of the country” thing immediately had me concerned. I told the cashiers that guy was being scammed and they needed to call the cops but could tell they weren’t interested in anything involving the police.
I ran out of the store and saw a guy that I THINK was him pulling away from a handicap spot with a US Navy Retired sticker and Disabled Veteran license plate. It’s possible it wasn’t him and was another older guy, but the timing was right and it’s a small corner of the parking lot that didn’t have much going on at the time. I did get the tag number and description of the vehicle but he was long gone before I could try to talk to him.
I called the Hillsborough county sheriffs office non-emergency number and was told they couldn’t do anything about it unless the guy himself filed a report- they weren’t even interested in the tag number. I called the HCSO district 2 HQ and was told the same. I called the Criminal Investigation Division, under which the economic crimes unit falls and was told to call the Florida elder abuse hotline. Bottom line- HCSO isn’t in the least interested in helping this guy, never even got to the point of giving anyone the tag number. Pretty well ticked me off to be honest.
I did call the elder abuse hotline and the operator did a report- hopefully it goes somewhere. But in the mean time I feel like more immediate intervention is required.
I’m considering everything from contacting dollar tree corporate to knocking on the door at the local DAV post to see if anyone recognizes the vehicle and can identify the guy. As the cashier said this was a daily occurrence, it’s likely he’ll be back and lose more money each day…. I have a family and a job and can’t just post up there waiting on him…. Still in shock at the apathy of local LE. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I can’t let this one go…
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Today is my wife’s birthday so I stopped at a dollar tree to get her some balloons on the way home from work. As they were being inflated I halfway overheard a conversation between an elderly man and the cashier about him buying a 1960 corvette and having it shipped from Canada.
The guy was exiting the store as I walked up to the register and the cashier was shaking her head saying “must be nice.” I said yeah that’s a cool car. I then noticed the display at the register still had his order on it, showing a $500 Apple gift card. The cashier said that guy had been in there every day for weeks, each time buying $500 to $1000 in gift cards and has told her that’s how he was sending the money to the Canadians who had the car as they were in a different country so wouldn’t take USD. She says he told her the car was $90,000.
Well anyone who knows much about scams knows Apple and other gift cards are their bread and butter. That coupled with the “out of the country” thing immediately had me concerned. I told the cashiers that guy was being scammed and they needed to call the cops but could tell they weren’t interested in anything involving the police.
I ran out of the store and saw a guy that I THINK was him pulling away from a handicap spot with a US Navy Retired sticker and Disabled Veteran license plate. It’s possible it wasn’t him and was another older guy, but the timing was right and it’s a small corner of the parking lot that didn’t have much going on at the time. I did get the tag number and description of the vehicle but he was long gone before I could try to talk to him.
I called the Hillsborough county sheriffs office non-emergency number and was told they couldn’t do anything about it unless the guy himself filed a report- they weren’t even interested in the tag number. I called the HCSO district 2 HQ and was told the same. I called the Criminal Investigation Division, under which the economic crimes unit falls and was told to call the Florida elder abuse hotline. Bottom line- HCSO isn’t in the least interested in helping this guy, never even got to the point of giving anyone the tag number. Pretty well ticked me off to be honest.
I did call the elder abuse hotline and the operator did a report- hopefully it goes somewhere. But in the mean time I feel like more immediate intervention is required.
I’m considering everything from contacting dollar tree corporate to knocking on the door at the local DAV post to see if anyone recognizes the vehicle and can identify the guy. As the cashier said this was a daily occurrence, it’s likely he’ll be back and lose more money each day…. I have a family and a job and can’t just post up there waiting on him…. Still in shock at the apathy of local LE. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I can’t let this one go…
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
