THE BRONX — Police are on the look out for a pair of thieves who have been using an elaborate ruse to scam elderly women out of thousands of dollars.
A man and a woman have stolen a total of $14,150 from three victims, in each case, sparking up a conversation with the victim before convincing them to hand over cash in exchange for bank bonds, according to the NYPD.
The victims would give thousands of dollars to the thieves, who would then take off with the cash without giving the victims anything, police said.
On March 29, the female suspect started talking to a 68-year-old woman at about 12 p.m. at the corner of Lydig and Holland avenues, when the male suspect approached and showed the victim a bag full of money and bank bonds.
The man offered to split the funds in the bag in exchange for cash. The victim handed over $9,500 and the duo fled with her money.
The scammers struck again on May 2 about about 3 p.m., doing the same thing to an 80-year-old woman on the corner of Virginia and Westchester avenues, and taking $3,500 from her, according to police.
Then on May 24 at about 3 p.m., the suspects stole $1,150 from a 71-year-old woman near West Gun Hill Road and West Mosholu Parkway North, police said.
Police did not release information about the pattern until Saturday hoping to get fresh leads from the public, they said.
Officers described one person of interest as an adult woman last seen wearing dark clothes and the second person as an adult man last seen wearing a yellow hat, sunglasses and a black suit jacket with a pink shirt underneath.
Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
