A Boston University student was scammed out of $1,000 dollars last Friday in what was described as a ‘pigeon drop’ crime, according to Boston University Police Department Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire.
After telling the victim he needed to get rid of $150,000 he had supposedly inherited, $75,000 of which he wanted to give the victim with the stipulation of giving $65,000 to charity, the victim was told to withdraw $1,000 as proof of trustworthiness. The suspect then took the student’s money, giving him a bag of shredded paper in return. The suspect is also suspected of working in conjunction with another man and a woman.
Crimes following a similar pattern, called a ‘pigeon drop,’ have happened before, St. Hilaire said. BUPD officials are investigating the matter, he said.
The crime occurred at 2:15 p.m. on Commonwealth Avenue near Pleasant Street and Babcock Street, when the male freshman was approached by the suspect, according to police reports. The suspect, a black male, was wearing a head-cap and was described as ‘well-dressed,’ wearing a trenchcoat over the top of a suitcoat and carrying a briefcase, according to a police report. He had brown eyes and spoke with an unidentified accent, the report said.
He asked the student for help, telling the student he had just inherited $150,000 dollars from his brother, who the suspect said had been in a plane crash. The suspect was acting obviously agitated, according to the report. After a minute, the man and woman the suspect was working with emerged from an ‘older, four-door white car’ parked on the street, according to the report.
The two asked if they could help the man. He said yes, according to the report, repeating his previous statement concerning the $150,000 and telling the group he needed to get rid of the money before he left the country, in order to ensure that he wouldn’t be questioned about it. The man said he would give the student and the other pair $75,000 each, but only if they promised to give $65,000 of the money to charity. They could then keep $10,000 for themselves.
The victim and the suspect’s team agreed, but before they received the money, the man said he wanted to see if they were ‘responsible and honest’ people, according to the report. According to the suspect, if they were ‘responsible and honest,’ they would have money in a bank account. He suggested that they go to the bank to take out $1,000 dollars in order to prove their decency.
In accordance with the suspect’s wish, the group entered the car and traveled to a bank. The other male in the team went inside and came out with a large wad of cash. The student entered the bank after him and withdrew $1,000, both from a teller and ATM, and returned to the car.
The suspect first took his alleged partner’s money and put it in a pouch, then took the student’s money and put it in a separate pouch. He then put the pouches together and ‘blessed’ the money. He then gave both men different pouches without giving them back their original $1,000, saying the $75,000 was in the pouches he gave them.
The group then went their separate ways, the suspect walking away, his partners driving off and the student walking home. Upon returning to his dorm, the student opened the pouch, only to find that the pouch simply contained cut-up pieces of paper.
‘Once you read it, you think ‘how could you fall for this?” St. Hilaire said. ‘But these people hit you quick, dress professionally, don’t give you time to think, and go after people who look like easy marks, like young students.’
BUPD detective Pat Nuzzi is investigating the crime and said that these types of scams have occurred previously in recent years on campus.
‘We have actually arrested well-known scammers,’ Nuzzi said. ‘They have been convicted, and then come out and done the exact same thing again. While this is a new type of scam, it’s obvious that this isn’t the first time that these three have done this because their plan was well-orchestrated. We expect them to come back.’
Nuzzi believes that once people hear about the crime, more who have been victimized by this group may report their experiences to the BUPD.
St. Hilaire explained a major factor of success with this plan is the assumption by the victim that the other people involved are uninformed as well.
‘People for the most part are honest and think there’s no reason to lie,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘Besides, they think the other guy is going for it, not knowing that they are partners. The suspect wouldn’t be able to pull it off on a one-to-one basis, the other partner reinforces the story.’
While St. Hilaire said people might think the scheme is obvious when the victim doesn’t leave with their original money, Sgt. St. Hilaire said the rapidity and focus on the promised money could explain the success of the plan.
‘At that point, while it seems illogical why [the suspect] would want the $1,000, it’s happened so quickly and you are focusing on the $75,000 you are going to get,’ St. Hilaire said.
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