Valenza: He defrauds an elderly woman and steals 5.000 euros from her, 45-year-old arrested

A call from the Alessandria Operations Center on the radio of the local patrol station: there is a scam underway on an elderly lady. The Carabinieri arrive quickly, they notice the victim together with two people in the courtyard of the condominiumThere is excitement, A man holds the gate to the outside closed while a woman tries in vain to open it. The elderly victim, 87, screams at her. The Carabinieri intervene and discover that the woman trying to escape through the gate is the scammer, on the run after having tricked herself into the victim's home, where she attempted to steal money and jewelry. In the confusion that shows no signs of abating, the Carabinieri ask them to tell them what happened. The elderly woman was contacted on her home phone by a self-styled “Marshal of the Carabinieri” who informed her that her son had been arrested following an accident and that she needed to pay to have him released.

There is no doubt: this is yet another scam implemented with one of the most tried and tested and absolutely imaginative techniques, given that it is absolutely impossible for the police or anyone else to ask for the payment of bail to release an arrested person. The 45-year-old tries to justify herself, saying that she was ordered to go to the old lady to collect some money. The Carabinieri accompany her to the barracks, they searched her, found and seized a cell phone from which a chat emerged in which the interlocutor wrote to her to go to the victim, pretending to be an assistant of the Court, and sent her a photo of the house.

From the elderly woman's story it emerges that there were different phone calls, from a self-styled "Marshal of the Carabinieri" and from a self-styled "Lawyer", who ask her for money to avoid prison for her arrested son. The victim collects 5.000 euros and puts them in an envelope. In the meantime, the daughter and granddaughter arrive home. They also interact on the phone with the scammers, who invite them to join them, with the aim of leaving the elderly woman alone. They manage to deceive them too. Then the 45-year-old woman arrives, rings the intercom, manages to enter the apartment and gets the envelope with the money. It's not over. There is a second order. The 45-year-old has to return to the victim who is waiting for her in another apartment on the floor below, where there is a safe. She gets the keys from the 87-year-old, opens it and tries to grab the jewelry, but the old woman resists and pushes her away.

The situation is heating up. The screams alarm a neighbor, who calls the old woman's son, who calls 112. The neighbor notices the 45-year-old leaving the apartment, understands what is happening, blocks the external gate of the building, preventing her from escaping. The victim reaches the scammer and manages to get back the envelope with the money, just as the Carabinieri arrive. There is no escape for the 45-year-old, she is arrested and taken to prison. She will have to answer for fraud. The hunt is on for her accomplices.