Police have warned the public about the “pigeon drop” scam after a woman was conned out of thousands of dollars in Brentwood.
"They don't happen regularly. We might have one of these every year of every few months," Brentwood Police assistant chief Tommy Walsh said of the Pigeon Drop scam.
This most recent incident happened on July 27 at the Brentwood Place Shopping Center.
Police said a woman was approached by another woman claiming to have found a box. They opened it together and found a lot of money - which the suspect claimed was $90,000.
A second suspect approached them, at which point they all decided they’d split the money but they would all have to contribute money to pay for the taxes on the cash.
"They try to develop a rapport with that person where they're in this together, they're sharing the money," Walsh said.
The victim was told to withdraw $16,000. She did so, and the suspects took it into a store where they claimed they knew the manager, and the manager would split the money fairly, but the suspects never came back out, and the money was lost.
"She never saw the suspects again, and I think she knew right away once the suspect did not come back out of the business that she had been scammed," Walsh explained.
In most pigeon drop cases, the scammers aren't from the area. They travel to scam people who aren't aware of the pigeon drop, and usually, they target specific areas like Brentwood.
"I think it's probably because there's an assumption made that people do have cash that are in the city, that live in the city, or do business in the city," Walsh said.
According to police, the best way to avoid this and other scams is to keep in mind the old saying: "If it's too good to be true, it probably is."
"If a person approaches you just out of the blue, there would be no legitimate reason for that to happen," Walsh said. "If you do find a large amount of cash, you should call the police department and let us investigate to try to determine where the money came from."
The suspects were described as being between 40 and 50 years of age, 5'5" in height, weighing about 140 pounds, with medium length hair.
Brentwood Police said they believe the suspects are no longer in the area.
This was the largest scam against an individual in Brentwood so far in 2017.
