Two Males Arrested In Grandparents Scam Tried To Flee the Country Through Philadelphia
by Alex Lloyd Gross
The phone rings. On the other end is a stranger telling you they are an authority like a prosecutor or police. “Your grandchild has been arrested. bail is set at ( insert amount here) and you should wire the money to secure their immediate release. It is a scam. People fall for it. In Bethel Park, on the western part of the state, police alleged that Wilson A Burgos-Hernandez got caught red handed trying to scam an elderly woman out of $12,000 in cash.
He allegedly posed as a public defender from Montgomery County and told the woman her grand daughter was arrested after being involved in a fatal accident in Montgomery County Pa. He told her that he would send a bail bondsman to her home. The woman was worried and called her grand daughters phone. When she answered, she realized it was a scam and then she called police.
Apparently Hernandez had done this days before and scammed someone out of $5000. He was arrested and released from custody with the stipulation that he not leave the area. Just a few days later, Hernandez and Medrano Abreu drove to Philadelphia where they tried to board a plane to the Dominican Republic. Abreu was arrested when he tried to retrieve the car that Hernandez drove .
They were both sent back to the western part of the state and are guests of the Allegheny County Jail. Don’t bother calling their grandmothers to bail them out. They are both held without bail, officials said.