A Lakewood mother sitting at work this afternoon suddenly began shaking after receiving a frightening phone call.
A coworker of the woman tells TLS she received a call on her cell phone from a man who claimed he was holding this woman’s daughter hostage. To make things even scarier, the man knew the 9th grader’s name, and had a female screaming in the background, leading the mother to believe her daughter was really being held captive.
The man allegedly stated that the woman should leave the room she was in, away from people, as he gave her instruction on how and where to meet him in order to unite with her daughter – who should have been in school.
Coworkers who realized something serious was happening immediately jumped in to help this victim, and immediately phoned police. She also told a coworker to call her husband and find out from the school if her daughter was indeed missing.
In the meantime, the woman began stalling for time, coming up with excuses – such as, she was looking for her car, she couldn’t start her car and more. As soon as she heard her daughter was in school, she told the man she had no reception, and hung up the phone. Police arrived moments later.
The man called back, but this time police picked up. After threatening the man he would be arrested etc, the man hung up.
“I think it’s very important for people to know what to do in such scary situations,” this coworker said. “Though she was extremely frightened, she composed herself and took steps to, A) stall for time to get law enforcement involved, and B) to have discretely call the alleged kidnap victim to verify he or she is okay.”
Police say unfortunately there is little chance of catching the suspect.
Why didnt she have the man tell her where to meet him and then have the police with her to arrest him?! So confused
The police shouldve orchestrated for the women to meet the guy once she knew her daughter was safe. And they could be arrested him. Glad she got thru to the school because lots of time it’s an automated machine.
Besuris tovis
Wait, the guy called back? Why not set up a meet as he requested and arrest him!?
It’s terrible; such a thing can kill a parent as the parent can go into cardiac arrest. Unbelievable!
These scams come from Russia, Nigeria, Asia and who knows where else.
That’s why I keep my business with pen and paper, I go online to see The Lakewood Scoop.
If the police was there why didn’t they g0 meet with the scammer and lick him up?
Seems like everyone here has been reading too many novels. Let me explain; the objective of the scam is to get the panicked mother to electronically send over the “ransom” (presumably in some sort of untraceable form) BEFORE the meeting is set up. Once he has the money, the scammer will send the mother to some location to discover that there is no kidnapper, her daughter is safe and sound and she now has a lot less money and a lot more shame at being scammed. There would not have been a meeting without the money having been sent first. Bringing the police after that to a nonexistent meeting would have seen a waste of everyone’s time. Hope that clears that up.
Chances are he would’ve told her next step to go to a Bitcoin ATM and deposit money. They guy was probably in India or something like that
@scarrytimes, Because there’s no way this guy was actually local. The scams usually come from Eastern Europe or India, the point is to keep someone scared and acting before they have time to stop and think about what they’re doing. A scammer was probably going to get the woman to buy gift cards or do some untraceable Western Union deposit and then disappear. There’s no one for the police to catch.
On a sidenote, you should never post your children’s pictures or names on social media, it’s really easy for terrible people to find this information. I’m not saying that this is what happened, but there’s a good chance that’s how he knew the daughter’s name.
FYI a lot of these scammers are not from the US that’s why they can’t really catch them.
Even if this scammer happened to be from the US it wouldn’t be easy to track them down.
They’re not stupid…
You have to be very careful. Obviously, they are extremely good at what they do and at the time it can seem real. Perhaps just hang up, this way you can call people to verify. They would probably think you got disconnected. Obviously, it’s all easier said than done. They make it seem so real and scary that you start panicking.
He was probably upset that she didn’t renew her vehicle’s extended warranty.
have a code word with your family members. It shoukd be a random word, like pickle
I work with this mom and she has no social media. She uses a flip phone. No internet