HERMITAGE, PA. Woman falls prey to scammers

An earlier intended victim refused to go along with the scheme, police said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said a Mercer woman lost $10,112 to a pair of scam artists who said they'd found a large amount of money in a business parking lot.
The 71-year-old woman was a victim of what police call a "pigeon drop."
The suspects in the case, two women, are thought to have tried the same scam on an 87-year-old woman a short time earlier, police said.
The Mercer woman lost the money in a scam that began around 12:40 p.m. and ended around 2 p.m. Thursday, Police Chief Ed Stanton said.
What happened
The victim told police she left the Wal-Mart store on the Shenango Valley Freeway and was approached in the parking lot by a white woman who said she found a billfold with a lot of money in it and suggested they find some way to split the find.
As they talked, a black woman approached and got involved in the discussion, the victim told police.
The three then got into the victim's car and drove to the Lowe's parking lot about a quarter of a mile away. The black woman told the victim she knew an attorney who was working in the store who could give them some advice on how they could keep the money.
The black woman entered the store and came out a few minutes later saying that they could keep the money, amounting to $100,000 in cash and a couple of bonds worth $100,000 each, but first they would all have to put some of their own money into the pot as a show of good faith.
Gave scammers money
Stanton said the victim handed over $112 she had in her purse, but the women wanted more.
The victim then drove them to First National Bank, where she withdrew $5,000 on a credit card, and then to Sky Bank, where she withdrew another $5,000 from her checking account, Stanton said.
She handed the money over to the two women, and they drove to a nearby Applebee's restaurant, where the victim was told to go inside first and get a booth.
The two women told her they would follow her in and that the attorney from Lowe's would meet them there to divide up the money, Stanton said.
The victim went into the restaurant, but the others never came, Stanton said.
Earlier attempt
Police think the same two women tried a similar pitch to an 87-year-old woman in the Hermitage Towne Plaza parking lot on East State Street around noon.
In that case, the intended victim became suspicious and refused to participate in the scam, Stanton said.
One of the suspects was described as a white woman about 40 years old with long hair worn in a ponytail. She had a large build and wore a long coat, glasses and a lot of rings on her fingers.
The other was described as an elderly black woman about 5 feet 3 inches tall with a medium build. She wore a brown coat, a brown beret and glasses.