On Jan 13 Greenwich Police arrested a West Haven man suspected of scamming a California woman out of about $14,000 cash.
Police said they had been contacted by a 67-year-old woman from Modesto, CA saying she had been the victim of a scam and sent the cash via UPS to 122 East Putnam Ave in Cos Cob (CVS) addressed to Jemes Marolda.
Detectives were able to retrieve the package prior to it being delivered to CVS, and recovered the cash.
Police said numerous officers responded to the area of CVS and around 1:00pm, when a person entered CVS and requested the UPS package sent by the victim. Officers met with the person, later identified as Hardikumar R. Patel, 29, who related that he had come to pick up the UPS package sent by the victim.
He had brought his 3-year-old child with him. The child was found by officers in an Uber vehicle with the driver.
Mr. Patel was found to have numerous fraudulent California Driver’s Licenses in his possession, all with his photo on them, and all having the same address, driver’s license number and date of birth. Patel said he used the fraudulent CA licenses to assist in the scam as well as others in the past.
Also Patel had an outstanding arrest warrant from West Haven Police Dept, where he failed to appear on a disorderly conduct charge in September 2022. The incident stemmed back to April 2022.
Patel was charged with Criminal Attempt Larceny 2, Risk of Injury to a Minor and 15 counts of Forgery 2.
His bond was set at $75,000, which he was unable to post.
He has a date in Stamford Superior Court on Jan 27.
On his radio appearance Monday on WGCH, Chief Heavey urged residents not to send cash in the mail.
“If you get a phone call from a relative – a grand child who is sick or injured and needs bond money or whatever,” Heavey said. “Call us to verify with the local police agency, but do not send money. There are bad actors out there trying to take advantage of our most vulnerable.”