Financial Crimes Unit – Significant Property Recovery

On October 22, 2015, Detective David Cervantez was contacted by the daughter of an elderly woman who resides in the 2600 block of Centerville Road.  The elderly woman was received a phone call from a person identifying himself as Keith Miller.  Mr. Miller stated he was the Attorney for her grandson, Sean.  Mr. Miller stated that Sean had been involved in a DUI accident in Mexico, and had broken his nose.  He also stated that he could get Sean out of trouble with no charges filed and no trouble from authorities.  Mr. Miller called the elderly woman on several occasions for three days, and told her not to contact any of her family members.  He then told her to secure $15,000.00 and send it via UPS to an address in Northridge, California.  Her caretaker, who had no knowledge of what had transpired, then takes the elderly woman to the bank. The money is secured from the bank and sent to the address in California.  The elderly woman told her daughter what had occurred, and by that time, the money was enroute via UPS.

The daughter called Detective Cervantez who then contacted the elderly woman, and completed an offense report.  The daughter is given the information and UPS in notified. UPS Global Security is contacted and they advise that this package was re-routed to an address in Batesville, Arkansas.  Detective Cervantez contacted Batesville Police and asked them to verify the address.  Batesville officer stated that the address is a medical supply warehouse just down the street from the police station and has been closed for months.  The Batesville Police Department has a reserve officer who works for UPS and notified him about the package.  This coordination allowed the package to be flagged.  The package was then secured at the Little Rock facility on Friday, October 23, 2015, and returned to the Mesquite Texas UPS Hub.  The package was returned to the elderly woman on Monday, October 26, 2015 and $15,000.00 accounted for. 

Please take the time to talk with your senior family members about swindles of this sort.  Make sure the communication lines are open within your family to prevent any sort of fraudulent activity.