Pigeon Drop Scammers Bilk Woman Out of $19K

An afternoon stop at a St. Petersburg Walmart cost an 84-year-old woman much more than she expected as she found herself the latest victim in a scam known as the “pigeon drop.”

According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, the elaborate scheme began to unfold when the woman got out of her car around 3 p.m. Aug. 21 at the 3401 34th St. S. store. As she did, a man approached her, saying he had just found a bag on the ground. The man, an email to media from the police department, asked the woman if the bag was hers. When she said no, he asked her opinion on what to do with it.

As the two were talking, another woman approached the pair and joined the conversation. The woman asked what was inside the bag, police said. At that point, the bag was opened, revealing “what appeared to be approximately $300,000 cash and a note suggesting the money was from an illicit source,” the email said.

The three agreed to keep the cash and the man, police said, told the two women he would take it to a friend at a bank for advice. The man then left, but returned saying the bank needed “collateral in order to make sure the money was ‘clean.’”

At that point, the second woman produced what appeared to be $50,000 in cash and gave it to the man. The elderly victim, police say, agreed to go home and get her share of the collateral. The other woman, who police say is also a suspect in the scam, went when her.

The two women returned, police say, with more than $10,000 in cash and an estimated $9,000 in jewelry from the elderly victim’s home. When she handed the cash and items over to the man, he told her he was heading back to the bank. The female suspect told the victim she needed to run inside the store for something while the man was gone.

Neither suspect, police said, returned.

The problem, police say, is that the cash in the bag and produced by the second woman were fake. The elderly victim’s money and jewelry, however, were not.

“This case is a classic example of the old Pigeon Drop scam which usually involves two suspects, one of who claims to have found something of great value, usually a large sum of money,” the email said. The scam, police noted, tends to be operated by at least two people and generally unfolds just as it did in St. Petersburg.

The police department is asking residents to be on alert for this scam and to contact officers if someone tries to pull it. Anyone with information about the recent crime is asked to call the department at 727-893-7780 or use the anonymous Tip-411! by texting “SPPD” and your tip to 847-411 (Tip-411).

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