Don't Fall For The 'Found Purse' Scam: Newton Police Logs

NEWTON, MA — Here's a sample of the types of calls the Newton Police Department respond to each day. The following snippets are chosen by the Newton Police and sent to the Patch. Arrests do not imply conviction.

Monday, Oct. 30

Break in: A Pine Ridge Road resident called to report someone broke into the garage and stole a number of items.

Thursday, Nov. 2

Break in: Police responded to a burglar alarm on Commonwealth Ave for a Burg Alarm. They found an open window with light damage to the windowsill, multiple boot prints inside the house next to the window. Police entered the house through the same window and saw the front door had been forcibly opened. An officer noted that up the stairs another door with a deadbolt had also been forcibly opened. The woman who lived there said it didn't look like anything was missing, but doors and cabinets had been opened. She also provided video surveillance of the home to police, where they saw two people inside the home, they described one of them as a black man in his late teens, early 20s wearing gloves, a gray hooded sweatshirt and black shoes.

Vandal: Someone reported vandalism on Dorset Road.

Warrant: Keith Kerner Kugell, 40, of Newton was cited for operating with a revoked license, operating with revoked registration and driving with an open container. He was later arrested on a straight warrant was issued out of Dedham District Court for Possession Class B, Class E, Op MV with Suspended License and driving an unregistered car.

Saturday, Nov. 4

Lock your bike: Someone called to report he'd left his gray Giant Escape Hybrid bike unlocked at the Burr School at 8 p.m. and when he went back at 10:30 it was gone.

Sunday, Nov. 5

Car break in: Someone on Devonshire Road called to report a car was broken into.

Coupon Fraud: Someone at Walgreens reported three teens between the ages of 12 and 15 came in, used an app coupon on a cell phone to buy something, but used the same coupon numbers to make a number of purchases. Apparently there are Sams Club coupons that are fake out there.

Suspicious: A River Street resident called to report a man was going up on people's porches looking into windows and checking out packages. They described him a 20-year old Hispanic man wearing a grey hoodie and black backpack. An officer found someone who seemed to match the description issued him a citation for breaking and entering in the daytime, a felony after they found him sitting on a porch next to a window that was cracked open but had a closed screen.

Break in: A Spiers Road resident reported a break in.

Do. Not. Fall. For This Scam: A woman came into the station to report something that had happened while she was walking down an alleyway that runs from Needham Street to Winchester Street around 11 a.m. A woman farther up Winchester Street yelled at her holding a purse in her hand and asked if she dropped the purse, to which the woman said she hadn't. The woman with the purse then suggested the two open it to find the owner. When they opened it, she told police she saw an unknown amount of cash with a $100 bill on top, but no identifying cards in the purse. At this point a car, driven by another woman, pulled up and asked for directions to Needham Street. The woman with the purse then told that driver the same story. The two then decided to drive to the first woman's "attorney's" office to decide what to do with it. The woman telling this story to the police said she told them they should just call the police to which the woman who "found" the purse said she didn't trust the police. The two women got into the third woman's car. They drove around the corner to Needham Street and just after McDonalds, into the new shopping center on Needham Street.
The woman who first said she found the purse, described only as a black woman, then got out of the car and into what she told the woman was her attorney's office in the Boston Ballet building. She came out a few minutes later saying there was some $140,000 in cash in the purse and the attorney said he would split the cash evenly between the three of them if all agreed to pay taxes on it. That's when the woman telling the police the story said she told them she wanted no part of this and asked to be driven back to where they found her on Winchester Street. The two women left together in the white sedan, she told police. After
thinking about the incident she decided to come tell police what happened. Police advised her that they had a similar situation a month or so ago, which turned out to be a scam.

Monday, Nov. 6

Break in: Someone on Boylston Street reported someone broke into his locked storage bin.

Traffic violations: Marco Reis, 47, of Framingham, was arrested and charged with driving without a licence and for having an active Dedham District Court warrant out for his arrest for traffic related violations.

Photo by Jenna Fisher/ Patch reporter