Con Artist Talked Brooklyn Women Out Of $4,500, Police Say

PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — A smooth-talking, sharp-dressed con artist scammed two Brooklyn women out of thousands of dollars, police said.

He talked one woman into giving him $3,300 with a tale about church donations, authorities said. Another woman shelled out $1,200 when he posed as a detective and said he needed the money for evidence, according to a NYPD release.

It wasn't charity or police work — it was grand larceny, the NYPD said.

The man talked in his way into the women's lives and wallets near the corner of Lenox Road and Bedford Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, authorities said.

That's where a 78-year-old woman sat at a bus stop on Jan. 22 at about 12:35 p.m., police said. The man struck up a conversation with her about donating money to a church or charity, authorities said.

The woman didn't take the bus — she hopped in the man's car and rode to her home, where she gave him $3,300, authorities said.

He later dropped her off at her doctor's office, where police said they found surveillance footage showing him.

Five days later, a woman who lives near that same intersection received a call from a man who claimed to be a detective, police said. She gave him money thinking it was evidence in an investigation, authorities said.

People with information are asked to contact NYPD, make an anonymous tip at NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or go online.