An 82-year-old Orange County woman claims two men scammed her out of more than $11,000 in cash.
Mary Brown told Action 9, “It was terrible. It was terrible, and it bothers me to this day, and I can’t sleep sometimes at night.”
Brown said the men approached her outside the The Home Depot store on West Colonial Drive in late March with a wild story about finding a wallet in the parking lot. Before she knew it, the men convinced her to drive away from the store with both of them in the passenger seats of her car. Brown believes the men drugged and she described the encounter as an out-of-body experience. She said it felt like the men were controlling her because she had no problem giving them the money and some of her jewely.
For Mary Brown, retelling the story isn’t easy, but it’s something she wanted to share so others could be aware of the scam.
“I want everybody to know that these people are out there, and they’re taking advantage of it,” she told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
She described the men as being in their 60’s or 70’s. She encountered them just after a young man helped her load mulch into the trunk of her car.
Brown said, “Once I turned around, the first guy was right in the front of me.”
He had a wallet in his hands and said another man dropped it and then took off from the parking lot while ranting and raving. A moment later, a second man joined the conversation and claimed he also saw the man drop the wallet and take off. That’s when the three of them took a quick peak inside the wallet.
“He opened just a little bit. He said, ‘Oh my god, this is $62,000.’ And had a little note in there (showing) $62,000,” Brown said.
Mary Brown suggested they turn it in at the front desk inside The Home Depot. But the men convinced her all three of them should divvy up the money. They told Brown the sheriff’s office would hold it for 90-days then they would never see it again.
Brown said, “That’s when they got in my car. A man in the front and man in the back. And I’ve never seen these people before.”
So, they rode together in Mary Brown’s car to the nearby Vision Works to get away from the prying eyes of Home Depot’s surveillance cameras. The men told Brown they each needed to add money to the pot so they could split it evenly. The two men claimed to already have money. Mary Brown’s bank was less than two miles away. It didn’t take long before she was in and out of the Truist bank with the $11,000 in cash.
The entire time Mary Brown felt everything was ok and said she wasn’t scared. She didn’t even have a problem handing over the rings off her fingers. After she handed over the cash and jewelry, the men promised to return to divide up the money and then just walked away.
She said, “And I never seen them again. So, I was sitting in my car and that’s when it hit me, ‘You’ve been taken.’”
Brown now believes she was drugged because she wasn’t she scared, she trusted the strangers so much so, that she allowed them in her car and gave them all the cash and jewelry.
Fighting back tears she said, “So, when I came home, I didn’t want to tell my daughter. I felt so stupid. I’m sorry.”
Brown did end up telling her daughter and wants others to know about it, too.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating. It sent this statement to Action 9:
This case has been assigned to our Economics Crime Unit. The lead detective has been in contact with the victim and her family. The detective is still in the early phases of the investigation and will investigate all available leads in an effort to bring justice to our victim.
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