Posted on 10/18/2002 6:21:50 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Latin Lotto scam artists pocket couple's jewelry
BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Con artists practicing the Latin Lotto scam are back in town, and police are warning the elderly to be on guard as these slick-talking shysters are bound to strike again.
A man and woman stole $3,600 in jewelry from an elderly couple Wednesday after noon after promising them $75,000 from a bogus winning lottery ticket, police Detective Anita Barbosa said.
The victims were able to give police a description of the thieves, Barbosa said.
They said the man is be tween 30 and 40 years old with short brown hair, green eyes and a light complexion. He is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and wears a mustache.
The woman is between 40 and 50 years old with short black hair and brown eyes. She is short and weighs about 150 pounds. She has a gold cap on one of her teeth.
Wednesday's theft marked the sixth case of the scam reported to police this year, Barbosa said.
Local victims of the scam have had as much as $11,000 stolen from them.
Barbosa fears that others will be victimized because the perpetrators tend to blow into town, target several victims and leave town just as quickly.
"They're going to hit again," she said.
At about 2:30 p.m. Wednes day, the victims were ap proached by the male half of the duo at the downtown post office, Barbosa said.
The man told them he had a winning lottery ticket for $200,000.
They were soon joined by the woman, who pretended not to know the man. She played the part of a Good Samaritan, Barbosa said, offering to help the man find a lawyer's office.
The man then offered the victims $5,000 for a ride to the office.
The victims refused the largesse and volunteered to give the man and woman a ride, Barbosa said.
En route, they stopped at a Taco Bell, where the woman placed a call on her cell phone to a Mr. Guzman, who claimed to work for the Texas Lottery Commission, Barbosa said.
The man on the phone likely was a third con artist, she said.
Eventually, the thieves tricked the victims into putting jewelry into a bag, which the thieves switched for a bag filled with rocks and paper, Barbosa said.
According to the lottery commission, the scam was dubbed the Latin Lotto scam because it was run primarily by Central and South Amer icans.
Victims have lost more than $3 million statewide in the past few years to the scam, according to the commission.
In April, Linda Cloud, who at the time was executive director of the commission, said con artists fool their victims by dressing well and carrying fancy accessories, such as cell phones.
She also said police intelligence indicates the scam's organizers operate a school in New York that trains individual con artists on how to run the scam.
jreynolds@lubbockonline.com 766-8725
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