Three migrants from Colombia are facing criminal charges after allegedly using a fake lottery ticket to scam an older woman out of $20,000.
The trio allegedly enacted the scam in the parking lot of Caputo’s Fresh Market in the Chicago suburb of Addison, Illinois, on Nov. 7, according to Fox News.
Miguel Peña-Gomez, 43, Liliana Nagles-Cuesta, 49, and Angela Posada-Acosta, 45, are each facing a charge of theft by deception of more than $5,000 from someone over 60 in connection to the incident.
Peña-Gomez allegedly told the victim he had a winning lottery ticket but needed additional funds to collect his reward.
Nagles-Cuesta then played the role of a bystander to the interaction, offering to help on the basis of speaking Spanish, police said.
She allegedly faked a call to lottery authorities, pretending to verify that Peña-Gomez’s ticket was authentic.
After leaving and returning to the parking lot to help secure the faux lottery winner funds, the two manipulated the woman into driving to the bank to withdraw more than $20,000, police said.
Authorities say three migrants were arrested in Crystal Lake on Thursday after being wanted for scamming an elderly woman out of over $20,000 in DuPage County. https://t.co/iGT6OjwL9p
— Lake & McHenry County Scanner (@LMCScanner) November 19, 2023
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After doing so, Peña-Gomez said he wasn’t feeling well and asked the victim to get medicine for him from an area pharmacy, according to police.
The foreign national allegedly stole the woman’s money from the glove box and ran away with it as she returned.
The third suspect, Posada-Acosta, allegedly acted as a lookout during the scam operation.
“It is alleged that these three defendants preyed on an innocent, trusting woman with a good heart, scamming her out of more than $20,000,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a Saturday statement about the incident.
“This is a disturbing case involving a group of con artists and their coordinated efforts to steal from someone simply trying to help them,” Addison Interim Chief of Police Roy Selvik said of the alleged scam.
The migrants have been released from custody by DuPage County authorities, according to Fox News.
Their next court date is slated for Dec. 11.
The trio could face prison sentences of between three and seven years if convicted.
