TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A major scam was intercepted in Chicago, all thanks to the quick thinking of Tucson Police officers.
Officer Davina Bolinsky has been an officer for 10 months. She was one of the first on the case helping save a Tucson woman from a scam.
"We got a call early, early in the morning stating that a female had sent a large amount of money in the mail to another state and she realized after she sent it, that she was being scammed because she had let her daughter know about the incident,” said Bolinsky.
The older woman received an email from someone claiming to be from Amazon. She called the number in the email, which had a direct line to the scammer, and he convinced her to send him a package of almost $10,000 to Illinois. After overnighting the package, she realized she was scammed and called TPD.
"Unfortunately it happens a lot but we just went in there and got down to what we could have. He called on the phone, she sat and talked with him and convinced him that everything was fine, even though the police were there at her house. The detectives got the FBI involved, and we had a bunch of different agencies working together,” said Bolinsky.
The multiple local and federal agencies involved were able to intercept the package.
"My job is the bottom tier, the patrol officer, to go and get the information, an effective arrest if that's possible. That was someone else's job in another state for this specific call. But knowing that at the end of the day a victim is getting sometime of justice out of it, I think that's pretty cool,” said Bolinsky.
This entire situation involving law enforcement happened within one day. Officers and detectives were on the case in the early morning, then the woman received her money back late that night.
"When she finally was told that her money was secure and would be sent back to her, it was just kind of a process on how to figure out how to do that, she was relieved. I could see it on her face, she looked like a weight was physically lifted off of her she looked incredibly happy, like a Christmas miracle-type thing,” said Bolinsky.
TPD says, from the fraud perspective, although this was a mistake the good thing the woman did was notify someone right away. When she told a family member, that got the ball rolling.
A man was there in Chicago to pick up the package, and was taken into custody. This investigation is ongoing.
