Woman, 86, hands crooks $17,000

She was promised a percentage of lottery winnings

The tears turned out to be as fake as the promise of splitting the money from a “winning” lottery ticket.

It started when a woman, 86, had finished shopping at a Big Lots store along Southwest 27th Avenue in Miami and was heading for her car and a man asked her for directions to a nearby business that loans money.

At this point, the scam ratchets up, Miami police say, when the man’s accomplice — a woman pretending to be a stranger — walks past and he asks her for the same directions.

The trio start chatting and the man says he’s holding a winning lottery ticket but is unable to cash it because he is in the country illegally, police said.

The woman targeted by the duo on Oct. 23, Maria Del Rio, told Miami television stations that she fell for the bogus story because the two con artists took advantage of her good nature.

The man “took out a little lottery ticket,” and began to sob as he said that he knew a place that would cash the ticket for a

percentage of the winnings, $17,000, Del Rio told WPLG-Ch. 10.

Del Rio was promised a share of the winnings if she could help him come up with money, police said.

With the man and his female accomplice as passengers, Del Rio drove the duo first to her home where she retrieved $2,000 and then to her bank where she withdrew an additional $15,000 — and handed over the cash.

With the money in hand, police say, the man pretended he was feeling sick and persuaded Del Rio to go into a store to get him some medicine.

When she returned to her car, the man, the woman and Del Rio’s $17,000 were gone.

Del Rio’s son, who declined to provide his name, told WTVJ-Ch. 6 that the crooks also stole watches while they were in his mother’s home.

“She’s very ashamed of what happened,” he told the station. “It took her a long time to make that money, if not most of her life.”

Miami police Thursday released surveillance images of the man and woman who investigators say stole the $17,000. The man is between 30 and 40 years old and the woman is between 36 and 45, according to police.

Investigators ask anyone with information about the two to call the Miami Police Department’s Economic Crimes Unit at 305-603-6280 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

The woman targeted by the duo on Oct. 23, Maria Del Rio, told Miami television stations that she fell for the bogus story because the two con artists took advantage of her good nature.