Police: Woman used sob story to scam elderly person of $10K
WEST PALM BEACH — A suburban West Palm Beach woman was arrested Wednesday after she allegedly schemed with another person to scam an elderly woman out of $10,000, according to an arrest report.
Melissa Fenelus, 22, is facing a charge of larceny against a victim 65 years or older. Fenelus was released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting $5,000 bail Wednesday.
The man Fenelus was allegedly working with posed as the grandson of an 80-year-old victim, the report said. The man, who is not identified in the report, called the elderly woman May 4 and said he needed $15,000 to pay for bail following a car crash in Florida.
The victim lives in New Jersey and told Palm Beach County sheriff ’s investigators that she has irregular contact with her grandson, who is a U.S. Marine.
The woman told the caller she only had access to $10,000, the report said. The caller advised he spoke to a “prosecutor” who agreed to accept $10,000. She was then ordered to deposit the money into a bank account held by Fenelus. Bank surveillance-camera photographs and videos allegedly showed Fenelus withdrawing the money during two separate transactions in May.
The woman’s grandson contacted the sheriff ’s office in June to confirm he had not participated in the theft and had neither been in Florida nor involved in a car crash.