Fairfield cops arrest alleged ‘jail’ scammer
BRIDGEPORT — A 78year-old Fairfield woman got a call that her grandson had been involved in a serious car accident and was now in jail.
The caller said he was the grandson’s lawyer and could get the young man out for $22,000.
It’s a scam authorities say has been targeting older Americans at an alarming rate. Few of these scammers are ever caught, but this time was the exception.
Fairfield police said a West Haven man, Elvis Rodriguez-Andeliz Jr., admitted not only to ripping off the Fairfield woman but to also taking part in the scamming of dozens of other elderly people in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Rodriguez-Andeliz, 29, of Walnut Street, West Haven, was charged Friday with second-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny, criminal impersonation and second-degree telephone fraud.
“The defendant is accused of participating in an organized operation that preyed on elderly people,” Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen Lojo told Superior Court Judge Peter McShane during Rodriguez-Andeliz’s arraignment Friday afternoon. He urged the judge to set a high bond.
But the defendant’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Dennis Salzbrunn, asked the judge for leniency arguing that his client has cooperated with authorities. Salzbrunn then motioned to a bench full of young women he said were in court to support Rodriguez-Andeliz.
“We see a lot of serious cases in this courthouse, but this is just awful,” the judge said. “He is accused of preying on the elderly here and has similar cases in Massachusetts.”
He ordered RodriguezAndeliz held in lieu of $150,000 bond and continued the case to March 20.
Police said on Dec. 22, the Fairfield woman, who lives alone, received a telephone call from a man claiming to be her grandson who said he had been in a car crash and was now in jail. Another man told the woman he had been appointed as her grandson’s lawyer and said he could get the grandson out of jail if she gave him $15,000, police said.
Police said the woman withdrew the money from her bank account and gave it to a man who arrived at her home in a white Range Rover.
But the following day, police said the woman was again contacted my the man posing as a lawyer who told her he needed an additional $7,000 to cover further litigation expenses. The woman complied and again handed the cash to a man who drove up to her home.
But this time police said the woman became suspicious of the situation and called authorities.
When the woman was contacted by the “lawyer” a third time for $15,000 for legal expenses Fairfield police were waiting outside her home. They said they nabbed Rodriguez-Andeliz as he was leaving the woman’s home.
Police said RodriguezAndeliz initially claimed to be an errant Uber driver but then confessed to picking up money from the victim.
But police said Rodriguez-Andeliz told officers he is just the pickup guy for “Andy” who he grew up with in the Dominican Republic. He claimed Andy, who still lives in the Dominican Republic, was the mastermind of the operation and would message him with addresses to pick up money.