Woman is swindled out
of $2,250 at Hazlet Plaza
Similar to Oct. 3 incident
at a nearby Hazlet
shopping center
By cindy tietjen
Staff Writer
HAZLET — In the second such incident in two months, a 34-year-old woman reported that she had been swindled by two women.
According to Detective Capt. Robert Mulligan, police are investigating an incident at a shopping center in which a woman claims she lost more than $2,000 to scam artists.
In a similar incident, which police called a flimflam theft, an elderly woman was robbed of $380.
According to Mulligan, based on the description, it appears to be the same group of people, but he cannot say for certain.
The most recent case, which took place Thursday, involved a 34-year-old woman who was shopping at Hazlet Plaza on Route 35 and Poole Avenue.
According to Police, the woman exited Toys R Us and was putting bags in her car when she was approached by a woman holding a deposit bag. The woman was then asked if the deposit bag was hers. When she replied it was not, the suspect opened the bag and showed the victim that it was full of money.
A second suspect, who claimed to be an employee at Airport Plaza Sovereign Bank, offered to take the money to her boss to see if it was counterfeit.
Together the three women went to the bank. The second suspect entered the bank and returned a few moments later, saying her boss confirmed the money, which totaled $100,000, was real, and performed a chemical test that showed the money had been involved in drug deals.
She then told the women that her boss said they could have the money if they paid a $10,000 tax or put up as much "good faith" money as they could to guarantee that they would not spend the money for 60 days, in case someone claimed it.
One of the suspects then drove the victim’s car, with the victim in it, to a bank in Middletown where she withdrew $1,550. They proceeded to another bank in Hazlet where the victim got a $700 cash advance on her credit card.
The victim then gave the suspects the money, at which time they took her back to Sovereign Bank and told her to go inside and ask for the suspect’s boss. When she inquired at the bank, she was told that there was no such person.
One of the suspects, who called herself Betty, is described as a 40- to 45-year-old black woman with a light complexion, about 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 145 pounds. She was wearing a leopard print hat and black pants.
The second suspect, who called herself Jackie, is described as a 28- to 32-year-old black woman with a dark complexion. Police say she was wearing a black leather coat, black pants and a black Russian-style hat with fur trim. She spoke with a West Indies accent.
On Oct. 3, an elderly woman experienced a similar situation when she was approached by two black females while in the parking lot of the Kmart shopping center, located across Route 35 at the Bethany Road intersection.
One of the females was holding a leather wallet and said that it contained $100,000.
Hazlet police are asking anyone with information to call (732) 264-6565.