Islamorada woman loses money in phone scam

An Islamorada woman fell for a common phone scam, losing $400 to the scammers Wednesday.

The 50 year old woman received a call Wednesday afternoon from someone who said her brother had been in an accident. The caller knew her brother drove a green car, and told her she would need to pay him money to keep him from hurting her brother. He also told her not to call the police.

On his instructions, she drove to Walgreens and purchased four AT&T GoPhone cards for $100 each. She then gave him the pin numbers on the cards. He then demanded phone numbers for her friends and relatives so he could call them as well. At that point, she realized she was being scammed and hung up. She then called the Sheriff’s Office.

She checked on her brother, who was at work and was fine.

This is a typical scam, which is reported to law enforcement agencies across the country on a regular basis. Someone calls to say a loved one is in jail, or hurt in an accident, or in trouble of some kind and needs money. The callers can be extremely persuasive and they generally insist that time is of the essence, pushing the victim to send the money now without taking the time to call anyone about it.

If you receive such a call, either hang up immediately or take the time to check on the claims being made. In this situation, a call to her brother would have revealed the scam for what it was.

Cocaine arrest on Stock Island

A Stock Island man was arrested for possessing cocaine after a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon.

Deputy Alexandra Davis was on patrol on 5th Street, Stock Island just after 2 p.m. when she saw a Ford van with an expired tag. She pulled the van over and identified the driver as 33 year old Anthony Macias. When Macias rolled down his window to speak with the deputy, she smelled the odor of marijuana emitting from the window. Deputy Christopher Schwartz responded to back her up on the traffic stop.

A search of the van turned up 16.4 grams of cocaine in several plastic bags. Macias also had a digital scale in the van like those commonly used to weigh illegal substances; the scale had cocaine residue on it.

Macias was arrested. He was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia.