Authorities are looking for a man and woman who duped a Lake Worth-area, Florida businessman into withdrawing $24,000 from his bank in a scheme involving a winning lottery ticket.
Sheriff's detectives said the woman approached Claro Hernandez on Sept. 15, claiming she was an illegal immigrant. She asked if he knew of an office in West Palm Beach that offered immigration services. Hernandez, 62, a restaurateur, said he did not. But as the two spoke, a man walked up and joined the conversation, Detective Pete "Pedro" Palenzuela said.
The man offered to take the woman to an office that specializes in immigration matters.
Hernandez said the woman asked him if he would accompany her and the so-called stranger because she was carrying $5,000 cash.
"Mr. Hernandez felt it would be the right thing to do, so he got into the van to escort them to the immigration office," Palenzuela said at a news conference Tuesday.
Once inside the van, the woman showed them a Fantasy Five ticket and asked them its value, officials said.
In what Hernandez called an Academy Award performance, she told how she works as a housekeeper for a West Palm Beach family and that her boss had told her the ticket was worth about $25,000.
The man claimed to call the Lottery office in Tallahassee, and told them the ticket, in fact, was a winner worth approximately $170,000.
The woman said that because she was in the country illegally she did not want to claim the ticket, so Hernandez and the stranger agreed to give her $30,000 each in exchange for it.
They drove to a bank at Lantana and Jog roads, and the man walked toward the lobby.
He returned shortly with a sealed Bank of America bag, opened it and showed Hernandez what appeared to be $30,000 in cash.
"He said he didn't have a chance to count the money, but he was beginning to gain more confidence that this was going to be some type of legitimate transaction," Palenzuela said.
Hernandez, the man and the woman then drove to three branches of Hernandez's bank, and he withdrew $24,000.
Their next stop was at the post office, where Hernandez was to buy stamps. The so-called Lottery official had told the man on the phone to bring stamps when they went to claim the money, detectives said.
But at the post office, the man ran, and the woman jumped in the van's driver's seat and drove away, Hernandez said.
He had been duped.
Detectives think the suspects may have conned two other residents in West Palm Beach and a third couple in Weston of $15,000 recently. Authorities in Miami-Dade County are investigating similar crimes, officials said.
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