A teenager, aged 17, is accused of exploiting an elderly man’s confusion to extract substantial sums of money by taking him to multiple banks before vigilant staff intervened.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thanks to the quick thinking of a bank teller in the area, a senior citizen was potentially spared from losing tens of thousands of dollars in a scam.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office took the young suspect into custody on Wednesday, March 18, after a questionable transaction was flagged at a bank located in Oakleaf Plantation.
Authorities were alerted to the situation at Vystar Credit Union when a 79-year-old patron sought to withdraw $13,000. Bank staff, suspecting foul play due to the man’s age and the size of the withdrawal, questioned him further and discovered that this was not his first large withdrawal that day.
The arrest report details how the teenager allegedly approached the elderly man at his Murray Hill residence under the pretense of offering a driveway maintenance service. Unable to drive himself, the man accepted the teenager’s offer to be driven to the bank. Prior to police intervention, the man had already taken out a total of $10,000 from two other Vystar locations.
The officer on the scene noted that the victim showed signs of dementia, which left him unable to recall the details of the arrangement or the total amount of money he had agreed to disburse.
Officers managed to pull over the teen suspect as he was driving away from the branch, with his 12-year-old brother in the backseat, according to the report. Police also determined he was driving on a suspended driver’s permit from South Carolina.
The $10,000 was returned to the victim, and the teen was charged with exploiting an elderly or disabled adult — a 2nd-degree felony — and various license violations.
