03/25/2017 From the Owasso Police Department Facebook Page:
The Owasso Police would like to introduce you to two extraordinary people. Two people that went out of their way to ensure a horrible crime did not destroy the life of a fellow citizen.
Last weekend, Suzi Morgan, the manager at Owasso’s Mail This! Copy That!, and a store customer, Mr. Warren Webb, overheard another customer, an elderly female, attempting to send a large amount of cash money to a city far away, to eventually to be sent out of the country. Recognizing something wasn’t right Suzi, while trying not to be too intrusive, questioned the nice lady about details of the transfer.
The story unfortunately was an all too common one, and sounded like every other money scam that plagues our elderly citizens daily. Suzi did her best to dissuade the nice lady from sending such a large amount of cash abroad, while Warren immediately stepped outside and phoned the Owasso Police. While Suzi and Warren tried and tried to ensure the nice lady would not be scammed, they could not completely convince the patron that she was likely a victim, and the nice lady left the area. Luckily Patrol Officer Howard Smith and Officer John Malone were nearby and were able to locate the nice lady and after informing her of the constant scamming that goes on, they were finally able to stop the lady from transferring her life’s savings abroad.
In this particular case, the scam involved a caller from the Dominican Republic, telling this nice lady that one of her family members had been arrested, and she needed to wire tens of thousands of dollars in order for the family member to be released. In the eyes of the resident, it was an emergency, a family member in need.
Due to the quick action by Suzi Morgan of Mail This! Copy That!, as well as store patron Mr. Warren Webb, and the follow up by Officers’ Howard Smith and John Malone, this group effort was able to stop this nice lady from losing her life’s savings. It isn’t often that we as police get to see such an incident prevented, all too often we meet individuals that lose thousands of dollars to such scams.
We wanted to recognize the efforts of Suzi and Warren, so they were presented certificates of good character, for going above and beyond to ensure the (financial) security of a fellow resident. Thank you to you both!
