The victim of a grandparent scam gets restitution. Wilmington Police Detective Carl Jurgens was contacted by an elderly victim regarding a telephone scam in April of 2017. The typical scammer targets elderly people claiming their grandson is in jail in California. The caller provided enough personal details for the victim to believe this is to be true. In order to help his grandson, the victim was directed to purchase four $1,000 Target gift cards and call back with the information. In total the victim was taken for $8,000. Target provided the detective with photos of the suspects involved with the transactions in locations in Michigan, Ohio and New Jersey. Detective Jurgens sent out the photos to law enforcement agencies and got lucky.

Jurgens received a call from investigators with the Middlesex County DA’s Office in New Jersey. A suspect was in custody matching one of those photos from Detective Jurgens’ bulletin. The suspect was stopped outside of a Target in South Plainfield, New Jersey with about 1,000 gift cards in his car.

Eight Indian nationals were arrested as part of the scam ring that took advantage of the victim in Wilmington and a large amount of money was seized in the process. Thanks to efforts of Detective Jurgens, in October the victim received a check for restitution from the Superior Court of Middlesex County in New Jersey.

Because the victim filled out victim-related documents and kept in contact with the detective, he received restitution.