GILROY
– In the latest of a trend of crimes targeting the elderly, a
local man reportedly lost between $21,500 and $26,000 of his life’s
savings to a pair of robbers who kidnapped him on Tuesday.
GILROY – In the latest of a trend of crimes targeting the elderly, a local man reportedly lost between $21,500 and $26,000 of his life’s savings to a pair of robbers who kidnapped him on Tuesday.
According to city police, the robbers lured 81-year-old Alfonso Cordova, of Gilroy, into their van, brandished a gun and over the next six hours forced him to withdraw money from banks all over Silicon Valley.
Cordova was inside Wal-Mart in Gilroy at about 12:30 p.m. when one of the perpetrators approached him in an amiable manner. The younger man said he wanted to show Cordova something and persuaded him to come outside to the parking lot. There they met another man, who also engaged Cordova in conversation. Together, the men encouraged Cordova to get into their van, a recent-model, silver, full-sized Dodge.
“They just kept on him until he finally got in the car with them,” said Officer Taryn Hathaway, with the Gilroy Police. “During the drive down Leavesley Road, one of the guys showed him a gun – showed it to him, he didn’t point it at him – and told him not to fool around.”
The perpetrators drove to the Bank of America on Monterey Street, near First Street, and told Cordova to take out money. Cordova got a cash advance with his credit card and handed it over. Interviewed by police later, he couldn’t remember whether he had taken out $500 or $5,000; he hadn’t saved the receipt.
“That wasn’t enough money (for the robbers),” Hathaway said, so they drove to the Washington Mutual branch in Morgan Hill. There, Cordova told police, the man with the gun came inside the bank with him. Cordova withdrew $5,000 and gave it to his captors.
“That wasn’t enough, either,” Hathaway said, so the perpetrators drove Cordova to two more Washington Mutual branches, in San Jose and Santa Clara. Cordova withdrew $8,000 from each.
This was Cordova’s life savings, and he was living off of it, Hathaway said.
Taking the cash, the two men abandoned Cordova in San Jose at about 6:30 p.m. He took a bus home and called police at 8:58 that night. He was uninjured, police said.
Cordova said he hadn’t known his captors previously and described both of them as being about 35 years old, Hispanic with brown eyes and hair. One is about 6 feet tall with medium build; the other is about 5 feet 6 inches tall with a heavy-to-medium build.
Police have no suspects at this time, but Hathaway said she hopes to gain a better description of at least one suspect from the Morgan Hill bank’s video tape. Both perpetrators face felony charges for robbery and kidnapping.
Another abduction took place the same day, about 90 miles north in Solano County. Two men seen driving a green Ford Contour are still at large for allegedly kidnapping a woman at about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday from a parking lot at Solano Community College.
Hathaway said she doesn’t see a way for Cordova to get his money back unless the men who robbed him are caught.
This is the second such incident in three months to occur at Wal-Mart, according to police.
“The last one, it wasn’t a robbery-type situation,” Hathaway said. “It was more of a scam, but once again, they were targeting an elderly person on a fixed income. … They took quite a bit of money in jewelry from her.”
Police didn’t catch anyone for that crime either. Hathaway said this case “doesn’t sound like” the same people.
A so-called “lottery scam” has become somewhat frequent in Gilroy, according to Hathaway. A con artist approaches the victim in a public place and claims that he or she has a winning lottery ticket worth several hundred thousand dollars but can’t cash it because of his or her immigration status. The con artist then offers to trade the ticket for a smaller amount of cash – perhaps $20,000.
To help convince the victim, the con artist has a passerby – actually a friend of the scammer – pretend to overhear. The friend pretends to be interested in trading for the ticket and calls what he says is the state lottery bureau – actually another friend – from a cell phone. The fake lottery bureau verifies the ticket’s authenticity, and if the victim is fooled, the trade takes place. The problem: The lottery ticket isn’t a winner at all.
The lottery scams in Gilroy have normally taken place in parking lots, and the victims have been elderly, according to police.
“Younger people are not so susceptible to it,” Hathaway said. “Maybe they’re not so soft-hearted.”
Local lottery scams have taken place in front of the state Department of Motor Vehicles office, Arteaga’s Super Save, Wal-Mart and Safeway.
One female lottery scam artist reportedly approached an elderly woman crying, Hathaway said. The victim later said she never believed she was going to win a large amount of money. She just felt sorry for the woman.
