CLEVELAND, Ohio – Federal authorities have accused two men from Florida with fleecing elderly residents out of more than $380,000 in a scheme that preyed upon grandparents.
A federal grand jury this week indicted John Tyler Pla, 25, and Johnny Lee Palmer, 25, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eight counts of wire fraud. They are being held without bond.
Pla and Palmer, both of Tampa, are accused of taking money from residents, who are in their 70s and 80s and live in Brecksville, Parma, Gates Mills, Lorain, Mansfield, Fairview Park, Westlake and Mentor.
In late August, people began calling elderly residents. They claimed that they were the residents' grandchildren and that they had been arrested, according to documents prosecutors filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.
To make it more realistic, others person would call and claim to be the attorneys of the grandchildren. Soon after the calls, the residents would go to the bank and obtain cash. Pla or Palmer would later drive a rented U-Haul truck and pick up the money in person at the residents' homes, according to the documents.
“It is outrageous to think that someone would have the lack of moral values to do this,” said Paula Mueller, the executive director of Elderly Advocates, an Ohio nonprofit based in Parma.
“The elderly are old-school. They are trusting. They take people at their word, and some people take advantage of it.”
Documents in the case show the scheme hit Brecksville on Aug. 21, as someone called an 86-year-old woman and claimed to be her grandson. He said he had been arrested and needed $20,000 to make bail.
The woman, according to the filings, went to a bank and withdrew $10,000. Pla and Palmer went to her home and collected the money, the records show.
That same day, an 81-year-old man from Parma lost $9,700 in a similar way, according to the indictment in the case.
On Aug. 25, a man contacted an 83-year-old woman from Westlake and claimed to be her grandson’s public defender, records show. The person said the relative needed $18,000 to be released on bail. The man said the grandson caused a traffic accident that resulted in a tanker truck exploding, according to court records.
The woman agreed to pay $6,000. She gave the money to a man wearing a white shirt and yellow shorts. The woman later contacted Westlake police. A neighbor of the woman used video to capture the U-Haul truck’s distinctive artwork of a camel.
Westlake police shared the information with other departments, including a picture of it from a city-owned camera that was located close to the victim’s home.
Three days later, police noticed the truck and a rental car at a parking lot on West Superior Avenue in Cleveland. Officers later seized a 9mm handgun that had been reported stolen and found the yellow shorts, which one of the men had been worn at the Westlake home.
Palmer and Pla were arrested, and Palmer later admitted to Westlake officers that they had come to the region to run the scheme, according to court records. Officers obtained their cellphones and found information about the victims and instructions that had been sent to Palmer, court records say.
It is unclear why the scam hit northern Ohio. Authorities suspect that it stemmed from the aging population. The men, despite traveling across the country, have only been charged here.
Pla’s attorney, Joseph Dubyak, did not return a message seeking comment. Palmer’s attorney, Rodger Pelagalli, declined to comment.
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November 07, 2020 at 10:00PM
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Florida pair indicted in ‘grandparent scam’ that preyed upon elderly in Northeast Ohio - cleveland.com
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