HIALEAH, Fla. – A crime ring sweeping across South Florida is targeting seniors for expensive jewelry.
It comes after police officers said they are searching for the robber who recently pretended to gift a woman in Hialeah a necklace to steal the one she already had on.
It was a gold chain, a precious family heirloom that her late parents had brought to South Florida from Cuba. The robbery was on Wednesday afternoon.
Lyliam Cruz told police officers that she was cleaning outside of her home when a driver pulled up, a woman got out of the car and approached her.
The woman distracted her with a sad story about her mother being sick and told her that she wanted to gift her some jewelry as an offering.
Cruz declined the gift, but the woman was quick and placed some chains around her neck before taking them off and quickly fleeing.
Surveillance video shows the robber on West 35th Street. Cruz isn’t the only victim. Detectives were investigating similar reports.
In Westchester, 88-year-old Edilberto Fernandez was also targeted by a woman wearing the same clothing and approaching him with the same motive, a sad story and a necklace.
However, Fernandez refused to wear it, and the woman then asked him for money for gas. His daughter, Elizabeth Carrandi, told Local 10 News that luckily, the woman seemed to have left empty-handed.
“She was trying to put a chain on this neck, and at the same time, she was trying to take his chain, which is when he started pushing her away,” Carrandi told Local 10 News in a phone interview.
Carrandi says she fears these women followed her father home and could be looking for more victims to take advantage of.
After watching Local 10 News’ exclusive investigation Monday, she realized this was more than just some strange encounter at the home in Westchester.
In both cases, police said witnesses saw two men and two women getting into separate gray and white cars.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.