Meijer employee saves woman from losing $3,000

A quick thinking clerk at the St. Charles Meijer store helped save a woman from losing nearly $3,000 from what law enforcement has dubbed the “Grandparent Scam.”

The Dec. 8 theft of $2,913 was prevented after a store clerk suspected the 82-year-old woman was being taken advantage of by a con artist.

The woman told police she received a phone call saying her grandson had been arrested on drug charges and he needed her to wire $2,800, plus fees, to a bail bondsman in Peru.

The woman spoke on the phone to someone she thought was her grandson, then went to the Meijer store at 855 S. Randall Road to send the money.

A service desk clerk suspected a scam and tried to talk her out of it, but the woman insisted on sending the money.

Later, after the woman became suspicious about the call, she phoned police at about 2 p.m. Police discovered that the clerk had delayed sending the money, suspecting fraud, and learned that the woman's grandson was not in any danger, St. Charles Police spokesman Paul McCurtain said.

“(The clerk) did the right thing in trying to alert the victim that it sounded like a scam,” McCurtain said, adding that the clerk's choice not to immediately send the wire transfer through was “pretty heads up. She did save the victim a whole lot of money.”

Attempts to reach the clerk were unsuccessful. St. Charles police don't release names of witnesses to crimes and the St. Charles Meijer store manager declined any and all comment, citing company policy.

McCurtain said police had several reports about a year ago of scammers trying to execute the “Grandparent Scam” — just this time, the message was to send money to Central America instead of Canada. No money changed hands in the scam attempt last year, McCurtain said.

Rape appeal denied: An Aurora man sentenced to 10 years in prison for following a girl home from school in March 2007, forcing his way into her home, and raping her, had his appeal for a new trial and reduced sentence denied by an appellate court panel.Cedric L. Bouchee, now 22, was convicted of home invasion and criminal sexual assault. The sentence, issued in May 2009, broke down to six years for the home invasion and four years for the sexual assault. Bouchee argued that he should not have received consecutive sentences because they were both committed in the same crime, but the appellate panel disagreed.Another man, Mychal A. Postlewaite, who turns 22 this week, also was implicated in the crime. He had his home invasion and criminal sexual assault charges reduced to aggravated unlawful restraint in a plea deal in summer 2009. He has completed his 18-month prison sentence.