Local

Woman taken for $1,000 in scam with 2 women

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police call it the "Pigeon Drop," and there are probably other names, but the old scam has surfaced again in Charlotte and cost at least one woman more than she could afford to lose.

The 58-year-old woman told police that two women approached her in a south Charlotte grocery store late last month, and one of them claimed to have found a wallet with $68,000 in it.

By the time the scam was over, the victim had given the two women $1,000 in cash and was left to wonder how she could have been fooled so easily.

"I'm embarrassed, mostly, and angry," the woman told Eyewitness News.

"It's a confidence scam," Detective Mary Crowell with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Thursday.

Crowell said the two women gained the confidence of their victim and then disappeared with her money.

Police have surveillance pictures of one of those con artists and hope someone will be able to identify her -- especially encouraging is that she is missing all but one of her teeth on her lower jaw.

"I hope somebody would know an individual who fits that description and call in," Crowell said.

Anyone with information that may help identify the woman should call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.