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Warrants to be issued for suspects in fraud case

Date: 5/2/2013

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — The Police Department believes they have cracked the case of two perpetrators who allegedly scammed an elderly couple out of more than $1,000 recently under the pretense of repairing their cracked driveway.

According to a report by the department, on April 24, two people approached the elderly couple and offered to seal the driveway of their home on Bliss Road with what they said were leftover materials from a previous job.

Instead, the duo used waste oil, then took a check for $1,200, which was cashed a short time later at a local bank.

"We have identified the suspects and are in the process of getting warrants for them," Capt. John Stankiewicz told Reminder Publications.

He declined to name the suspects until the warrants were in hand. While the department had requested the warrants on April 29, as of the morning of May 1, they had yet to be signed by a Hampden County judge.

The police are also continuing to investigate an incident involving a man who tried to lure a teenage girl into his vehicle.

On April 24 at approximately 9 p.m., according to a report, the man in an off-white van possibly a Dodge Sprinter or Ford Transit with California license plates approached the high school-aged girl on Frank Smith Road and offered her a ride. She declined, but he persisted, prompting her to run to a friend's house.

Because it was dark, she was unable to give a description other than his voice sounded like that of a man, possibly in his 40s.

There have been no incidents since this report.

"There haven't been any other sightings, so that is a good thing," Stankiewicz said. "We don't have any other leads or information."

Stankiewicz said the department was looking into a report of a suspicious man at the Big Y supermarket driving a white van at approximately 4 p.m. that day, but later determined that the two were not related.

"We were looking into a man who was described as 'creepy,' but he was driving a van with Texas plates," he said. "We identified him and have eliminated him as a suspect."