Police Beat: A simple scam, a phony weapon and domestic violence reversed

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.

Jan. 21: The rule never changes. Money is never free. The Tacoma woman found out, after she got conned.

She was preparing to take her children to school when her mobile phone rang. The female voice on the line claimed to be calling from the U.S. Grants Department with good news.

The voice said the woman was entitled to $10,000 because she was a good citizen with a clean record. The woman, 46, knew the last part was true. But what was that about the money?

The voice said getting the money required a few simple steps. First, the woman had to withdraw $280 from her bank and send it via MoneyGram to “Faddya Halabi” in Florida. The transaction had to be completed at a Walmart, and the woman had to keep it secret. The voice gave a reference number. This number was very important.

The woman dropped the kids off at school, went to her bank, withdrew the money, went to the Walmart and sent the money, using the important reference number. Still on the phone, she waited for her promised $10,000. The voice kept putting her on hold.

As she waited, the woman texted family members, who warned her she was being scammed. She saw the signs at Walmart that gave similar warnings. She waited on the phone.

Another voice came on the line. This one gave new instructions, telling the woman to withdraw $645 and send it via MoneyGram again, this time to “Daniela Echavarria,” also in Florida. The new voice gave a new reference number. This number was very important.

The woman followed instructions, sent the money again, and waited on hold.

By now, two hours had passed, and the promised $10,000 hadn’t arrived. The second voice came on the line and told the woman she needed to send another MoneyGram, this time for $1,275.

Finally, the woman balked, and said she couldn’t do that. The voice apologized, and said it was impossible to return the money at this point. It was “caught in a portal.”

The voice claimed to be calling from Washington, D.C., but gave a number with a 206 area code out of Seattle.

Finally sensing the scam, the woman called police. An officer drove to her home. He tried calling the number. It didn’t work. The officer filed a report for information purposes. He couldn’t do much more.

Jan. 20: The fear was real, even if the gun wasn’t.

The dispatch call reported a man waving a gun in public. It was 1:33 a.m. Four officers drove to a bar in the 2300 block of Sixth Avenue. The dispatcher said a man between 20 and 30 years old in a light blue jacket was pointing a gun at passing cars, after being kicked out of another bar.

Officers spoke to a witness who had seen the gun. The man said he was driving past the bar when the man in the blue jacket flagged him down. The driver stopped and rolled down the window. The man in the jacket pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it. The driver fled and called police.

Other officers found the man in the jacket, sitting in a section of the bar. He was 22. They cuffed him, patted him down, and found the gun. It was plastic, an Umarex brand air gun, though it looked formidable. The man denied pointing it at anyone.

Another witness said the man in the jacket had been annoying a female customer. The witness told the man to leave the woman alone and get out of the bar. The witness saw the man step outside and point the gun at a passing car.

Officers booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of intimidation with a weapon.

Jan. 21: Usually it’s the freeloading adult kid who gets kicked out of the house when the family wearies of it. For once, the roles were reversed.

The dispatch call came in at 1:15 a.m., reporting an assault by a mother-in-law and her boyfriend. Officers drove to an address in the 800 block of Pacific Avenue. They found a 24-year-old woman standing outside the apartment. She looked like she’d been crying.

The woman said she and her wife had been letting the mother-in-law stay in the apartment for a month, but it was costing too much money. The woman said she asked Mom for the apartment key, but Mom got mad, pushed her and flicked her in the forehead. The woman said she pushed back, but Mom’s boyfriend waded in and punched the woman in the mouth. The woman’s wife joined the fray, and started arguing with Mom, who took off with the boyfriend in a Jeep.

The two women figured they knew where Mom went — another relative’s house — and gave the officers directions.

Officers ran a few records checks on names and addresses and came up with hits. The relative lived in the 1300 block of South M Street, and had an active misdemeanor arrest warrant. Mom and her boyfriend had warrants too, for felonies.

Officers drove to the M Street address and spotted the Jeep, parked in an alley. They noticed a woman staring down from a balcony, who abruptly went inside. Officers knocked on the door. Someone started covering the windows with blankets.

One officer shouted through the door, sending a message to the relative with the misdemeanor warrant. They didn’t intend to arrest her, but that could change if she was harboring Mom and the boyfriend.

Moments later, the door opened. Another woman appeared — not the relative, and not Mom. The woman said she had a custody hearing in the morning involving her children, and couldn’t afford to go to jail for this business.

The relative appeared from upstairs, and said Mom and the boyfriend had jumped out the back window and off the balcony. Officers said they hadn’t noticed that, and would have seen it, since they’d been standing outside. The relative acted surprised.

Finally, Mom peeped out from the top of the stairs. She was 43. Officers took charge of her, and started looking for the boyfriend. They couldn’t find him, though they found another man hiding in a closet, who also had an active felony warrant. Officers cuffed him.

Still looking for the missing boyfriend, officers guessed at the attic. All the people in the house said they didn’t know how to access it. The entry points wouldn’t open. That, or someone was blocking them. Stymied, officers cleared the scene. They booked the man who hid in the closet into the Pierce County Jail on his warrant, and booked Mom on her warrant, along with a citation for misdemeanor assault.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Police Beat: A simple scam, a phony weapon and domestic violence reversed."