Avoid strangers offering jewelry, RPD cautions
Photo illustration / MGN
(ABC 6 News) – Rochester police are warning residents to avoid another jewelry sales scam.
According to RPD, a 79-year-old Stewartville man paid $20,000 for fake gold early this week.
Capt. Casey Moilanen said the Stewartville man was in the Menards South parking lot when a family in a black Ford SUV pulled up to him and offered him two gold rings and a necklace.
The man in the SUV, described as “Middle-Eastern,” told the Stewartville senior they needed cash to bring their family in Dubai home.
The Stewartville man told police he cashed a check for $20,000 and used it to buy the gold, then took the jewelry to a pawn shop and discovered it was all fake.
Moilanen said Rochester has seen multiple jewelry sale scams in the past, and they often involve a person clasping jewelry onto a victim, then taking the person’s real valuables and leaving fake items in their place.
Moilanen said if Rochester residents encounter a person offering them jewelry, they should not allow the person to put the jewelry on them and should walk away.