Westmoreland County grandfather assists police in finding suspect involved with scam

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — It’s a call no grandparent ever wants to get.

“He was sorry to tell me that my grandson was in an accident, and I said, ‘Oh, my God!’ And I said, ‘How is he?’” Lawrence Yokopenic said.

Well, that caller told Yokopenic his grandson was being criminally charged and that he needed $9,500 to get him out.

“I was so terrified. I wasn’t thinking, so I just kept writing down what he said,” Yokopenic said.

After Yokopenic hung up, he called his grandson, who was just waking up down the road. He quickly realized the callers were scammers, so he got state police involved and started to scam the scammers right back.

“The guy didn’t want anyone to pick that money up. He wanted me to UPS or FedEx mail it to a bail bondsman who was in Lawrence, Massachusetts,” Yokopenic said.

He filled the envelope with pieces of paper shaped like bills but told the scammers he couldn’t get to the post office to send it.

Now when the scammer called back on Friday, he said that he had a driver in the area who could pick up the packet of “money.” The driver came down Bruno Road this way and parked his car here, completely unaware that state troopers were stationed inside the grandfather’s home, across the street behind another home, and down a side road.

“These people pulled right up in front of his car. They got out, guns drawn, screaming at him,” Yokopenic said.

The driver, identified as 31-year-old Carlos Polanco-Rodriguez, told troopers he was hired by someone in the Dominican Republic to drive to Unity Township from New Jersey to pick up the money.

Yokopenic now wants others to be aware.

“When they are done with their spell, you hang up and call someone. Call your neighbor; call your family. Just call anyone and tell them, ‘This is what happened, and I don’t know if this is legitimate or not.’ And there will be people there to help them,” Yokopenic said.

Polanco-Rodriguez is facing a number of charges and is in the Westmoreland County prison.

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