Yeah, Greenwich neighbors!

Cops catch “Grandma scammer” after Granny’s neighbors block his car and hold him for police.

GREENWICH — Police regularly receive reports about attempted “grandma scams,” desperate pleas for help from a telephone caller claiming to be a grandson in distress — and needing money fast.

The long-running scam, typically targeting the elderly, resulted in an arrest this week of an alleged perpetrator of the fraud, police said.

The arrest came with a twist, according to Greenwich police: The suspect showed up in Riverside and was apprehended by police after a call from concerned citizens.

A Greenwich woman was recently contacted by a perpetrator claiming to be grandson who needed money, and she turned over $9,500 to a “courier” in person, O’Reilly said.

“He tried to get more money and came back again,” O’Reilly said. Some neighbors sensed trouble by the incident so they blocked the suspect’s car and called police, he said.

Armando Aquino-Jimenez, 37, of E. 193rd St., the Bronx, N.Y., was charged Monday afternoon with second-degree larceny, a felony, and resisting arrest, police said.

Jimenez was released after posting $250 bond.

Many years ago I dropped in on my mother, then in her late 80s, and found her in a panic and heading out the door for Western Union. She’d received an email from a close English friend, she told me, a journalist who’d been in a terrible train wreck in Peru. He was all right, but had lost all his money and needed her help, his message said.

I sat Mother down, calmed her, and explained that, even back then, this was a common scam, and that her friend was certain to be safe at home in England and in no need of a cash infusion sent to South America. Thankfully, she believed her wayward son, no money was sent, and of course, when she called her friend later that day she found him at work, healthy and solvent.

The point of both these stories is that caring and watching out for family and neighbors is what makes a community. We’re blessed to have that in our town.

The one part of the police incident report that bothers me is that the perpetrator was released back to the Bronx upon posting a measly $250 bond. I don’t fault the police, who were surely just following the law, but it would have been better to leave the man in the custody of those neighbors for half an hour and then check back to see how he was doing, or even if he were still around. In some neighborhoods, he wouldn’t have been.