Phony granddaughter scams county woman

A Center Grove area woman reported a scam to police, but only after she wired $970 to the scammers.

The 74-year-old, who lives in Stones Bay subdivision off Stones Crossing Road west of State Road 135, told police she received a call Thursday from a woman who said she was her granddaughter and was very upset.

The caller handed the phone to a man who claimed to be a police officer and said the woman’s granddaughter had driven the wrong way down a one-way street, hit a utility pole and then drove away. She would be arrested and booked into jail unless the woman sent money to pay for her granddaughter’s bond, according to the police report.

The woman sent $970 via Western Union to a location in Mexico. After sending the money, she received another call stating they would need an additional $500, and then she called police.

Police think the scammers got the woman’s information and her granddaughter’s name from a Facebook account, the report said.