Plainclothes agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra of Sabadell arrested on March 13 a 20-year-old man accused of an attempted scam against an elderly person, after he allegedly posed as a mechanic to claim 900 euros for a non-existent breakdown.
The police action prevented the victim from handing over the money. According to the information provided, the arrested person was acting together with another man, who was in charge of making drivers stop to alert them of a supposed breakdown in the vehicle.
A false breakdown and a simulated repair
The case was detected when the two men made an elderly man stop and convinced him that his car was suffering a serious breakdown. Next, the supposed mechanic simulated the repair by lying down under the vehicle to reinforce the credibility of the deception.
After that intervention, both demanded from the victim the payment of 900 euros. As the elderly man did not carry cash, he went to a bank office. There he explained what had happened to him to a worker, who alerted the Mossos d'Esquadra.
The Fura unit located the suspects
A patrol from the Fura unit, made up of plainclothes officers, was immediately activated and located the suspects in the area. The police identified one of the men, who had grease-stained hands and fully matched the description provided by the victim.
The Mossos also verified that the fake mechanic had antecedents for fraud crimes with this same procedure.
The arrested person remained at the disposal of the court
The detainee was brought on Saturday, March 14, before the duty court of Sabadell, investigated for an attempted fraud. The police consider prevented the payment that the alleged perpetrators intended to obtain from the victim.