Brentwood woman conned out of more than $3,000 in CoolSprings

A Brentwood woman was conned into giving two strangers more than $3,000 last week after a chance encounter at a CoolSprings store, police said.

The victim was shopping Friday afternoon, July 10, at the Dollar Tree store on Galleria Boulevard when two other females approached her and began a conversation, BPD asst. chief Tommy Walsh said Tuesday.

“After a short period, one of the female suspects presented a wallet with what appeared to be cash inside. The suspects convinced the victim that she could be in some sort of trouble for seeing the wallet and currency, and asked the victim to accompany them to her bank to withdraw funds from her account under the guise that it would keep her out of trouble.”

The Brentwood woman left the store with the two suspects, and took one of them in her car to a nearby Bank of America where she withdrew more than $3,000. Once back at parking lot near Dollar Tree, the victim gave the suspect the money.

The crime is known as a “pigeon drop” or “confidence trick.” Walsh said the department doesn’t hear these types of incidents often, but they’re not unheard of. In June, a similar incident occurred at the Brentwood Place Shopping Center at 330 Franklin Road, but that suspect left without asking the potential victim for money.

“There should never be a time that a resident allows a stranger to enter their vehicle or withdraw money at the request of a stranger,” Walsh said. “If approached, they should refuse to cooperate and offer to call police.”

The suspects are listed as black females: one described as heavy set, 60-70-years-old, with shoulder-length black hair; the other was described as thin, and 50-60-years-old with light skin.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call (615)371-0160 or send email tips to bpdtips@brentwood-tn.org.

Jonathan Romeo covers Brentwood for Home Page Media Group. Contact him at jonathan@brentwoodhomepage.com.