CENTRAL FLORIDA — There's a new scheme going around that's fooling even the smartest people because it preys on their emotions.
Channel 9's Lori Brown asked why police can't do more to stop the very disturbing phone calls.
John Stone has made a career defending criminals at the Public Defender's Office, but he wants the criminals behind this scam locked up.
Stone got a call from a 407 area code while driving along Orange Avenue.
A man on the other end told Stone that his wife was critically injured and they were taking her to Florida Hospital, and that before she had passed out, she gave him Stone’s phone number.
“And I thought, ‘Oh my God. Is it my wife?’ and I gave him my wife's name,” Stone said. “(The man) came back on the phone and said, ‘Yes, it's your wife.’ My heart went to my throat."
The caller then became belligerent and said his wife had hit his son on a motorcycle coming out of an Exxon gas station.
“He said, ‘My partner beat your wife with a pistol and we're kidnapping your wife, and you're going to pay us. You're not going to call police. If you do, we're going to put a bullet in her head’," Stone said.
It hit Stone especially hard; his son was murdered two years ago.
“It brought up some emotion," Stone said.
Fortunately, he was suspicious. Stone told the caller that he was calling his wife and then was going to call the man back.
“He said, ‘You just put a bullet in your wife’ and hung up,” Stone said. “I called my wife and thank God she answered, and she was fine."
But Stone was in for another shock when he called Orlando police.
“She said, ‘Well, I can send someone over to take your statement, but honestly, I guarantee you no one will investigate it’," Stone said.
An OPD spokesperson told Channel 9 that every case is reviewed, but it's very difficult to find the people behind phone scams because extortionists often buy prepaid phones at a Walmart and toss them in garbage.
WFTV
