You Can Run but you Can’t Hide…

Just ask Richie Winters, a 26 year old man from Reading Pennsylvania who is on his way back to Norwood Police Department under arrest for: Larceny Over $250 by False Pretense and Receiving Stolen Property Over $250. Here are the facts of the case and the good police work that led to his arrest.
The investigation began in December of 2016, when Officer Kevin Riley took a police report of a financial scam. Officer Riley learned that the victim received a phone call from a person claiming to be her grandson. The caller claimed to be under arrest out of state, and he needed money to get out of jail. If this scam sounds familiar it should, the Norwood Police Department has warned its citizens of scams like this one in the past. The call began with a request for $1,450.00; followed by a second call for another $1,450.00. The phone calls kept coming for more money requests over a period of days, and including fees the victim was out over $8,200.00.
What the thief did not count on was that Norwood Police Officer Kevin Riley caught the case and was on his way to putting the pieces together. Officer Riley tracked down the caller, identified him as Richie Winters from Reading Pennsylvania and found that he had a criminal history including Receiving Stolen Property, Theft and Robbery.
As a result of the investigation, Winters was arrested in Pennsylvania and held as a fugitive from justice. He is on his way to Norwood Police Department from Pennsylvania courtesy of a cruiser transport by Officer’s Kevin Riley and Brendan Sweeney. Winters will be presented for arraignment tomorrow at the Dedham District Court. The message to the criminals is “you can run but you can’t hide”.
The message to our citizens is that this is just one in a wide variety of scams targeting our citizens. DON’T accept calls from numbers not familiar to you; NEVER send money to a strange address via Western Union, Green Dot cards, ITUNES gift cards, as cash inserted in magazines or in other unusual ways. ALWAYS verify the person you are speaking with, this can be done by calling them back at a number you are familiar with. When in doubt, hang up and call the Norwood Police Department at 781-440-5170 to report suspicious activity.