Shelby Township police say a man has been charged for allegedly scamming an elderly couple out of $50,000.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report:
Vedantkumar Bhupenbhai Patel, 25, who lives in Toledo and is in the United States on a student visa, is charged with one count of False Pretenses - $50,000 or more but less than $100,000 and one count of larceny - $20,000 or more.
According to police, they took a fraud report on April 5 of $50,000 in cash involving the elderly couple.
Police say the couple was contacted by the suspect via email, stating they had pending fraudulent credit card charges for purchasing child pornography.
The suspect allegedly told the couple to withdraw $50,000 in order to prevent the charges from being successful.
Police say the suspect also told the couple to place the cash in a box and an agent from the Treasury Department would come pick it up. The suspect allegedly told the couple not to tell anyone.
Two days later, police say the suspect rented a car and drove from Toledo to Shelby Township and the couple gave the suspect a box with the $50,000 in cash.
Police began investigating and utilized FLOCK camera systems to identify Patel.
During the course of the investigation, they found that Patel had likely sent the stolen $50,000 back to his hometown in India. He also reportedly attempted to scam these victims and other victims out of thousands of more dollars.
Police say the suspect is under federal investigation in at least two other scams of elderly residents.
"People that prey on the elderly are the most despicable type of criminals that I have dealt with in my 38+ years of law enforcement experience, and our department will use every available resource to identify and arrest these types of evil criminals," Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide said in a statement.
He also praised the work of Detective Thomas Verdura for his investigative work on the case.
