On January 10, Larry, an 87-year-old man from Saskatoon, received a call from someone claiming to be his grandson. Larry was at home with his 84-year-old wife, Helen.

CBC/Radio-Canada is not releasing the last names of these two individuals due to their role in this investigation.

According to Larry, the man claiming to be his grandson told him that he had been in a car accident and damaged a pregnant woman’s car. He then confided in her that he was in prison and had confessed to his crime.

He asked Larry for bail and gave the phone to another person who claimed to be his attorney.

The second person then informed Larry that this money would be returned to him after his grandson’s first appearance in court.

When Larry and Helen went to the bank to withdraw $9,000, they realized they were about to be the victim of a scam.

” When entering the elevator, common sense prevailed. We determined that the person did not appear to be our grandson. Also, I received questionable instructions on the steps to follow for a deposit. »

Larry claims to have heard about this type of scam in the past and never thought he could suffer something like this.

When Larry and Helen realized they were dealing with scammers, they were embarrassed and then angry.

They then contacted the police to alert them to the situation, stressing that they were still in contact with the suspects.

Together they devised a plan to catch the scammers.

Once home, Helen called the suspects back and told them the money would not be available until around 4:00 p.m., giving the police time to come up with a plan.

She asked one of the suspects to collect the money from her home.

Thirty minutes before the allotted time, Helen received another call asking her to hand the money over to whoever showed up at her door.

Thanks to this plan, the police were able to arrest a suspect the same day. Two other Quebec suspects were subsequently arrested as well.

The three suspects face 10 counts of $5,000 fraud. According to Saskatoon police, the three men began the scam on Dec. 21, stealing more than $100,000 before eventually being arrested.

For their part, Larry and Helen have changed their phone numbers since that incident and hope their story will serve as an example to other seniors who are being targeted by scammers.

With information from Dan Zakreski