String of Switch Scams Has Police on Lookout

A team of con men are apparently operating in the area, using an age-old sleight of hand scheme to ply valuables from unwitting victims. Using what is known as a "handkerchief switch scam", the con men have already stolen cash and jewels from at least three victims in separate cons at Central Park and the Spotsylvania Towne Center.

The scheme, also known as the "Jamaican Switch", has been around for more than a century, according to a public service announcement from the San Francisco Police Department. It uses two people, one acting like a befuddled foreign traveller–called the "catch" in con lingo–and one pretending to be an innocent bystander–called the "cap".

After locating a potential victim, the catch and the cap will work together to build the victim's trust, usually by telling a story of trial, tribulation and travel woes. There are many variations on the story, but usually it involves the catch flashing a large amount of money and trying to convince the victim to take the money for himself–or to pass on to a charity–in return for his help in arranging for transportation.

Once the victim accepts, the catch asks the victim and the cap to put some money in a handkerchief as part of an African good luck ritual. Once the catch has the money in hand, he uses sleight of hand to switch the handkerchief with one filled with strips of paper. The catch and the cap quickly leave the area before the victims realize they've been duped. 

"Obviously, this is a case where you've got a guy who's a smooth talker with what appears to be a possible story," said Fredericksburg Police spokesperson Natatia Bledsoe. City police are investigating one incident where a victim handed over cash from his paycheck to a con man at Ryans Steakhouse at 1780 Carl D. Silver Parkway around 2 p.m.

In that incident, the victim, an 18-year-old Spotsylvania resident, was approached by a catch speaking with a heavy African accent in the Central Park Walmart after the victim had cashed his paycheck. The catch had the victim follow him to Ryan's Steakhouse and asked for his help in calling a taxi to take the catch out of town, which the victim provided. The catch then asked the victim and the cap to put cash from inside a large roll of money in a bandanna, saying that it would bring good luck. When the victim's girlfriend arrived to pick him up from work he discovered that the cash he thought was in the bandanna had been switched for strips of newspapers.

On Saturday October 22, at around 5:30 p.m., two young women were defrauded of cash and jewelry by two con men working the same scheme at the Spotsylvania County Mall, according to an alert sent out by the Stafford County Sheriff's Office. According to the release, the catch told the victims that he was from South Africa and spoke in a heavy accent. He told the victim's that he had just arrived in America and asked to be taken to the information desk.

As the victims walked with the catch to the information desk, another man, presumably the cap, walked by while chatting on a cell phone. The catch asked the cap if he was American, and the cap answered yes. The catch then asked if the cap would could help him. The cap agreed, and according to the release "the conversation then turned to trust and trusting other people." The cap and the catch then placed money inside a hankerchief and asked the victims to do so as well, which they did. The con men then used sleight of hand to switch the handkerchiefs and handed the victims a worthless bundle of newspaper strips inside of a handkerchief.

According to the descriptions provided by the victims in the Spotsylvania Mall incident, the first suspect is described as a black man standing 6 feet tall with short hair. He was wearing a blue jacket and a black shirt with a white stain on the left collar. The second suspect, who identified himself as Shawn, is a black man standing 5 foot 8 inches tall and had facial hair. He wore blue jeans with brown stripes on the right pocket. He also had a facial scar on his head which he said was a gunshot wound.

The suspect in the Ryan's Steakhouse incident is described as a dark-skinned black man in his mid to late 30s wearing glasses, a blue jacket, a white shirt and a striped tie with. He had a small amount of facial hair and spoke with an accent. Security camera footage from Walmart shows the suspect arriving in a silver four-door sedan.