A resourceful detective used Facebook to track down landscapers who allegedly ripped off a blind 89-year-old resident of The Villages.
The Village of Palo Alto woman had been solicited in November by 66-year-old Santos Perrea Albarran and 29-year-old Yolanda Jimenez Mendez about performing some some landscaping work at her home on Palo Alto Avenue.
The Villager paid them with a check, but because she is legally blind, she asked them to fill in the amount of $170.
It wasn’t long before the Villager was contacted by Citizens First Bank when it was determined that the signature on the check did not match her signature. The check had been cashed for $500, not $170, at a Wells Fargo bank in Leesburg.
Detective Bradley Wasson began searching databases for the names on the cashed check. The search results led to Albarran and Jimenez Mendez. The detective then searched Facebook and confirmed the two were friends.
Wells Fargo surveillance confirmed the pair had visited the bank and cashed the check.
The pair was arrested after they voluntarily went to the sheriff’s office and were interviewed by the detective.
Both were arrested on felony fraud charges and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center.
