Three Colombian migrants were arrested and charged with theft by deception of someone over 60 years old after they used a fake lottery ticket to scam a woman out of more than $20,000 in Illinois, authorities said.
The Addison Police Department said that Miguel Pena-Gomez, 43; Liliana Nagles-Cuesta, 49; and Angela Posada-Acosta, 45, scammed a woman outside the Caputo’s Fresh Market outside of Chicago, Illinois on Nov. 7.
Authorities said that the trio swooped down on the older woman in the parking lot and scammed her.
Pena-Gomez was allegedly the first person to approach the victim, asking her for help and claiming that he had a winning lottery ticket worth $6 million, but he needed money to collect the winnings.
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As they were talking, Nagles-Cuesta approached and offered to help because she spoke Spanish, authorities said.
Nagles-Cuesta allegedly called the lottery authorities and asked how much money was necessary to collect the winnings.
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She claimed to the victim that the lottery authorities needed $30,000 from Pena-Gomez for him to collect his fake lottery winnings.
Nagles-Cuesta left and said that she was going to get money from her bank account to help Pena-Gomez, authorities said.
After Nagles-Cuesta returned, she, Pena-Gomez and the victim drove to the elderly woman’s bank where she withdrew $20,143.
Authorities said that a short time later, Pena-Gomez insisted that he needed medicine and asked the victim to take him to the pharmacy.
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When the victim went into the store she left the money in the glove compartment of her car. When she returned, Pena-Gomez took the money and fled.
Prosecutors say Nagles-Cuesta never returned.
Posada-Acosta allegedly acted as a lookout during the encounter.
The three suspects were arrested Thursday and appeared Friday in court, where all faced a charge of one count of theft by deception of more than $5,000 from someone over 60 years old, a class 2 felony.
DuPage County officials ordered the release of the three, and ordered them to return to court Dec. 11.
