See, police have an assignment for you tonight. If you have a grandparent or a greatgrandparent in your life, talk to them about a new and more dangerous twist to the grandparent scam. The old scam is a phone call to a grandparent saying they need to send money immediately to get their grandchild out of trouble. They tell them to go buy a gift card, then read the numbers to them on the phone. That's how they get the money. Now, police say the scam sends bad actors directly to the grandparents home. A group of Canadian scammers tried the grandparents scam on elderly individuals throughout the United States asking money for bond or a lawyer. Here is one of the couriers they sent to pick up cash in person. Yeah, I saw you go by. Yeah, because they give us an intersection there. Y 263 75 Police tracked his car to a local motel and approach him after spotting him outside. How are you? Good to find you. Good. You should be okay. Yeah, perfect. I uh in the car. In your car? What's your name? Sebastian. Okay. Who do you work for? What do you mean who do you work? Oh, I work for a truck company. Shark company. Get your hands out. I'm sorry. What's your first name? Smashing. Smashing what? Showman. You got any weapons on you? Sorry. Nothing else. My wallet. Is your ID in this wallet? I think he's Yeah, ID's in there. Okay. In your car. I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. I'll tighten you down now. I'll get this. All right. I'm going to put your knife in there on your counter. Okay. Oh, sorry. You're good. Out of Quebec. Yes. What are you doing in town? I'm visiting. I've been driving around. Went to Minnesota. Came here. Going to go to Chicago and then Detroit. see my family and what kind of work you do? I'm a truck driver. Gosh. Yeah, but I'm also I usually work from What's uh So, you're a truck driver? Yes. Where's your truck part? Oh, the truck is in Canada. I don't work in states. Ah, gotcha. So, what are you doing down here? I'm just traveling through. I mean, I went to Minnesota instead of renting a car about this plane and now I'm just going back to traveling. I'll tell you what. Okay. For right now, I'm going to put you in some handcuffs. But Tommy, I'm going to have you come sit in my vehicle here. Okay. So, I just want to confirm you're uh you're an over the road trucker. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Um and you're just passing through visiting the area. Yeah. Okay. Where are you headed? So, I'm going to go to Detroit. Well, I was going to stop in Chicago, but I'm going to go to Detroit. family there and then my show. Okay. Where were you coming from? Minnesota. All right. So, how do you end up in Springfield, Illinois? I don't know. I just want to check out Lincoln and uh basically was close by. Just going to sleep and then take the highway to Chicago. Okay. Do anything else while you're in the area? Just driving around. I went to the garage this morning. Went to the car. Okay. What garage? Uh, it's Midas. Midas? What's wrong with the car? The muffler had what's called arrested and your head was making noise. Okay. All right. Sebastian, do you have any idea why I'm out with you? I am not sure. Okay. Here. Here's what works pretty good. Okay. When you're honest with me, I'm honest with you. I'm pretty straightforward. I work with you. All right. It's pretty safe to assume that you know why I'm out with you. Okay. You want to talk about that? Well, I'd like you to explain if you can explain what basically why I'm in handcuffs. Okay. Well, we've got a couple reports that came in. Your vehicle came up. Your A picture of you came up. Okay. A video of you came up and that's why I'm out with you. So, that's where I'd like to start. Okay. Now, do you know what I'm talking about? I think I have an idea. Okay. Would you like to talk to me about that? Uh, I'm not sure. Okay. Well, you start with this. Okay. We both know it involves some money. All right. Okay. And I'd say it's safe to assume that the good start would be to get that money back to their rightful owners. Okay. So, if you still have that money, that's a great start. Okay. Do you still have the money? I uh you might know about it. Yeah. Okay. The question is, do you still have it? Are we able to get it back to the rightful owners? Yes, you would should be able to get it back. Is it here? Uh, yes. Okay. In the vehicle or in the room? In the room. All right. So, what we want to do is I'm going to make a phone call. Okay. And then what I would like to do is I'd like you take you take you back to the sheriff's office where we're going to have a conversation about all of this. Okay? So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to have you sit tight for me. Okay. I'm going to ask how much money are we talking about because I know there's multiple incidents that happen. How much is left? I am not sure there's spikes. Have you spent any of it? No. Okay. So, we're talking over $30,000. I believe so. Okay. Let me make a phone call. Okay. I appreciate you being cooperative with me. The cop called to get a search warrant for the motel room. This doesn't look like cash. That doesn't look like toiletries. Oh boy. You want to do this back? Let's unload it with all the contents first. Photograph it as it is. They search the toiletry bag back at the office. They find over 138K in cash. Um so these did he have tape and stuff in his backpack? He had Yes. Was he the one wrapping that up or Yes, he did have tape and then the envelopes. Let me grab currency bags. That way when we bust everyone open, we can put this in the currency in one bag. It's a huge bank. That was the car one. Then this got another thousand there. Yeah. Each stack 2,000. Okay. The interrogation continues. Minnesota. You drove Did you drive straight Springfield? Okay. And what made you come to Springfield? I got a call saying I can make a few hundred dollar if I do a detour. Okay. When did you get this call? Uh basically beginning Well, no, technically it was the end of the weekend. The end of So like just this last Sunday. Yeah. Okay. So you get a call from who? Well, see this part I want to be cooperative. But before I share everything I should I maybe get a lawyer. So that's that's entirely up to you. Like I said what what I would like to do is I'd like to get your story. If for right now you don't want to disclose who you got a call from. We'll come back to that. But I'd still like to get your story. I I have information. I just I to be honest like I have a clean record. Never done anything. had one accident that was my fault my entire life for a few hundred that I was going to get. I'd rather be very cooperative with you, tell you everything I know. I appreciate that. I just I would really like to also get an opinion from a lawyer because I really don't know in how much and and that's your that's your right. That's what you want to do. Uh we're just here to get a story from you. Um, the best thing to do, um, I mean, again, you you you've been honest with me. You you've told me that you're in possession of this money and and we're working to get that back to the victim, which I told you from the beginning was my highest priority. Okay? So, what I'd like to do is, again, if you don't want to throw out a name right now, we'll get back to that. What I'd like to do is figure out how you got involved with this. You say you get a phone call. No. What does this phone call ask you to do? Basically, it was going to addresses that I'm being sent and uh they told me you just have to go pick up a package, keep it with you, and then it's going to get picked up. Okay. How many times do you think you've done that? Um pick up package? Yes. [Music] Uh six, seven times. Okay. And this started after Sunday when you received the phone call. Had you done it any time before Sunday? Okay. So, you get this phone call on Sunday from somebody saying, "Hey, you want to make a couple hundred bucks to make a detour?" Yeah. Did they tell you exactly where to go to begin with? No, not to begin with. Just basically towards Springfield. Oh, head towards Springfield. You agreed to it. All right. I got this new car. Did you buy the car with the intent to come down here and do that? So, you already purchased The intent was to have a car. This rental would have been $100 plus 200 deposit for a week and a half of driving around. It wasn't worth it. The car was $2,400. I would have paid 15 in rentals. I figured I get a car. So you get the phone call, you start driving towards Springfield, then what? Well, then again, I can go into detail with what I'm saying is for right now, I'm kind of seeing seeing what they want you to do, what you're basically receive information with the place. Go there, tell them I'm there to pick up a package. They would give the package, have them give them a receipt for the package, and then wait for another call. Once basically that was done, I was going to get a message saying what I have to do like who where do I drop the money? Who do I give it to? I I have no idea. Okay. So, you know it's money that's in the package. Yeah. Okay. And then you said six or seven times. Yeah. Okay. Do you recall the addresses? Uh maybe some of them. Some of them, but not by I don't know the area. So, I don't memorize it. Plus, because it's the first time that I'm doing something like this, you know, you get nervous a little bit. I Let me Let me ask you this. In your opinion, what did you think you were doing? Well, I I knew like they're basically scamming people. It's just I figured if that's all I'm getting involved in, just to have a few hundred bucks to enjoy my vacation. Their selling point was you're there. If you're not doing it, someone else will. Okay. So, how much money in total do you think you collected? I'm guessing it's probably around 100,000. I mean, what what do you what are these people saying when they're handing over this cash? I really have Oh, you mean uh when they're giving the cash? Well, I know they're on the phone usually with someone. Mhm. I have no idea who, but they're talking to that person. That's the person that confirms the number that I have. But I have no idea what they're told. Like I I never any of these people ask you questions? Uh not really. They just hand most of the time they just ask me to confirm the number and that's it. Okay. And then do you typically go back straight to a hotel room or do you just drive around with this stuff or Well, it depends. There they tell me Well, now they told me to get a hotel room, but if not, I usually just hang around. That's pretty much it. Couple other ones that have popped up obviously in Springfield. So this Sang County is the county you're in. Springfield is in Sang County. So some Springfield detectives are going to come talk to you about a couple other cases, too. Do you recall going to Jacksonville as well? Um I believe so. I believe so. Okay. Do you know how many you did in Jacksonville? I'm not sure. I remember the name of the city because it was like Florida where I went, but I I I'm not sure because I don't know the addresses or the area by heart. Was it more than two? No, I I remember once going there if I was close by. I'm really not sure. Did you go to Walmart while you were there? Sorry. Did you go to Walmart while you were there? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um what' you purchase from Walmart? Oh, if you look in the ch, you'll see there's plenty of stuff to for the house for gifts for him. So, how are these people going to pay you? Are you just supposed to take money out of what you get? Well, no. Uh, okay. Now, you're actually really going into details. Uh, and again, like I said from the beginning, I want to be straightforward with you. Okay. You you've admitted to this. You've admitted to having the money. You've you've you're going to help us get the money back, which is huge. All right. That's that's my biggest concern. Well, I mean, again, you you if you were going to get a warranty, you were going to find the money in there, right? You send me photos, you have videos of me. I don't do this kind of stuff to know how to line my way out of it. I And again, for a few hundred bucks, I try to be straightforward. Tell me everything. And and that's why let's let's start with this, which might make it easier. Do you personally know these people? No. Okay. Then at this point, wouldn't it be in your best interest to distance yourself from them by telling us everything that how this went down? I that's pretty much what I told you I wanted to. Okay, that's not a problem. So So how does this random person reach out to you to begin? You're asking me questions, but you're I still don't know if I should answer or not. Okay. And this is Do you see where I'm coming from, though? I understand. At this point, you've already you've already admitted everything that I need to hear that that has you getting the money and scamming these people, right? Hey, bear with me. Even though you're saying you're you're just you're just the driver, okay? You're involved. You you kind of said, "Hey, I know they're getting scammed, but hey, if I don't do it, somebody else is going to do it." Right? You've already put yourself there. You've already done this. Why not? Let's let's get it away from I mean the small details as to how do these people randomly know how I I've never gotten a phone call that says hey you want to make a couple hundred bucks. Yeah. So how how's that? Well again I don't even know how that happened. It it did happen because the well the guy I don't know him personally but I know him through people. The one that got in touch with me I'm not sure if he knows these people or not. But it might be the same thing. Now, I can give you the information that I have access to. I can give you everything of that. It's just I really the reason I'm like going towards the lawyer thing is cuz I want to know how much I'm sorry for the language, but Okay. So, how did you use what did you use to communicate with these people? It was uh messages. Messages. Uh like Facebook messages or text messages? Text. But I'm assuming the phone number is probably like a prepaid card or something. Oh, like Okay. Uh, it's just my phone number. That's mine number. Is it the same number or different number every time? Um, I don't know because for now it's been the same number. I have no idea. And that's the phone that's in your pocket, correct? Okay. The the first contact though that was Sunday saying, "Hey, do you want to make some money?" Okay. And then you start driving towards Springfield and then they start kind of giving you more information as to, hey, you're gonna go to this address. Do they tell you how much money at each location? Um, they say the amount. Okay. And then are you supposed to check that when you leave? No, you're not. No. Uh, basically take the money, put it together. Um, once it's all together, supposed to give them a toll. Okay. Did the Did you have more that you were supposed to do or have they not advised you of that yet? Sorry. What do you mean? Have you gotten information that you're supposed to go to a different address today? No. No. Now, when these when these messages come through, is it Can you kind of give me a rundown? Is it is it like this is the address, this is the name, this is the amount, or does it what does it tell you? The pretty much that. Yeah. Okay. And then so the stories had kind of changed a couple times um with a couple different reports. Do they give you a backstory on on and tell you what you are that day? Like are you a courier? Are you a bond? The courier. So I'm essentially the one that's supposed to go pick up their package and deliver it somewhere. Uh I have no idea what they told me. Well, courier go pick it up. Double check the number. On your way. Okay. So, and why I'm asking this is at one location you were identified as a as a bondsman. Another location you were identified as a courier. Do they give you a backstory each time? Bondsman. They never told me being a bondsman. Okay. They just said basically I'm a courier that's picking up a package. So, when you get there, I mean, really there's no questions asked. You're just, hey, I'm here to pick up you. If if they ask questions, it's really I have no idea. And that's when they're on the phone with the other individual. This courier was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was held in custody since the day he was caught and will remain on supervised release for two years after his prison sentence.