Community Corner

Anonymous Tip Provides 'Likely Suspect' in Grandmother Scam

By John Crandall

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained an inaccurate identification of Daniel Marcotte as being the owner of a bar in Montreal.

After an anonymous writer submitted a tip to Patch, police and other media outlets, investigators began looking into the possibility that a Montreal man should be a suspect in a scam that bilked an 86-year-old Seal Beach grandmother out of $30,000.

The Seal Beach Police Department -- and Seal Beach Patch -- received an email Thursday night from someone alleging Daniel Marcotte, of Montreal, was the man who matched the pictures released by police earlier this week.

The email included several pictures of a man the tipster identified as Marcotte.

Marcotte could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and Patch has not been able to confirm the identity of the man in the photos.

However, Seal Beach police spokesman Sgt. Ron La Velle said the man in the tipster's pictures is “the most likely suspect.”

“You don’t need to do any forensics to see the striking resemblance between the guy in the photo and the guy captured in the video,” said SBPD Sgt. Ron La Velle, “but there’s still more work to be done before we can say definitely he’s the guy.”

According to La Velle, the tip is the second they’ve received, including one that investigators received Tuesday of a man identified as Marcotte standing next to celebrity Ice-T. La Velle said that the two emails were sent from different email addresses, but he didn’t have information about the senders.

The email that landed in Patch’s inbox was called montrealjustice@hushmail.com. Hushmail is an online service that allows people to make an unlimited number of email aliases.

La Velle said that if the department decides Marcotte is their guy, local and Canadian investigators will take different parts of the case.

“Hopefully between the police in Montreal and the police here, we can make something happen and make an apprehension,” La Velle said.

However, if Marcotte is their man, La Velle said, the department faces a number of obstacles:

One, the tipster sent out the pictures of the tip to multiple media sources, which La Velle said, may cause Marcotte to “go to ground” before authorities can find and interview him.

Two, La Velle said, there’s the fact that Marcotte is in another country and on the other side of the continent, as well.

“Not only is he 3,000 miles away, but we have some international issues,” La Velle said. “There’s an expense associated with sending cops out of the country, so we want to make sure before we do that, we do everything we can on the investigation from here.”

The case began Feb. 18, when an 86-year-old widow received a call from someone claiming to be her grandson Randy. The man said he was stuck in a Mexican jail and needed $15,000 to get out, according to the Seal Beach Police Department.

In recent years, multiple Leisure World residents have been victimized by this scam.

The caller asked the woman to send the money to “Matthew Jones” at a FedEx business office in New York City.

On Feb. 19, the victim sent the cash.

A day later, the man asked for another $15,000 to the same address, and the grandmother sent it. The man allegedly used a fake Canadian driver’s license to pick up the packages from the New York FedEx business center. Surveillance video and still photos recorded a man picking up the packages.

After learning of the scam, the woman contacted Seal Beach police, who began investigating along with New York City police.

The suspect was described as mid-to-late 30s with a medium-to-heavy build. Police said the man’s goatee was braided in a distinctive "sparrow style."

Anyone with information about the identity or location of the suspect is asked to contact Seal Beach Police Detective Mary Martinez at 562-799-4100, ext. 1110, or mmartinez@sealbeachca.gov.


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