Shoney’s employee conned out of $260
A Shoney’s employee was defrauded out of $260 by a con artist who used slight of hand to pull off an age-old scam.
According to McMinnville Police Captain Bryan Denton, the employee was approached at the cash register by a man who ordered some coffee to go and asked if he could exchange his $1 and $10 bills for bigger denominations. The man then proceeded to show the cashier an envelop filled with $1s and $10s.
After seeing the envelope, the cashier placed two $100 bills and three $20 bills into another envelope and made the exchange with the man. However, at that point, the man said the envelope he had given her was two dollars short and that he would go to his vehicle and get the two dollars. He handed the clerk what she thought was the envelope filled with small bills and asked her to watch it while he went out to his car.
When the man did not come back, the clerk looked inside the envelope the man had left and discovered it was filled with tissue paper.
“At some point, the man was able to conceal the envelopes containing the cash and replace it with the phony envelope,” Denton said. “We’ve seen this scam before. It takes advantage of a person’s ability to keep up with several things at once and then uses a little slight of hand.”
The conman is described as being a white, male in his mid 40s with a New York accent.