CM Nurse on jewelry swap scams and moped robberies
Nurse asks about jewelry swap scams targeting elderly victims and moped robberies. Gerber describes the scam method, says crime prevention division is actively educating communities, and reports 486 victims of grand larceny from false promise, up 40%. Charges depend on whether force is used.
And I just, you touched on it earlier that there are so many scams that people are now, you know, being
being the victim of.
So one that we're seeing an uptick in being reported to our office are these jewelry swap scams.
So how many active patterns do you have for the jewelry swap scams and how many of those incidents have turned into robberies and also
How many active crime patterns do you have of robberies of that nature by people using mopeds?
So I'm just going to talk about the jewelry scams.
I'll get back to you on the numbers, but the jewelry scams, the swaps, are taken very seriously.
And it's occurring all over the city.
So what a jewelry swap is, for those who don't know, and it's targeting elderly victims.
A group of perpetrators will drive up or walk up to an elderly victim.
who's near the residence or in their neighborhood, where they shop, where they live, and they'll go up to that person, and they'll say, oh, you look like my mom.
You look like my dad.
Can I pray with you?
And they'll get very close.
They'll encroach that person.
They'll get very close.
And as they're doing that, in deception,
They'll steal a piece of sentimental or valuable jewelry off of that elderly person, and they'll put on a fake one.
And then they'll be gone.
They'll leave before the person even knows.
So it's a horrible way.
It's a horrible crime.
It's targeting the most vulnerable population.
What we're doing about it is there's a crime prevention aspect to this.
The crime prevention division falls under my office.
They are actively going out into my office.
these neighborhoods.
They're talking to the elderly communities.
They're putting up signs.
They have a big truck that says, be aware of these scams.
They're doing a great job.
And we're all over it.
So when the perpetrator is caught in an instance, right, in an instance where they are caught, are they being charged with robbery?
That depends.
If it's just a jewelry swap and...
That's a grand larceny from person that could be a grand larceny.
If they push the person or harm the person or the person feels threatened, that would be a robbery.
Okay, and the same for these types of like chain snatching that's happening on mopeds going by and just grabbing jewelry from people.
Just to go back to the grand larcenies, it's called from false promise really, that's up about
40%.
That's 486 victims of this crime.
Okay, and that's always counted into your crime statistics, yes?
That's always counted into the crime statistics, absolutely, just depending on what classification, but yes.
Okay, that's all I have for round two, and I too want to thank the NYPD for doing a job when they're seriously understaffed, and this has been a year of years for events here in New York City.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Councilmember.
Next, we'll hear from Councilmember Caban, then Nurse, and then Wong.
And this looks like it'll be the final round of questions.