HOBOKEN — Have you heard the sad story of the man with the cell phone who walks around Hoboken, having a loud conversation on his cell phone in which he says he lost his wallet and is out of money?
Residents have discussed this possible scam for many months on at least one local newsgroup.
Over the weekend, according to a media report, police arrested a Brooklyn man for conducting a similar scam. It is unknown if he is the same person who has doing this for many months, but the stories seem similar.
According to NJ.com: “Port Authority police arrested a Brooklyn man Friday who admitted to scamming Hoboken PATH train riders, officials said….[the man] was charged with theft by deception after police took him into custody sometime around 6 p.m.”
Plainclothed police in the PATH station saw him “dressed in business attire, [allegedly] pretending to phone someone and then loudly claiming, for all in the train station to hear, that he lost his wallet and needed money.”
A passenger offered the man $14.
However, another passenger had reported the same routine to police two days earlier, so they moved in.
The story says that the man allegedly “admitted carrying out the scam on a regular basis.”
More details will be published when they can be verified by the Reporter.
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