Employees of a Hurst restaurant who believed they were helping a co-worker get out of jail by paying her bail were bilked out of $800 last week in one of the boldest scams in the city, Hurst police said Monday.
The truth was, the Black-eyed Pea employee was on vacation.Hurst police said that the con artist attempted the same scam at two other restaurants this month, but employees didn't buy into it."Verify, verify, verify," Hurst police Sgt. Craig Teague said Monday. "I would be extremely leery if in order to help, it requires the use of wiring money. At least call the police to verify."No one had been arrested as of Monday.A manager who answered the telephone at the restaurant declined to comment.The scam was reported at about 2 p.m. on June 19 at the Black-eyed Pea in the 900 block of Airport Freeway in Hurst. A 42-year-old manager and a 34-year-old employee gave Hurst police this account:A man claiming to be a bondsman called the restaurant and said that one of its employees had been arrested and that it would take $3,000 to get her out of the Dallas County jail."The restaurant did have an employee by that name and she wasn't at the restaurant," Teague said.The employees told the bondsman that they didn't have $3,000, but said they could possibly come up with $800.The fake bondsman then directed the men to go to a nearby MoneyGram location and wire the money to a location in Colorado, to which they agreed.After sending the money, the employees waited a few hours and called the female employee."She answered and told them that she was on vacation," Teague said.Domingo Ramirez Jr., 817-390-7763; Twitter: @mingoramirezjr.
