HOUSTON — Houston police are trying to identify two men wanted in connection with an aggravated robbery of an 80-year-old woman in which $19,000 in cash was taken.
Houston police said the victim is actually out $76,000 in total as the result of two separate crimes. She spoke exclusively with KHOU 11's Jason Miles.
"My nerves are just shot, I mean, it really upset me. Just about all of the money that I had was gone," the victim told us.
She asked us not to use her name or show her face.
The Midtown robbery was caught on surveillance video released Thursday. It happened around 5 p.m. on Friday, July 12, inside a convenience store on Fannin Street near Gray Street.
Houston police said the victim walked into the store with an envelope full of $19,000 in cash. She had the cash because a scammer named "Jennifer" urged her to withdraw and deposit it into a crypto account, claiming her bank had been hacked.
"She said I would get the money back in three days," the victim said. "Any money that I withdrew out of the bank. And, of course, that didn’t happen.”
Police said “Jennifer” also convinced the victim to install an app to give her control of the victim’s phone and access to the crypto account once money was transferred.
The scammer convinced her that the bank tellers were in on the bank hacking and coached her on what to say if they questioned her.
However, while the victim was in the store trying to deposit the cash into a crypto kiosk in Midtown, two suspects approached her from behind. Police said one of them grabbed the envelope from under her arm.
“It’s one of the wildest things I’ve seen in my career at the department," Jeff Brieden with HPD’s Robbery Division told us. “We’re not convinced that these suspects are related to the incidents leading up to this actual robbery itself. It looks like we're going to have two different incidents."
Watch HPD's press conference below
The two robbery suspects left the store in a black-colored vehicle.
Police said the victim had been coming to this location over a period of four days back in July depositing a total of $57,000 into the kiosk. That's on top of the $19,000 the robbers snatched for a total loss of $76,000.
“I certainly hope that they get caught because I’d hate to see this happen to somebody else," the victim told us. " I learned my lesson, but it was a very hard lesson to learn."
The victim, who said she feels like an "idiot" is the widow of a longtime HPD officer who died last year. She said he would have smelled a rat if he was still alive.
"Very unfortunate for the victim in which she’s been scammed out of all that money," said Brieden. "But now she’s also been, she’s been robbed.”
Watch the raw surveillance below
The first suspect is 30 to 40 years old, wearing a dark-colored T-shirt and red shorts.
The second suspect was wearing a white Nike tee shirt, gray Nike shorts, blue and white shoes and a cap.
Contact Crime Stoppers of Houston directly if you have any information related to this investigation. Information leading to the charging and/or arrest of any felony suspects may result in a cash payment of up to $5,000. Tipsters must contact Crime Stoppers directly to remain anonymous and to be considered for a cash payment by calling 713-222-TIPS (8477), submitting an online tip at www.crime-stoppers.org or through the Crime Stoppers mobile app.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Bitcoin ATM fraud went up 900% over the last three years.
If something seems suspicious, always check with your bank. Someone telling you to be secretive is a big red flag.