‘We protect our seniors’: Sheriff meets woman at airport accused of scamming $32K from 80-year-old

By Hayley Crombleholme

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    VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) — A woman in Volusia County got a call she had won a million dollars – but it was all too good to be true. That’s according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

According to an arrest report, a woman in her 80s in Daytona Beach Shores got a call back in June that she had won a million dollars from Publisher’s Clearing House. But to get the money, she was told she had to send a cashier’s check of $20,000.

The woman went to two different Truist banks to get the money. Both told her she was being scammed and wouldn’t issue the check.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the woman called the scammers back to find out what to do. He says they told her to tell a third bank she was paying to remodel her niece’s kitchen.

“And overnight us a check for 20 grand, which she does,” Chitwood said.

The arrest report says the woman took the check to a shipping center, where an employee again told her she was being scammed. But after getting a letter notarized saying it was for a kitchen renovation, she was able to send the money out.

“Then they call back the next day and said, ‘We did some accounting, we need another 12-five.’ So, she went to the bank again and got 12-five out,” Chitwood said.

The report says after telling her son she had won a million dollars, she realized she had been scammed.

Detectives were able to find out who the checks were paid to and what bank accounts they were put in. Leading them to a woman named Shania Baptiste and her co-defendant, Neilson Brooks.

Chitwood met Baptiste at the Daytona Beach Airport after she was flown in from New York.

“Shania, I am Sheriff Chitwood, and I want to let you know that we protect our seniors in this community, OK? That’s why you’re here,” Chitwood told Baptiste when she arrived.

When asked if there was anything Baptiste wanted to say about what she was being accused of, she said, “I didn’t do the crime.” She said an explanation would be given when she had a lawyer present.

So far, the sheriff’s office has been able to get back $20,000 of the woman’s money.

The sheriff said some victims in these types of cases don’t want to come forward, worried about losing control of their own finances.

“Last year in Volusia County, I think it was close to over $4 million that seniors 65 and older lost,” Chitwood said. “And that’s what was reported to us. Because that is the age group that doesn’t report it because they’re scared to death to lose their financial independence if they tell their family what they did.”

In the case of this woman in her 80s, Chitwood says they believe there may be one other person involved in this particular case. But this could be part of a much larger scale operation.

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