NORTH BRANFORD, CT — North Branford police have charged a 29-year-old man living in Georgia with first-degree larceny in a phone scheme that took $50,000 from a 70-year-old town resident in April, Police Chief James Lovelace said.
The man, a New Jersey native, turned himself in to the department on an outstanding arrest warrant and also faces a conspiracy charge, police said. Unable to post bail, he was brought to New Haven Superior Court to be arraigned.
A fake fraud alert, then a call about "FBI agents"
The resident reported the loss to police on April 27, 2026. It began with a text message about a supposed charge at a Walmart Supercenter in Miami, according to the police account reported by Patch and CT Insider. When the resident answered that the purchase was not theirs, a man called from a number with an 888 area code, asked which bank the resident used and offered help with a fraud investigation involving a branch manager, police said.
The caller sent the resident to the TD Bank branch at 90 Washington Ave. in North Haven, saying "FBI agents" would meet them there, and told the resident to keep the matter to themselves, police said. He then had the resident wire $50,000, drawn from a family member's estate account, to an account at PNC Bank.
The resident grew worried after the transfer and called TD Bank's fraud department. Because the bank's wire department had closed for the evening, the transfer still showed as pending, police said. The resident later received a letter denying the claim and learned that the money had left the account on April 27.