A U.T. senior says his laptop and ATM card were stolen at gunpoint near campus Wednesday as part of what police say is an ongoing scam.
On Wednesday night, a stranger asked Sean Collins, 23, for a ride to an African-American church to collect some inheritance money, and then an accomplice posing as a stranger robbed him.
‘I went into shock,’ Collins told WFLA News Channel 8. ‘I couldn’t do anything. My entire body shut down.’
Collins, a brother in the former Kappa Sigma fraternity, came across the men at the Shell station near Kennedy Boulevard and Howard Avenue, police said.
‘ The communications major said one man had a Nigerian accent and said he needed to collect $200,000 he had inherited from his brother. The money was waiting for him at a nearby church, the man said. That’s when the accomplice, who acted like a stranger, stepped in to offer directions.
Offered $50, Collins drove the first man to Cleveland Boulevard and Rome Avenue where the accomplice from the gas station appeared from some bushes with a gun.
‘I’m not going to ever help anybody like this ever again,’ Collins said. ‘I just lost all interest in the value of society. It makes you think how society has gone down the hole.’
Collins said he handed over everything he had, including his laptop, wallet and debit card.
‘You have to look out for yourself,’ he told WFLA. ‘It’s your natural instinct to help people, but in the long-run, I don’t think it’s worth it.’
Police are seeking the two men who they think have have run this scam at least four times. The men drive a black Chrysler 3000.
Check back with The Minaret for details.