Con man convinces employee to break into Athens store's safe and hand over $8,000 to stranger

A con artist was such a convincing and smooth talker recently that when he called an Athens business to perpetrate a scam, he actually convinced an employee to purchase tools to pry open the store safe.

The scam, which cost the company about $12,000, was outlined in an Athens-Clarke police report released this week.

The 20-year-old man explained to police he was working at Cricket Wireless on North Avenue when he received the call shortly before 9 p.m. Dec. 11.

The caller identified himself as the vice-president of a company that was hired to replace the communications system for the wireless business. However, the caller explained the store needed to pay a delivery fee, according to the report.

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The caller told the employee to take a customer’s recent monetary payment and go to a nearby Auto Zone and purchase tools to break into the safe.

The employee told police he went to Auto Zone and purchased a ball joint separator, a pry bar and a ball peen hammer, which he used to pry open the safe.

After gaining access to the money, the employee was told to go to a nearby store and deposit about $4,000 into a bitcoin machine, according to the report.

Then the employee was informed that a man named Scott would arrive and retrieve the rest of the cash, about $8,000.

Police said a stranger, who was wearing a blue hoodie, came to the store, took the box of cash, and was last seen walking away on North Avenue.

Police have camera footage from the store. The employee told the officer he never called his manager to ask about giving money for the communications system.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens man falls for scam and breaks into store's safe to take money