Arrest in 'grandparent' scam when police intervene as Queens man picks up $10,000 payment

A Queens man faces theft, money laundering and related charges in a $10,000 "grandparent" scam, Teaneck, New Jersey police announced Wednesday.

Teaneck police said they arrested Zhenye Chen, 20, on April 22 after he picked up a UPS package containing $10,000 cash from the front steps of a Teaneck home that was vacant and listed for sale. The cash, they said, had been sent overnight by a Shakopee, Minnesota woman who believed her grandson was in trouble.

In a news release, Teaneck police said the Shakopee woman got a call on April 21 from someone pretending to be her grandson. The caller said he and a friend had been involved in a motor vehicle crash and urgently needed the money to pay legal fees and retrieve a vehicle from a police impound lot. He told the woman to wrap the cash in a way intended to make it hard for UPS to detect and gave her the Teaneck home’s mailing address.

The alleged scam began to unravel when Shakopee police called their Teaneck counterparts, who put the home under surveillance. Teaneck police said their investigators watched a man, later identified as Chen, drive up to the home in a vehicle with New York plates and retrieve the UPS package.

They arrested him as he returned to the vehicle. A subsequent search turned up an additional $10,100 "believed to be proceeds from theft and/or money laundering activities," a fraudulent Connecticut driver's license and cocaine, according to the release.

Authorities believe the model for grandparent scam originated around 2008. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, its practitioners sometimes impersonate the victim’s grandchildren over the phone or email claiming to need money after being arrested, getting into an accident or being mugged. Sometimes they give their stories a sheen of truth by adding details gleaned from social networking sites.

Teaneck police said their investigation linked Chen to an April 16 incident in which a Missouri woman mailed $4,000 to a Teaneck address after being persuaded that her bank account had been compromised. In a brief phone interview, a Teaneck detective said it was unclear why Chen appeared to have chosen Teaneck drop sites.

Chen and two lawyers listed in court records as defending him could not be reached for comment. Teaneck and Shakopee police did not comment. It was unclear in online court records if Chen had entered a plea in the case.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.