Elderly people in Florida are alarmed by a gang of criminals harassing and abusing older adults, taking money and jewelry from them

There is a warning in Miami-Dade and Hialeah, Florida. A gang of criminals decided to rob older adults using a technique of coercive intimidation and distraction, even involving a child under the age of ten.

For the time being there are three suspects, but they are investigating the possible participation of accomplices. The arrests took place in Hialeah, but they were released after bail was revoked. Police. in their networks, is responsible for the recapture.

The thieves are accused of tricking elderly people into selling fake jewelry and stealing the real clothes they wear when they intercept them.

They do a “show” on the street

One victim, Mario Acosta, reported that three people approached him asking him to buy jewelry.

Acosta, 89, was alone on the street, Local 10 reported. The media reported that, according to the older adult, those people were “emotional, they were crying.” It’s all part of a “show”.

They embraced Acosta with a “false drama.” They asked him for “financial help” and the octogenarian, bewildered, finally gave in. “He gave them $1,500 for fake jewelry,” the grandfather told Local 10.

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Modus operandi

Those media outlets, citing police, indicated that those same people were in Hialeah, where they caught the attention of a woman wearing a fake necklace. When they arrested her, they took the victim’s real jewelry.

The modus operandi was described by Hialeah police through the victims’ testimonies: “The suspects approach the elderly outside their homes and engage in conversation with them. “They then place a fake gold chain around the victims’ necks and say they are selling it,” NBC Miami reported.

At that point, they take the opportunity to deliver the blow: “When the victims say they were not interested, the attackers remove the fake chain, but take the victims’ gold chains with them,” the police department said.

Some time later, after the incident in the street, the grandparents realized that they had ‘lost’ their garment.

In other cases, thieves used a child to commit their crimes.

That child is about 10 years old, Hialeah police spokesman Eddie Rodríguez told the media.

To deceive the grandparents, they say they want to sell a necklace or some other item of clothing “to buy medicine, gas or tickets to return home.”

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Three Romanians arrested for abusing the elderly

On Friday, November 3, 2023, the arrest of the three people who had beaten elderly people in Florida was reported from Hialeah. The authorities point out that they have also left their criminal mark in New York.

The arrested are two women and a man from Romania. The identities, revealed on NBC, are Avrinte Miclescu, Olanda Miclescu and Cristina Sirbu.

In Univisión Noticias 23, but reported in TUDN, they said that the minor they took to commit a crime was six years old.

The three Romanians They spent one night in detention in the TGK prison. The next morning they posted the bail and they returned to the street, Jennifer Santana reported.

The laughter they shared in front of the cameras didn’t last long. Journalist Santana similarly reported that the police started looking for them again, given the avalanche of complaints received by them.

Arrested and charged

Officer Rodríguez said that when reports of the arrests and bail payment appeared in the media, the complaints were triggered: “In the morning we received seven new victims.” The police have at least ten cases. One of them did not occur in Hialeah.

On the same Friday, November 3 first “Cristina Sirbu and Avrinte Miclescu were behind bars again. Authorities were looking for Olanda Miclescu,” Univision reported.

On Instagram, the agency posted: “The Hialeah Police Department is once again identifying, locating and arresting criminals who are taking advantage of vulnerable people in our community.”

One of the women and the man were charged with third-degree robbery and the other woman with loitering.

Eddie Rodríguez gave a common fact about the new complainers. “They thought the chain had fallen on the street and didn’t report it. When they saw them in the press, they remembered talking to those people (…) people recognize them.”

If you or someone you know has fallen victim to these thieves, please contact us at (305) 687-2525.

Hialeah Police Department

A complainant said as a warning via Univisión Noticias 23: “They put clothes on your hands, around your neck… and in the end they trade with you because they take away the one you are wearing.”

(JO)