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Police in Falls Township charged Christopher Mauricio, 19, of Philadelphia, with two felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property, the department announced.
Investigators say Mauricio ran an elaborate scam involving multiple assumed identities and phony paperwork to steal $5,000 from a woman in her 90s.
Officials said a caller contacted the victim on April 25, claiming to be her grandson. He told her he was in jail in Allentown and needed bail money because he had rear-ended a pregnant woman's car, according to police.
Over a period of hours, detectives said, the caller claimed to be a paralegal named "James Lee" working on behalf on an attorney named "Lewis Clark," and instructed the victim to withdraw $5,000 from her bank account.
The victim was instructed to write a phony "case number" on an envelope, put the cash inside, and hand it to the "courier" who had come to her house to pick it up.
The investigation revealed that the "courier" was Mauricio, police said. Authorities in York County provided detectives with GPS evidence that the 19-year-old was at the victim's home on the day of the theft, according to the release.
Mauricio was arraigned in a Bucks court on Wednesday, Nov. 23, and released on $10,000 bail, according to state court records. He is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 7.
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