Crime

In this scam the senior citizen receives a call where the caller identifies himself/herself as a grandchild in trouble with law enforcement in a foreign country and needs cash sent immediately to be used as bail money. Preying on the senior citizens uncertainty of which grandchild is calling, the caller is able to get the grandchild’s name and then pretend to be that person. Asking the grandparent to not call “Mom and Dad” because they want to tell them the bad news themselves, the caller then convinces the citizen to send the money by money order to an address they provide. This phone scam is being seen in other parts of the country as well.

In each incident in Stafford, the senior citizen receiving the bogus call has refused the request for money and contacted the Sheriff’s Office. This is not the first time that Stafford County citizens have reported this scam. It was first reported in Stafford County in July and September of 2009.

The 18-year-old male victim was in the 16900 block of Point Pleasant Lane off Allen Dent Road when we was approached by a man who hit him in the head with what, police said, appeared to be a handgun.

The victim fell to the ground and two other males surrounded him and took an undisclosed amount of cash and pizzas from the victim, said Prince William police.

Not an animal but rather a construction machine was reported stolen from the campus Strayer University on Minneiville Road in Woodbridge on Thursday. The $30,000 piece of equipment was later found parked on Yolanda Court in Manassas, said Prince William police.

Johnathan Larry Ellington, 39, of 14901 Yolanda Court in Manassas, is charged with possession of stolen property and with grand larceny, said police.

Police arrested the Dumfries teenager and charged him with two counts of robbery, two counts of abduction and with one count of use of a firearm in commission of a felony, said police.

On Dec. 29, at 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy said three males approached them while at the AMC Theatres at Potomac Mills mall and then forced them into a theater, implied they had a weapon, and robbed the victims of cash.

A man walked into the pharmacy in the 13600 block of block of Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge on Dec. 17, implied he had a gun, and then demanded several medications. The man got away with about 1,000 pills, including Percocet and Dilaudid, valued at $5,400, said Prince William police.

James Ronald Bradford, Jr., of Melting Snow Place in Dumfries, is charged with armed robbery, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, and possession of schedule I and II narcotics, said police.

Police reported a shooting into a home in the 3000 block of Seminole Road off Antietam Road in Lake Ridge. Two homes were struck by bullets, but an investigation revealed shots were fired after the alleged gunman had a dispute with the owner, according to police.

No one was injured in the shootings, and police said new information obtained through their investigation led to an arrest.