When you enter a business with thousands of dollars to spend, you would anticipate that a store employee would be happy to assist you in spending your hard-earned cash. However, it appears that is not always the case.
When Cecil Rogers walked into Walmart ready to spend all his cash, he ended up getting a blessing from the person behind the checkout counter by her refusing to help him.
The incident happened in December 2017, just as Rogers was getting ready to celebrate Christmas with his grandchildren. They were all on their way to Rogers’ house on Elmwood Place, but Rogers got a call from someone posing as his grandson before they arrived. Then, things really began to take a weird turn.
“Papaw, this is your oldest grandson. I’m in trouble,” the voice said on the phone.
He was told by his fake grandson that he had been in a terrible car accident and needed financial help. The “grandson” allegedly hit a pregnant woman’s car. After that, he abruptly handed the phone to his “attorney.”
The “attorney” demanded Cecil send money when he answered the phone.
Cecil was instructed to go to a local Walmart and transfer $2,300 of his own money to another store in order to help his grandson. The attorney promised to pick up the cash and use it to post the grandson’s bail so that he might be released.
Completely taken off guard, the poor guy was panic-stricken. He just hung up the phone and immediately left the house to go to his grandson’s rescue before it was too late.
The lawyer assured Cecil Rodgers that everything would be okay once he got the money, so the caring grandfather wasted no time.
Cecil then hung up in order to quickly leave and save the day. He rushed straight to his bank, withdrew the money, and then immediately went to his neighborhood Wal-Mart to send it. He didn’t even hesitate to question the phone call because he was so concerned about his grandson. All he could think about was sending that cash.
Once in Walmart, Cecil got into Audrella Taylor’s line. When he came face to face with Audrella, he thought that she would just do her job.
However, she stubbornly refused to execute his transaction and asked exactly why he was sending that amount of money. Confused as to why she wasn’t just doing her job. Cecil told her the truth and opened up to Audrella about his grandson’s emergency.
Audrella has spent the last five years working at Walmart and has witnessed a lot of things come to pass. She suspected Cecil was going to make a mistake and didn’t want to watch him get fooled. Instead, she took action.
As she explains, “He said something about somebody was locked up in jail. He got a call, and he needed to send $2,000. I said, ‘I am going to refuse the sender. I’m not going to let you send that money. I think you are being scammed.’”
Audrella ask him if any of his other family members had been contacted by either the grandson or his ‘lawyer’. They hadn’t, he admitted. That was all the evidence she needed to be certain that something was amiss because she was aware that, in the event of a serious injury, the grandson’s mother, and not the grandfather, should have been contacted first.
Cecil was puzzled as to why somebody would attempt to steal his money in that manner, though. The idea was ridiculous! He had undoubtedly never even considered the possibility that his grandson wasn’t the caller. He was beginning to feel quite anxious about all of her questions, but he didn’t want to wait because he still thought he was acting in his grandson’s best interests. Plus, the lawyer on the other end of the line had warned him not to tell anyone about the call because doing so may get his grandson into even more trouble. But he did tell this pestering woman!
Finally, Audrella succeeded in persuading him not to send the money. She got him to calm down, then call his other family members. She was confident that he would find out his grandson was perfectly ok, and sure enough, she was right. Cecil’s grandson was safe at college.
In the end, Cecil‘s grandson wasn’t at all the voice on the phone. Of course, neither was the second person to take the line, who was also not a lawyer. They were dishonest con artists who had mastered the “grandparent scam,” which involves taking advantage of the elderly.
There would have been no way for Cecil to get his money back had he sent it, thus Audrella has been praised by her manager.
The manager of Audrella has expressed his pride in her, and Cecil‘s family has expressed gratitude for her intervention.
Given his limited resources, Rodgers expresses his gratitude to the Walmart employee who intervened and helped him avoid losing more than $2,000 in the process.
Explaining that they now train cashiers on the warning signs that someone is being scammed, Manager Dominic Gross said, “We’re very proud of Audrella and all of our customer service associates that helped.”
Due to how simple it is to communicate with strangers online and over the phone, scammers have become more prevalent in the digital era. People are left more open to scammers than ever before due to this distance from in-person interactions. These vile criminals set up deceptive traps so that victims will give their money without even realizing they are being duped until it is too late.
The saddest thing about it is that they prey on seniors because, generally speaking, they are less smart, more trusting, or out of touch with the kinds of things that younger people have grown accustomed to being wary of.
The devoted grandfather may be way too close to being a victim, however, thanks to this cashier who rushed into action.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: AWM, Spotlightstories, Amomama
