By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — A caller who attempted to order some roofing materials for pickup under a regular customer’s name and account was thwarted due to the vigilance of a branch manager of the supplier.
The afternoon of Aug. 23, a representative of Beacon Building Products, 22900 Ecorse Road, called police about a fraud attempt in progress. They said an older Hispanic male in a pickup was trying to take possession of a $4,675 order of roofing materials called in earlier for Swift Services, a regular customer.
The manager called the owner of Swift Services, and learned that he had not authorized the order.
When the older Hispanic male, a woman in her 40s, and a young man in his 20s came to pick up the order, the manager delayed them, hoping to get police to the location in time to make an arrest. However, the older man became impatient and drove off.
There were no surveillance cameras at the location, but the pickup’s license plate number was provided to police officers.