June 30, 2016 By Christian Murray
A Woodside woman outsmarted two hucksters who tried to tell her she needed auto repairs and warned residents at the 108 Police Precinct meeting in Sunnyside Tuesday not to fall for their trap.
Frances Kraemer, a Woodside resident who is in her 70s, told the story of what happened to her while she was driving along Skillman Avenue.
“I stopped at the light and the guy comes up and says, ‘Your car is on fire! Your car is on fire! Pull over, pull over.’”
Kraemer admitted that she was stunned by these claims and pulled over.
“Another guy came up and then asked me to open the hood, which I did,” she said. She then said that man then told her that there was smoke coming out of her car.
One of the men said: “I’m your guardian angel, I can fix that.”
Kraemer said she told him, “My mechanic is my guardian angel,” at which point she left. She said that the men had loosened her radiator cap.
Months later Kraemer said she was driving along Queens Boulevard and the same two men approached her and tried to pull off the same scam.
“I guess they target old people,” she said.
“One of them yelled out: ‘Your car is on fire, pull over, pull over,’” Kraemer said. She pulled over and took down the license plate of the car the men happened to be driving. The men realized what she was doing and drove off.
“So, I followed them [in my car]. I wanted to stick it to them. Let them know that you can’t do that to people,” Kraemer said. She ended up giving up her pursuit soon after.
Kraemer said that she called the 108 Precinct and 311 to notify of them of the scam but no one pursued her case.
However, she said her goal is to get the word out that the scam is taking place in the neighborhood. She said that she knows people who have paid these men money for fake mechanical work.
Featured Events
27 Comments
This happened to me on Queens Boulevard near Play. I fell for it then realized I could get my car towed and have it fixed. He told me that it would cost too much and he could do it for a lot less. Something like engine block pins were missing. I wanted to tow the car to Koeppel (bc I have a Subaru) Koeppel told me I was scammed and said if I wanted to, I could just bring the car in. They were nice and checked it. The scam artists “warned” me that I shouldn’t drive it. Well, the dealership checked it out and I felt like crap. I called the District Attorney’s Office fraud unit (or economic crimes) and have not heard back from them. I also called Assemblyman Moya. I never heard back from them. This stuff has been going on for at least two years. If you google it you will find an article from 2 years ago. The same schtick. The con artists are making a ton of money. The “mechanic” for some reason pulled out a large wad of cash. It was all so bizarre.
Well Sarah. Sorry you got screwed.
But would too mind telling us what natonalirt these two crooks are ? Me Murray didn’t mention the race of the crooks and neither did the victim.
People need to Stop being so politically correct.
Good on you granny.
Bad on you 311 and the Cops.
The cops are lazy and corrupt.
Shit like this happens coz
we ain’t über Rich Upper East of Manhhattan or it’s not PC to lock up these Mexicans.
I have a similar Situatom here at 39-30 59th street and there is a couple of old sisters, the Giraldo family in apt E10 that pulled a long gun on me and my wife and this is after
Lilyan Giraldo
Spat at my wife and had manually turned off our bathroom water supply, as she and her sissy have done on a Daily basis
At will for the past 10 months from their fucking apt e10!!
And finally the Super Juffery Kolenovic fixed the problem.
Finally!!
After 6 years of bad interrupted water supply in this slumlord Harry D. Silverstein owned property.
That’s a criminal act and we will be telling the Queens Civil court judge on mo day about these criminal couple of old ladies who pulled the long Rifle on us on July 15th 2016 at 918am.
According to Nystate law pulling a gun on someone and saying they wanted to kill one in NYc and state is called Memacing and this old 64 year old woman
Should be arrested and put in jail.
And every time the cops shows up she asks for Spanish speaking cops and
They never arrest her or her younger sister Maria who is just as crazy and low life.
This is the kind of people that Woodside and queens doesn’t need and
I think the cops need to their jobs and lock these criminals up.
Harry Silverstein is the worst slumlord in queens and second worst in NYC
And this is the type of garbage he allows into his Apts
Shame on you Lilyan And Maria Giraldo
Shame on you Harry D Silverstein
Shame on you Nypd
Lock up these car Hustlers and these crazy Giraldo family and crooked Harry and Eric Silverstein
Woodside and Sunnyside and NYC will be for the better!
Guardian angel told me the same. I said my guardian angel is the gun in my pocket. He cursed me out and said I’m no good white trash. oh well at least he didn’t fool me, he’s a bastardo.
Fuck them. Well at least Donald’s trumps wall will keep the busturds out once these aliens get deported.
My friend had a scam similar in nature occur. This roadside mechanic said he could pull out the dent in my friends fender for $85 and he actually made it worse. When my friend complained they didn’t do anything they started harassing him and ran off.
I hope someone they pull over has a baseball bat in the car and knocks one out. These people should be ashamed of themselves and the police also for not taking any measures to pursue and protect us
The neighborhood is dangerous for old people in the neighborhood. They drive rickety cars along Queens Boulevard because the infrastructure is so weak : if they were able take the 7 train without fear of overcrowding it would be easier for them to have their oxygen tanks refilled at gas stations.
These people deserve jail. No love or redemption for them.
The same exact thing happened to me over a year ago . They demanded that I pay them because “my guardian angel ” had to call his “boss” to let them know he was doing a roadside job or otherwise he would be fired. His boss demanded $ 350. I realized I was being scammed and pretended I couldn’t hear his boss on the phone and had the “boss” call me back on my personal cell …and therefore I was able to capture his phone number. This was the only evidence I had when I went to the 108 precinct and reported it. It was not enough and they were completely uninterested in the information. On the way home I spotted my “guardian angel ” right out there on Queens Blvd and 65st. This scam has been reported in other local papers since then. For me – I was suspicious of them right from the start but I was cornered in my car with the hood up unable to drive away. Once I had the cell number he took off. If the police had followed up – the person now reporting this probably would not have been victimized.
How can I print these comments? Nothing I try seems to work.
The 108th precinct is a joke. So is 311.
Unless there is gunfire or armed robbery, they don’t care.
What’s with the photo? It’s misleading and has no relation to the story.
The police are not doing their job. Who gets fired?
Good for her! Something similar happened to my friend. We were going to Best Buy and a man in the parking lot said her car was smoking. She was unnerved but I didn’t see or smell anything and said ignore him. When we left the parking lot, there was another man in front of Best Buy who waver her over and said the car was smoking, he would take a look at it. I said let’s go to the Honda dealer. We did. There was nothing wrong. When we went back to Best Buy, they were gone.
“Kraemer said that she called the 108 Precinct and 311 to notify of them of the scam but no one pursued her case.”
This was at a precinct meeting. What was the precinct’s response to why they didn’t pursue the case? You know, the part that might actually qualify as news?
Way to go…but why didn’t cops follow-up? I mean she had the license number and all!❤
of course nobody pursued her case. she didn’t have donuts!
Yeah I wuz robbed by my Guardian and 5 black and Spanish HRA workers on April 6th 2016
and the Cops refused to take a report also.
Seems like our local precinct are crooks.
Thank you Ms Kraemer. If you could, please let us know a description of the scammy car. People can be pretty evil, and we’ve all got to look out for each other when we can.
this womans a hero
She should be given a Gold medal by City hall. Oh no wait that would. Of be PC!
She’s a poor old white lady and these are 2 illegal Mexicans crooks.
Of course the mayor deblusio would care more about the crooks!!
I think Prediemt trump should hear about this!!
Why didn’t anyone pay attention to her tip? She has the license plate!
Because they’re too busy getting Butcher Block for lunch.
Hey stop being so racist!
So many uselesslly lazy and corrupt cops at the precinct. It’s ridiculous.
Call IAB and CCRB.
They should not be trying to hold down the crime stats.
This is a city wide prob that the cops are trying to keep crime stats down to make crooked deboadio look better
Damn cool story! I want this woman run against Nolan
She is a lot smarter than Nolan
Get um granny!