Uber driver spots scheme while picking up potential victim as passenger
Michael P. Thomas, 61, of Clarkdale, a retired Pennsylvania police officer with the Ross Township Police Department who never stopped looking out for others, accepted a roughly $20 Uber fare to the Village of Oak Creek on the afternoon of May 26 — and ended up foiling a scheme targeting one of his most vulnerable neighbors.
“The victim, who is a … woman in her 90s, received a phone call from an individual claiming to represent a bank,” YCSO posted to social media. “The incoming call displayed a legitimate-looking phone number. The trickster informed the woman that her debit card and personal information had been hacked, stating they had opened an investigation into the compromised accounts. The scammer instructed the victim to maintain confidentiality regarding the situation and prepare to hand her debit cards over to a courier.”
Thomas, pulled up to find the woman with a walker approaching his car, bag in hand, phone to her ear — that’s when his three decades in law enforcement kicked in.
“I left my phone in the car, and I walked over, because I seen she was talking on the phone,” he said. “I asked, ‘Are you talking to somebody? Are they telling you to like give them gift cards or something?’ And she goes, ‘Oh, I’m not allowed to talk about it. It’s confidential.’ And I says, ‘Wait a minute.’ I said, ‘They’re scamming you.’ And she goes to hand me the phone, and I heard what might have been a click, but that was it.”
Thomas walked her inside, where her husband called the bank, which confirmed it had made no such request before informing the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.
Prior to relocating to Clarkdale in October 2022 with his wife to escape Pennsylvania winters, Thomas, a father of two, retired from the Ross Township Police Department after a 32-year career in which he worked as an accident reconstructionist, which is a skill he still puts to work as a volunteer with the Cottonwood Police Department. He also served in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1985, stationed in Europe.
“Officer Thomas was also a field training officer and taught most of the ‘old timers’ here today how to be police officers,” RPD posted to social media on Sept. 30, 2022. “We will miss M.P. greatly but hope he enjoys fishing and kayaking out west.”
“Being a cop helped me spot it … I see that stuff all the time, so it was easy to pick out,” Thomas said. “I just always wanted to be a police officer when I was a little kid. I just … see police as helping people.”
Thomas has been a ride share driver for the last few months, after being told about it from a neighbor.
“I’m doing this part-time just because my health care insurance went way up this past year, and it took a big chunk of my income, and so that’s kind of one of the reasons why I started driving,” Thomas said.
“People [who I drive] are nice,” he said. “It’s a lot of tourists and then I handle a local population of people that just need to get to work or doctor’s appointments and they don’t have means for rides.”
“Angels are everywhere,” the victim said in a YCSO promotional video about the incident.
Courier Scam Prevention Tips
Scammers impersonate bank representatives using spoofed phone numbers, claiming your account or debit card has been compromised to create a false sense of urgency.
Scammers demand secrecy to isolate victims to prevent others from intervening.
Targets are then instructed to gather valuables and wait for a “courier” to collect them in person.
