Florida Man Scammer Victor Blanco Arrested Months After Stealing $67,000 Swiss Watch, Ahh Privalage | August 14
Boca Raton: Florida Man scammer Victor Blanco was arrested and charged after he used a bad check to buy a watch valued at over $67,000.
According to the store owner Vladislav Yampolsky ECJ Luxe Collection is the only authorized retailer in the region for the Audemars Piguet watch. It’s a Swiss-made timepiece described as one of the finest in the world.
He said that, on Oct. 21, 2017, Blanco came in to buy the watch. The price: $67,410. Yampolsky told Blanco he doesn’t take personal checks. But, he said, Blanco mentioned names the owner knew and offered to call them as references.
Blanco was allegedly in contact with the store owner for a month before he came in to “buy” it.
“I had my guard up. I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he said. But, he said, “The names he mentioned, I know very well. He mentioned some things only those people would know.” He described those people as “well-known socialites from Miami and the New York area.”
Blanco stayed in the store an hour before finally writing the check and another hour afterward, telling Yampolsky about, among other things, an autistic child for whom Yampolsky ended up giving Blanco trinkets, and about a girlfriend who had died. And he said he wanted to upgrade a ring his wife had.
For several days following the sale, Yampolsky said, he continued to correspond with Blanco, who told him he was bringing his wife to the store to look at diamonds for her ring.
Then, suddenly, texts did not go through. It was then, the owner said, that he started fearing he’d been ripped off. He said he and his manager learned from a blog website that Blanco had a history of alleged scams.
Over the next several months, Boca Raton police subpoenaed documents from banks and vendors. The California license turned out to be valid. But a telephone number listed for Blanco was found to be disconnected. And a Miami police officer went to his last known address but found the apartment belonged to someone else.
Police were finally able to catch up with the man.
Victor Blanco was arrested and charged with larceny between $20,000 and $100,000. He remained in jail Tuesday with his bail set at $50,000.
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