Today we have a heartwarming story for you, which shows everyone involved going the extra mile to protect the savings of an elderly lady in Skegness. On Saturday 14 December, Joan was contacted by scammers pretending to be from the Barclays Fraud Team. They told her there was an issue with her account and they needed to do some fingerprint checks on her money. They asked her to send £2850 in cash to an address in London. These scammers can be extremely manipulative, persuasive, and insistent, and they prey on the vulnerable. Joan unfortunately believed them and sent the money special delivery. Two days later, Joan felt something wasn’t right and went down to Barclays bank at Skegness and spoke with an advisor there who realised Joan had been scammed and reported the incident to the police. This is where student officer, PC Nicholson comes in. She went to visit Joan, who is in her late 80s and struggles with her memory. Thankfully, Joan had made notes and had a receipt with a tracking number which showed the package was still in transit, somewhere in London. On her way back to the station PC Nicholson passed a post man and explained the situation to him. He referred her to the local Central Operations Manager at Skegness Post Office who, after several calls, tracked down a manager at Mount Pleasant, London. The package was thankfully located and redirected back to Skegness. Some technical paperwork followed due to laws around the interception of mail, but thanks to assistance from our Economic Crime Unit, all was in order and the package was released. Joan was delighted at the safe return of her money and enjoyed her first ever ride in a police car as we drove her into Skegness. Pictured here, PC Nicholson accompanied Joan to the bank to pay the money in. Getting Joan’s money back has been a real team effort and we would like to send a heartfelt thank you to PC Nicholson and all our staff who assisted, as well as those from Barclays Bank and Royal Mail. They saw that what was an awful ordeal for an elderly lady, at least had a happy ending, showing there are good people who will go the extra mile to look after vulnerable members of our community.