[00:00:03] Brian Johnson: Im driving, I’m speeding down the freeway in a panic.
Im just trying to get to the gymnastics gym.
If they came and kidnapped her, that means they came and grabbed her out of the gym.
I’m sweating, I’m getting emotional.
Its all these emotions, I need to get to my child and figure out what’s going on.
Why this is going on.
And what happened to her 10-year-old daughter and their whole extended family.
[00:01:03] Sheratan Johnson: It was around midmorning, yes.
[00:01:07] Bob: And where were you?
[00:01:08] Sheratan Johnson: I was at home.
I had just come back from running an errand.
[00:01:12] Bob: You probably didn’t recognize the number, right?
[00:01:28] Sheratan Johnson: Absolutely.
This is about a kidnapping, okay?
[00:01:40] Bob: That’s the voice of the criminal who said he had Sheratan’s child.
I asked her to talk me through the phone call.
[00:01:48] Bob: Okay, and what was the first thing that the caller said?
[00:01:50] Sheratan Johnson: They said, “Hello, is this Sheratan Johnson?”
And I said, “Yes, this is she.”
And then he said, “This is about a kidnapping,” and I was just dumbfounded.
I, I wasn’t sure what to say after that, so I stuttered pretty badly.
[00:02:13] Bob: Taken completely by surprise, Sheratan does a quick inventory.
Her three kids are all out of the house, busy.
[00:02:22] Sheratan Johnson: He didn’t announce which one it was.
At that time, all of my children were, you know, not in my home.
And that it had been sitting there for about a day.
And they were wondering if it belonged to any of the parents or anything like that.
[00:03:08] Bob: Like recently?
Like right before this all happened.
[00:03:10] Sheratan Johnson: Right before this happened, yes.
[00:03:12] Bob: Wow.
[00:03:13] Sheratan Johnson: The day before this happened.
[00:03:26] Bob: And right then, she hears a voice that sends her heartrate soaring.
[00:03:30] Sheratan Johnson: It said something like, “Mommy, Mom.”
Because my kids do call me Mommy.
And I thought perhaps maybe it could have been one of them.
I just wasn’t sure.
I was in complete shock.
[00:03:48] Bob: And a moment later, there is a terrible threat.
[00:03:51] Virtual Kidnapper:Pay attention, pay attention.
Do you think it’s necessary for me to cut off one of her body parts?
[00:04:19] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:04:22] Sheratan Johnson: Yeah.
[00:04:24] Bob: So, what do you even say to a think like that?
[00:04:27] Sheratan Johnson: I, I told him, no, sir.
No, he had my attention fully at that moment.
[00:04:33] Bob: The caller says he knows where she is.
And he has demands to make.
[00:04:39] Sheratan Johnson: So he told me to give him my location.
He said he knew where I was, but he wanted my cross streets, and I told him.
He said, you know, “Don’t lie, don’t lie to me.”
And I said, “No, no, I’m not lying to you.
Here are my cross streets.”
But for some reason he said that he knew where I was.
[00:05:16] Virtual Kidnapper:How much money do you have?
[00:05:31] Bob: you’re free to hear in Sheratan’s voice that she’s terrified.
Her heart is beating fast, and she’s thinking fast too.
[00:05:58] Sheratan Johnson: I know that he probably didn’t understand what I was saying.
[00:06:17] Sheratan Johnson: I did.
I think she had me on another phone, and, and, and had him on speaker.
And I was like, “What?”
And I, I’m sitting there trying to, what, what are you talking about?"
[00:07:28] Bob: And did they tell her not to call anyone else?
Like not to call the police, right.
[00:07:33] Brian Johnson: They said, “Don’t call the police.”
[00:07:38] Brian Johnson: I think she muted them for a second.
And that’s why she really couldn’t talk.
[00:07:43] Bob: At this point, Brian calls his mom.
And so I jump in the car, and I’m driving down 35.
At this time I’m not talking to Sheratan.
I’m, I’m just trying to get to the gymnastics gym.
If they came and kidnapped her, that means they came and grabbed her out of the gym.
I mean that was just kinda in my mind.
[00:09:01] Bob: Well then what is your heartrate like?
[00:09:04] Brian Johnson: Oh, my heartrate’s at a thousand.
What, what is going on?
Why this is going on.
[00:09:26] Bob: Meanwhile, Sheratan is driving to the bank as ordered by the criminals.
[00:09:35] Sheratan Johnson: I was very upset, and I was very scared.
[00:09:40] Bob: So he says, okay, okay, go, go where?
Where, where does he send you?
And I went to the bank.
[00:10:44] Bob: And what did he want you to do there?
He gave me information and I deposited money into a specific account, and it went to Mexico.
They know what I’m there for.
[00:11:23] Bob: Oh my God, that sounds just terrifying.
[00:11:27] Sheratan Johnson: Yes.
[00:11:28] Bob: So the money gets to Mexico, but it’s not enough.
The criminal isn’t satisfied.
He starts demanding more cash.
[00:12:02] Bob: So what was your next step?
[00:12:05] Sheratan Johnson: (sigh) It was so bad.
It’s really important, can you help me?"
Sheratan is sure their 10-year-old daughter has been kidnapped.
I don’t know, even know what’s real.
[00:13:13] Bob: Sheratan doesn’t know what’s real.
She’s not even sure it’s really her ex-husband that she’s texting with.
It was so weird because I wasn’t sure if it was him.
[00:13:35] Bob: The phone call makes Brian hit the accelerator even heavier.
I’m like, oh, what’s, that’s weird.
So I knock on the door, ‘cause they keep the doors locked.
I knock on the door, and eventually the coach comes to the gym, comes to the door.
I said, “Is (beep) here?”
She said, “Yeah, (beep)’s here.
You want her?”
I said, “No, no, just, just leave her there.”
[00:14:30] Bob: Maybe that’s one angle.
Maybe Sheratan has been kidnapped.
Or maybe he’s got the story wrong and one of his other kids have been kidnapped.
So he keeps asking questions.
[00:14:40] Brian Johnson: Then I’m thinking, well, what about my other two daughters?
Maybe, maybe, maybe Sheratan’s just thinking of one daughter, and there’s another one.
So my oldest daughter, she worked for American Airlines at a call center.
So I, I called her.
I said, “Is, hey, are you, are you at work?”
I said, “Everything okay?”
She said, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
So I killed two birds with one stone: they’re okay.
So I’m like, okay, alright.
I said, okay, let me just call there.
And she said, “Oh, fine.
I’m sitting here just watching them, they’re both playing.”
So I said, okay.
[00:15:46] Bob: So Brian sits at the gym and waits.
You’re coming over my dead body pop in scenario.
You’re not going to get to her.
[00:16:28] Bob: But then Brian starts to question the whole situation.
Is the kidnapper really about to show up or what if he has the whole thing wrong?
So, Brian hatches a plan worthy of a TV show.
He reaches out to his ex-wife with a message that only she would understand.
She said, “The guy’s on the phone.”
I said, “Okay,” but I still wasn’t confident.
I said, “Meet me at the first house that we, that we purchased.”
This was, uh when we were still married, we, we purchased a house in 2001.
I said, “Meet me at that place.”
[00:17:09] Bob: Here’s how Sheratan remembers that moment.
And I answered, “Yes.”
But I told him, yes.
Go there now."
And I text back, I said, “Why?”
And he said, “Just do it.”
[00:17:53] Bob: Just do it.
Brian tells Sheratan to go to their first home for a rendezvous.
He figures that the best way to decipher what’s really going on.
Sheratan doesn’t really know what to think.
Maybe Brian’s in on it too?
Maybe he’s been kidnapped.
Maybe he’s just confused.
But she decides to take Brian upon his plan.
[00:19:05] Sheratan Johnson: Yes.
[00:19:06] Bob: And, and you got there before he did, right?
[00:19:09] Sheratan Johnson: I did.
Get off the phone now!"
And I was like, “No, no.
They, they have, they have, they have our daughter.”
And then the phone rings again.
And then I proceed to, I was, “Hello?”
I’m so sorry."
And my ex-husband proceeds to tell me, “Get off the phone.”
[00:20:25] Bob: Brian is screaming at her; the criminal is screaming at her.
[00:20:30] Sheratan Johnson: There was a lot of things that were going on.
I heard a lot of background noise.
And I proceed to tell him that my kid is a good kid.
He was still talking.
And just, she’s like, “I don’t know.
I don’t know.”
I says, “Hang up the phone.”
You know I talk with my hands.
So you know, I’m like, “Put the, put the phone down.
[00:21:54] Brian Johnson: Exactly.
[00:21:55] Bob: In fact, Sheratan is basically in shock.
[00:21:58] Brian Johnson: She’s just bawling.
You, you’re fine.
[00:22:36] Sheratan Johnson: I wasn’t sure what to believe.
And I tell Brian, my ex-husband, I said, “I thought you were in the house!
I thought you were in there!
I thought they had you!”
And he says, “No, no.”
He says, “(beep) is okay,” which was our youngest daughter.
[00:22:56] Bob: So how did he convince you that that was true?
[00:22:59] Sheratan Johnson: Because I was not convinced, you’re absolutely right.
I was not convinced at all.
He tells me that he drove there, and she was in her class.
And I was like, “No, she’s, she’s on the phone.”
She’s at this strange place.”
Mom needs to see her daughter in the flesh.
[00:23:33] Sheratan Johnson: And he told me to go home.
“I’m going to go pick her up right away.”
You’ve got to bring her home right now."
And so I went home, and he brought her home.
It was about maybe 30 minutes later, but I was still very concerned at the time.
[00:23:56] Bob: Of course.
And you had to see her, I’m sure.
[00:23:58] Sheratan Johnson: I did.
I, I needed to know that she was okay.
[00:24:03] Bob: She was okay.
There was no kidnapping.
Instead, Sheratan was the victim of what the FBI calls a virtual kidnapping.
The FBI says incidents of virtual kidnapping are soaring, and the agency has issued several warnings about it.
Even a few weeks after the incident, she was still badly shaken.
[00:24:44] Bob: I mean was she visibly upset about it talking to you?
[00:24:45] Lloyd Brumfield: Yes, very much so.
[00:24:49] Bob: Well where did you meet her?
[00:24:50] Lloyd Brumfield: At her home in Lancaster, Texas.
She was very thoughtful, very serious.
What was that like?
[00:25:25] Lloyd Brumfield: It was pretty shocking.
He, he uttered some racial slurs when he wanted her to move quicker.
Or something similar to that.
[00:26:13] Bob: The crime stayed with Sheratan for a long time.
Virtual kidnapping is, it’s, it’s just an insidious crime.
I, I just don’t understand what would make one human being do that to another one.
[00:27:16] Bob: Both Lloyd and the family talked to police about the incident.
They filed a police report, but the criminals were never found.
Go away, she makes me sick, and all this other stuff.
You know, I didn’t want to say a store, ‘cause like what store?
Where is the store?
I didn’t want her to have to keep trying to text back and forth, where?
[00:28:57] Bob: That quick thinking really helped the family limit their losses.
[00:29:00] Bob: In the end, how much money did the criminal take from you?
It was really hard at the same time.
Because I didn’t even see my savings account when I, when I went to the ATM machine.
I didn’t even see it.
[00:29:58] Bob: And she’s still afraid to go to that bank.
[00:30:08] Sheratan Johnson: Yes, absolutely.
Like I said, I don’t even go to that particular bank ATM anymore because of that.
[00:30:30] Bob: What did Sheratan learn from her experience?
And, and for things to be prevented from happening like these.
[00:31:14] Bob: Brian says he learned to be careful with social media.
[00:31:18] Brian Johnson: So you have predators all over the place.
Have small conversations, but never tell them where you live.
I live in Texas, bang out thing.
[00:32:03] Bob: Lloyd was surprised by the impact his story had on readers in Dallas.
Many wrote in with offers of sympathy or donations and a few wrote in with their own scam tales.
[00:32:13] Lloyd Brumfield: This happens more often than you think it might.
And it’s often a very effective way to scam some people out of money.
[00:32:58] Lloyd Brumfield: Absolutely I can understand it.
[00:33:58] Bob: Well I have a podcast they can listen to.
[00:34:00] Lloyd Brumfield: Correct!
(laugh) Very good.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch web link Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
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