I-Team: Fake gold 'perfect crime' outdone by perfect hunch
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- Опубліковано 23 чер 2021
- By Randy Travis
Published July 14, 2020
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - You could call it the perfect crime. One of its victims still does.
“It’s something that’s hard to see coming because it is the perfect crime,” insisted Kevin Elrod.
How perfect? The kind of crime where the victim doesn’t realize they’ve been scammed until they’ve wound up destroying all the evidence.
But a criminal ring involving fake gold was finally exposed thanks, largely, to a funny feeling.
Elrod manages Peachtree City Pawn.
Peachtree City Pawn manager Kevin Elrod says he found it odd that one of the men would put the cash in two different pockets. That's when he decided to x-ray the gold jewelry he had just bought.
Last month two men walked in to ask about pawning some gold jewelry. Elrod said he weighed the pieces and checked them with an acid test. They came back genuine, so he paid cash with the agreement that if the customers didn’t return to buy back the gold in 40 days, he’d keep it and have it melted down.
“Everything was fine,” said Elrod. “The gold checked out.”
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But when one of the men returned a few days later to pawn more gold, Elrod noticed him separating the money and putting a certain amount in both pockets. That made him suspicious. So he decided to have the gold X-rayed.
“It was the best fake I’ve ever seen,” he said. The jewelry was only gold-plated, manufactured not for costume jewelry, police said, but to trick small businesses into paying large amounts of cash.
"It was the best fake I've ever seen," said pawn manager Elrod.
Elrod’s shop was out $7,000. G&L Pawn in Fayette County lost $12,300 from the same scam run, authorities say, from New York to Miami by a group of men from the Dominican Republic.
What makes the crime perfect is what happens to the evidence. It disappears.
A pawn shop typically bags up all the gold it collects in a month and ships it off together to a refinery to be melted down. They don’t find out they’ve been ripped off until the refinery reports back how much gold they actually had. And by then, the evidence is destroyed, leaving the shop with no way of knowing which piece of gold was the fake stuff.
“There’s just no way to find out until it’s really too late,” explained investigator Stanley Horton of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
Fake gold crime ring bust
The FOX 5 I-Team looks into how a fake gold ‘perfect crime’ was outdone by the perfect hunch.
Peachtree City police seized the fake gold left behind at Peachtree City Pawn. Gold bracelets, pendants, and rings, some even weathered to make it look as if they were decades old.
“It looks just like jewelry you’d find in your grandmother’s jewelry box,” Peachtree City police detective Steven Stoyell pointed out. “This gold is excellent quality fakes.”
Fayette County deputies found Eliezer Paniagua hiding in the backseat of his car. They say they recovered thousands of dollars and multiple fake IDs.
Thanks to Elrod’s gut feeling, the other pawn shop was on alert should the fake gold sellers return.
On June 15, they did. The pawn shop owner hit his panic button when one of the Dominicans walked inside. Within minutes, Fayette County deputies converged to meet him as he walked to his car.
They found another man hiding in the back seat of the BMW parked nearby.
Felix Corporan-Nina, 37, and Eleizer Paniagua, 28, are being held without bond, charged with multiple counts of theft by deception, financial identity fraud, and manufacturing false IDs.
“We feel fortunate that we had that gut feeling at the time because the fake gold was really good,” admitted Elrod. “And we were going to continue to buy it.”
The perfect crime, only to be outdone by the perfect hunch.
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Most shocking part of this story to me is they are being held without bond but you can murder someone and get bond?
Life is worthless
Not even trying to be rude but they could be illegally here that’s why their detained
Only if you're rich.
Flight risk back to DR.
And if you're in California you pretty much get off scott free. The only ones who suffer are the victims. There is no justice there, thanks to the liberal Democrats.
Those mug shots though. One looks like he was in the same waiting room as Beetlejuice.
I read your comment before seeing the mugshot & I wasn’t expecting it to be so perfect. 😂
With the small head 😆 lmao
Anyone who gets that joke is good in my book
Was thinking the same thing
With a head like that he only can think of "SMALL CRIMES"😂😂😂
In the hood in Los Angeles the jewelers cut the pieces and test the middle before you get paid they been doing that way for years.
Same way down here, you can't pull that crap and get away with it...
@Scotty secretly loves Chryslersthey do a normal test first then if that passes they give you a price with the disclaimer if you agree they cut it and do second test
@Scotty secretly loves Chryslers These transactions are at spot gold pricing, by the gram so if it tests out the parties already know the value...as long as it's gold and not shyte as these 2 bone heads are passing off
I would whoop LA over the head they not cutting nothing if you pawning lmao
Damn
The con got old, and they got greedy. Typical.
All they had to do was change location. If they would have went west into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.. they could've had a good run through the summer at least. You can run the same game, just have to play as the visitors always never establish a home turf... keep it moving. And dont run your game where you actually live. Then they were in Luxury SUV... and dressed like kids. Get a work truck, dress like construction/ landscaper. Trade some gold for tools/cash. Use the truck & tools to start a business... whatever your game is, it's not going to last forever. So at least get something legit going off your hustle.
@@006ahenry solid plan, they are not smart enough to think about something like this though.
Lol. a Pawnshop complaining about being scammed???😂😂😂 thats a first for me... Its usually the other way around...
shoe,s on the other foot,,,,, no fair !! We need more immigration also.
your not getting scammed if you agree with the price, if you let someone lowball you thats your own fault
You need to find a legit Pawn Shop or learn the ropes.
Wouldn't be surprised if the Refiners scammed the Pawn Shop as well by claiming some of the real gold was fake.
Good point. They WILL do that.
Yeah domt know why they didnt have an xray to begin woth
Great point!
THE REFINERIES AROUND WERE I LIVE ARE ALL ASIAN. HMMMMMMMMMMM.
@@grantlong6586 they did the acid test they said it was pretty good fakes
The old saying rings true.. everything that glitters ain't gold
where are they getting this "perfect" fake gold? That's the real question.
You can buy fake gold, silver and platinum bullion on eBay. As with everything, it’s probably made in China.
Philosophers stone? 😳
How is it passing the gold test is what i want to know. People been having fake gold for years. Whats the difference in the gold now is what they didn't tell us.
@@mcook-69don I think the real story is the gold buyers weren’t testing it properly. You can’t just do an acid test and assume it’s gold all the way through. They needed to test the metal density. That sounds complicated but it only requires a cup of water and a scale. Instructions are on UA-cam.
@@darrenstettner5381 density by itself doesn't tell much either. Its possible to replicate gold's density with fakes.
If they had a Niton XL. It’s a device with a trigger that uses a little radiation to give a breakdown of all metal compounds it the jewelry.
Only on the surface, not what is under that layer.
@@apburner1 the Niton LX uses a built in radioactive device that scans from surface through the inspected part. it will show a display of every alloy compound and the percentage of it contains. If the surface was 1/4” thick 24K and the rest was lead it will show it’s lead content
@@Impopeye it is an x-ray source, it has some penetration depth around 100 micron, it does not check the whole thing. Only way to do that would be neutrons, like NAA.
What did they steal? Felony theft wtf. If a pawn shop sold me a gold watch and then I found out it was fake. They wouldn't give me my money back they would say tough luck.
Not if you had some type of receipt claiming it was a gold watch, then you could prove it wasn't. Then you would have legal recourse. Cool victim mentality you live with though.
@@brownehawk7744 You would have to spend money and time going to court, they wont just give you the money back 90% of the time. and 80% of that time, the money is not really worth it but you still got screwed.
@@brownehawk7744 I can tell you have never walked into a pawn shop in your life
@@OnceShy_TwiceBitten Yes, but when you win your case you also win the fines and costs that you had to pay in the beginning. The loser has to pay ALL court fines.
@@jaywholoveseveryone1721 do they pay your time back ? Stfu
1:02 Soooo, it's June 24, 2021 and we can't take our mask off to do a news story?....
So annoying. I was thinking the same thing.
You can. He doesn't seem to want to. That is really all you have to add to life? LOL!!
His choice to wear his mask. Maybe he isn't vaccinated plus he is an older man, and no telling what health issues he already has.
@@choosey87 older man not vaccinated? Working as a news reporter? GTFOH This is theater and virtue signaling.
@@sandiasurfers3174 I'm a Registered Nurse and work directly with COVID patients ; I'm not vaccinated, and wear a mask in public, so you can GTFOH. All about preference and comfort level, besides if it isn't directly effectiving you, then why do you care 🤔?
I struggle to get a real ID without an address.
Criminals hold my beer.
Get a regular ID, and be done with it! If you don't have an address wtf do you need a real ID for!!??? I'm sure you won't be traveling and vacationing any time soon!🤔🤦🏿♂️🤷🏿♂️
@@rhuttrho88 Loser logic.
@@rhuttrho88 Thanks for the advice.
Not everyone is as fortunate as you.
Same Sean. I was born in an Amish community and never joined the church. I moved away when I was 18 and now at 20 I still have no ID, no SSN, nothing. You don’t get any of that until you join the church. So here I am 20 doing oddjobs because I can’t get an ID no matter how hard I try
He should have grabbed one of those guns behind him there, and told that guy to take his fake gold on his way out.
Shoulda woulda coulda
Do you we really want to encourage criminals to be more violent?
@@Kollin011 lol
Not worth it. I'd rather let the police handle it.
@Ford Perfect is your name a typo? the guy in hitchikers guide is named Ford Prefect
Wow, the fake jewelry even fooled the standard acid test 😯
stereo types are earned
Doesn’t seem like they want to change the stereotypes either.
Stereotypes are on you not other people... you're stupid and want to group people that's on you
It was obviously real gold on the the surface, otherwise it wouldn’t pass the acid test. But that’s not unusual. What exactly was different about the gold jewelry?
Bruh why the guy in the left mugshot head so small lmao 🤣🤣🤣😂😂
Pea brain.
Ok I'm confused 😕 if the fake gold that good what's is it made from?
Facts. I wanna know...
if it is bad fake cold it is copper / lead, if it is really good, it is Tungsten.
@@gene9230yeah a good fake will have a tungsten base or core and then be plated heavily or even wrapped in 14k-18k so it can pass most tests. I have even seen a pamp suisse 100g bar that was gold wrapped but had a tungsten core. The single best way to test gold is to check the volume displacement. Since gold has a higher density then the fake metals they hide under it you can see what the weight is and then how much volume of water it displaces. There is a bit of math involved but it is quite easy.
So the pawn ship got ripped off for once? Good!
The pawn ship? 😂
🤣
I'm like how is this a crime?
@@goqwertygo if the pawn shop buys the item then isn't the purchase final?? Haha 😂 you think they'd check super carefully.. bet they will next time
@@goqwertygo It's a crime because it is fraud. Depending on the value of that fraud it can be a crime.
Wow this is amazing I wonder how they managed to make that fake gold seriously that’s shocking
Since they discovered it via x-ray I'm going to guess it was tungsten cores at first.
After further reflection the tungsten would not melt when the rest of the gold did so that's out.
I don't know if tungsten and Lead alloy together, so I'm going to guess, some form of what they called Nordic gold with a high lead content in the center, somehow cast with gold around it. Most pawn shops do a little acid test where they rub a non-visible piece of the ring on a little Stone and then put a test Solution on it and if it turns color it's green and depending on the shade they can kind of tell the karat.
Pretty sophisticated scam if that's how they did it. Not necessarily sophisticated but at least some talented individuals making the fake stuff
Good. Swindlers robbed by heisters.
If he "had a gut feeling" then why would he still buy the gold?
When I went and sold my 5oz bars they x-rayed it before they paid me...
You sold your bars to a pawn shop!?
Anywhere but a pawnshop next time. There's plenty of places that will give you more money for your gold.
Rule # 1 , NEVER return to the scene of the crime. 😳😳😳
im just wondering why come back when you know they will find out eventually from the refinery?
These guys or girls are highly motivated and intelligent. If they could just put the same effort into something constructive the world would be a better place
Like good paying jobs that paid living wages so people could be financially self sufficient it's crazy but it just might work
Just because I'm pawning or selling you an item at a pawnshop doesn't mean it has to be authentic. I simply asked you how much I can get for it.
That is not quite accurate. They had criminal fraud intent. Think of it as intentionally selling something you know is stolen versus selling something your uncle gave you that he did not know was stolen, therefore neither did you. Intent makes crimes crimes.
That guys head to body ratio was crazy
It's happening out here in Phoenix,AZ thick rings stamped 18K being sold at gas stations by people saying their from out of state and need gas money. People have been bringing these to the shop I work at for months but never tests correctly so easy pass. (My opinion) testing 10k with 10k & 14k make sure the 14k devolves, same with 14k &18k. (Also gold plated over silver will turn baby blue color with 18K acid on scratch test.)
Lesson to criminals: “here’s a great tip”….
But how did it pass the acid test that's I want to know
Heavy heavy heavy gold plate!!! Maybe a gram of gold on each piece!!! Its like bonded gold!! That's why I cut out shavings deep in to each piece! You would be suprised what people try to sell lol.
These two will probably end up getting an award from the Biden Administration.
Nah you're just racist.
@@SiikPros well he is racist iam too
Full scholarships
They are heros!!
Spoken like a true racist
yup the usual suspects never turn your back on trusting noids....
Randy drop the mask. You are MORE than six feet away and IT'S OVER.
Shut up let him wear the damn mask why are you telling people what to do?
@John Jenkins wtf are you talking about? You’re not “fighting” the system for not wearing a mask. Lol you just look like a child having a tantrum
Wonderful diversity! It is our strength!
Liberals have been indoctrinating people with that concept for over 20 years. What an absolute crock.
When you get ripped off by the people you were trying to rip off.
When buying/selling gold- it's priced (X $ for 1g) accordingly to the current value on the stock market on a specific day. Besides when someone walks into the pawn shop is probably (or at least should be) aware of pricing items with lower amount of cash. They can always sell their stuff on Craigslist or eBay but then they'll have to wait for someone to actually buy that specific item to get the money. In a pawnshop it's just quick money right to your pocket, just a lower amount. If you agree to that price how are they scamming you?
Olympis makes a machine called an XRF machine that can identify the physical makeup of the metal in seconds and show the karat weight to the hundrenth. Any store dealing in gold that doesnt have one of those machines deserves to be ripped off just due to cheaping out on due diligence.
Plausible deniability. They can just rip off the next guy. If they had a machine that could prove what material jt was then they can't say "well that's what they told us it was, how would we know!"
To the reporter: 2020 called, they want their face diaper back.
American telling about American what to do ...
Is his head small?
Been hittin the pipe too hard, shriveled it up like a raisin...
Lmfaooo 😭😭😭
@@chele-chele 🤣🤣🤣
Most stores have a xray type machine that tells what materials are in the item and what percentage of each material. He who allows himself to be deceived, let him: legal maxim
This is open boarders folks... Stop complaining... You voted for this...!
Scan the metals with the analyzer or file deep into the piece and apply the acid directly to the bare metal.
Makes no sense to take those kinds of loses in this day in age b
we just keep importing the best and brightest.
We're so lucky to get all these upstanding citizens👀👀
And obviously non of you are smart enough to understand why but you benift non the less.
@@williambrandondavis6897 i am not a police detective so whats the benes then ?
This happens every year where we are at.
It is about a 2 month span when folks bring it in then its quite for a few months.. rinse, wash, repeat.
We do try to bring awareness to it!
Just never buy gold in a parking lot!
Imagine .....
- The Pawn Shop FINALLY getting screwed
Was it extra plated how did it pass the acid test
pawn shops being ripped off ? Karma
No honor among thieves. Sad.
Gee...what a shocker...
Why is it a crime ? they sold to a pawn shop, its the responsibility of the pawn shop to check and trade.
You can't be that dumb...
So they did what the pawn shop does. Rip people off 😂.
And just how are they ripping people off?
@@bobroberts2371 Well bob, obviously you have never used a pawn shop before or you work for one. They give you absolute lowest dollar for your items and then sell them just below retail. They also buy stolen goods all the time and then turn around and sell them to people and Guess what??? if you didn’t get the receipt you could be charged with possession of a stolen item! Their pawn interest rates are absurd as well just barely better than even lower scum like check cashing places. I’m surprised they even still exist but that’s because we have multiple low IQ people in our community who rely on them to pawn their family’s stuff for their fix. Is their anything else you would like to know about ??
@@BL4CKSTEEL So your one if the idiots that used one and now can't take responsibility for your self? So you want to blame the pawn shop for YOUR inadequacies and YOUR inability to compete with your peers. Hilarious!
"The pawn shop giveth, the pawn shop taketh away"
How many times do we need to see the same scenario over and over a thousand times regarding crime we all pay for before we start to protect our borders better. No other country has unprotected borders, because they take care of the citizens rather than take care of corporations with cheap labor or consider voting blocks to turn election outcomes.
Americans scam too 😐
Wanna bet that those pawn shops are next door to liquor stores?
I've worked pawn shops and used to the scammers. On gold we did the acid test and then some scammers would ask to hold the piece one more time and I would let them. they would switch it and hand it back to me. I had to test again if the gold left my hand so they were caught.
Until it's too late. Fox 5 from Peach Tree, Im Randy Travis, and I'm going to pass out tried to prevent this camera from getting covid back to you Bob .... splat
Pawnshops dont like scammers, because scammers are competition
Cartel is so happy the Democrats are in control.
yes boomer tell us more with your boomer posting
lol, it's like instant soup just pouring out your mouth with no thought.
💯💯💯I was just saying the same thing
Yes the are and the criminals in general
Wow…you’re truly upset Trump didn’t sign an executive order making it legal to marry your sister when he left office, oops I meant lost. Hang in there pal, I feel your frustration.
Did they do a specific gravity test? People have been gold plating cheaper metals forever. It’s hard for them to duplicate the same density as real gold using other metals. Seems like a specific gravity test would have been an easy way to detect the fakes.
Eureka!
Gold alloy can be made from a variety of metals. Unless its 24k, try again.
why can't they combine lead and copper to the proper SG? then thick plating.
@@nextari because lead and copper are too light and bulky. An ounce of copper would be many times larger than an ounce of gold. Even lead is relatively light compared to gold. You can’t use other cheap metals to substitute for the gold because either the size or the weight would be off.
Im not for this at all, but it looks like they identified the criminal as soon as he walked in.
"Oh yeah, he looks suspicious, we'll just say hes acting suspicious even though we didn't catch it last time"
Homie looks like he had a run in with the medicine man and got his head shrunk like betelgeuse.
imagine running a pawnshop without using a sigma metalytics or xray for every precious metal verification. (literally doesnt damage the items either like acid and scratching does)
imagine being a weeb and assuming something about a business
they look so shocked in the photos I bet they didn't even know it was fake lmao
How can you run a pawnshop without having an XRF machine?
How can you fake gold? Electroplate lead?
So how’d they make it look so real? No info on that?
How did it pass the acid gold test? I have a acid gold test kit for the gold I purchase. Now I'm second guessing my gold acid test.
They put a tungsten chain into a cast pour a thick enough layer of real gold over the tungsten so it pass the acid test when scratched
Did you WEIGH the gold and measure its Volume by dropping it into a measuring cup to see how much the water rose? With those two numbers you can determine its density which should tell you if it is truly solid gold and not just gold plated.
why couldn't they combine lead and copper to get the proper weight?
How did the fake gold pass the test procedures?
They should do this in California. The police would arrest the pawn shop owner instead for being racist.
Profiling works.. Case in point
Joggers are the ultimate crime machines .
Says his mammy. Liars.
Joggers going to jog.. It's on their DNA.. Lol
Can I buy them at dollar tree and reselling them on Amazon?!
Right! Does it tarnish ? I’d like to purchase some to wear
Wow it's already up here in upstate
The dude on the left (mugshot) looks like the shrunken-headed Beetlejuice.
How did itbpass
1. These guys are idiots for coming back.
2. Always trust your gut feeling.
There here in San Antonio Texas to
so how did it pass the gold test the pawn shop did they never said?
Because it's not gold all the way through...just scraping a little off the outside and putting the acid on won't work.
@@DragonAurora oh I see ok tx
Dominican Republic. Yep. They got me too. I lost $4,500. However, I caught one! I locked him in my store and called the police. He was terrified! Put an end to them coming to me forever.
Hold on, doesn't this come down to caveat emptor on the part of the pawn shop? They came to you, selling jewelry, and you didn't do your due diligence on the quality and veracity of the seller? That should be a you problem.
Where do I find this fake gold
My guess, it's heavily plated gold on top of some other non-ferrous metal.
So eh how do they make it???
Okay but what I wanna know is how they fooled the pawn shops 😅
Damn where do I find this damn gold
Gonna be hard to hold up in court, pawn shops checked it and said it’s legit, the sellers could have believed the same. Might just have fake Identification charges
doesn't matter to me. They aren't US citizens, using fake IDs, send them home.
@@SoloRenegade uh, you don't run anything
@@pastathemechanic7536 your reading comprehension is terrible.
THE REFINERY IS IN ON THE SCAM. THEY SHOULD MELT THEIR OWN STUFF. DUH!
"Gut feeling" baaaahahahahaha! You have the guy on video, and you know who you bought gold from. It's not too hard to figure it out from there...
How do you make fake gold test positive for genuine?
Glad they caught some of them
How did these men get their hands on this such real looking fake gold ?
Our new multicultural nation is going to be SO great!!
Be alot nicer when your generation is dead.
1:15 👋🏿UMMM WHY DOES COMMRADE HAVE ON A MASK?🤦🏿♂️🙄
And they didn't think this was stolen items? The scammers got scammed. By the way, nice rug on that news dude. That astroturf?
Amazing my uncle (guy on the right) has come back to life
The pride of Santa Domingo
They went back?
Let’s put gold cinder blocks on their feet and let them swim back to the Dominican..
It's not that hard to figure out. Cut it in half (or drill a hole through it) and then test the center to see if it's solid gold.
So it was just gold plated rocks? I blame the pawn shops for not being more careful.
It’s just fake gold that u go get dipped for $100 🤣🤣🤣 they acting like it’s something they not selling us