A St. Petersburg taxi driver unwittingly became a witness in a telephone fraud case after unknowingly delivering 50,000 euros to a scammer. Vasily, a part-time driver, accepted a delivery order and transported packages from an elderly woman to a man he met on Priozerskoye Highway.

The next day, an investigator contacted Vasily, revealing that the packages contained a substantial amount of cash extorted from the woman by phone scammers. They had convinced her that the money needed to be “declared.” Vasily was traced through his car’s license plate, which was captured on surveillance cameras.

Vasily recalled that the woman who handed him the packages at Grazhdansky Prospekt seemed calm but asked specifically where he would place the items in his car, a possible indication of the contents’ value. At the destination, a young man wearing sunglasses collected the delivery and then disappeared behind the building.

The investigator possesses video recordings that show the recipient of the packages running with the money through the area and into the private sector, which is hoped to help with identifying and apprehending the suspect. Vasily will be required to identify the suspect once they are apprehended. He expressed regret for not questioning the woman more thoroughly but acknowledged that she likely would not have revealed the truth to a stranger.

Vasily reflected on his own experiences with phone scammers and his wife’s unfortunate encounter with a marketplace scam, where she lost a significant amount of money. He said that in the future he will be more cautious with similar deliveries.