Elaine wondered what $12,500 in cash would look like. As she arrived at her Toronto bank to withdraw it, she worried that thick stacks of bills might be too bulky to ship safely in an envelope.She requested the cash at a teller’s window, heart thumping. Funds were moved from her credit card to her personal account for the transaction. A wary bank supervisor asked what the cash was for. Elaine, as she’d been coached, said renovations. The money was actually for her nephew James.An hour earlier, James had phoned Elaine’s east-end home. He was in custody. Crashed a friend’s car, was charged with drunk driving. He sounded scared. James then handed the phone to a lawyer who told Elaine he could likely get the DUI charge dismissed but needed $12,500 in cash to expedite matters; could she assist? Stunned, Elaine agreed to help. Then embarked on a wild 24 hours that saw a sensible, food industry chemist in her 60s veering so far out of character to rescue her nephew, she became both dupe and detective, matching wits with scammers who alternately hustled, harassed and threatened her.It’s a story that also drew in disparate groups as it unfurled: caring neighbours, a concerned boss, anxious family, alert UPS workers, hamstrung police and soulless cons preying on a trusting woman at a vulnerable time.In the bank, Elaine felt anxious. She was supposed to be visiting her 94-year-old mother — alone in her Willowdale home, immobile with a recent back injury — at that very moment. Instead, she was carrying out a stranger’s odd instructions.“You’re so caught up in the emotion of it, you just don’t think straight,” said Elaine, a single woman whom the Star is describing with one of her given names to protect her identity. “So I’m panicking, thinking that my mum is sitting there, with very little to eat, waiting for me to show up.”The bank teller signalled her cash was ready. Elaine, relieved ...
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