MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Authorities in Martin County are asking for the public\u2019s help in locating a woman accused of orchestrating a sophisticated jury duty scam that cost a local man tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
According to the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office, 31-year-old Kenique Bellamy posed as a sheriff\u2019s office employee and convinced her victim that he had missed federal jury duty. She claimed a warrant had been issued for his arrest and pressured him to pay supposed \u201cfederal fines\u201d to avoid being taken into custody.<\/p>\n
See Also: Authorities fear more victims for coach accused of lewd acts against student<\/a><\/p>\n Investigators say Bellamy used fear and manipulation to get the man to deposit $23,600 into a Bitcoin ATM\u2014a method increasingly favored by scammers for its anonymity and difficulty to trace.<\/p>\n Local residents expressed shock and concern over the scam.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s shocking, you know,\u201d said John Hunter, a Martin County resident. \u201cI\u2019m sure it happens every day to people, and you really got to double-check these phone numbers that people are calling you from.\u201d<\/p>\n Garrette Stevens, another resident, added, \u201cWell, that sounds frightening and crazy. People need to be on the alert.\u201d<\/p>\n Natalie Swenson shared her own experience with scams: \u201cThat\u2019s terrifying. I get targeted for E-ZPass up in New York, which I haven\u2019t lived in for decades. So it\u2019s no surprise that people are getting creative with how they\u2019re trying to accrue money out of innocent victims.\u201d<\/p>\n After reviewing transaction records and digital evidence, investigators identified Bellamy and have issued a warrant for her arrest. However, her current whereabouts remain unknown.<\/p>\n Authorities are urging anyone who recognizes Bellamy or knows where she might be to contact the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office, their local law enforcement agency. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-TIPS.<\/p>\n Find more ways to stay up to date with your latest local news. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a> to get the day’s top headlines delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a> for the biggest stories and can’t miss video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Authorities in Martin County are asking for the public\u2019s help in locating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-21730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}