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The Perfect Scam

The Virtual Kidnapping of a Gymnast

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5980 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Sheratan Johnson receives a call from an unknown number, she’s startled to hear the man on the other end of the line claim he’s kidnapped her daughter from gymnastics class. Hearing her daughter’s screams, Sheraton follows all the kidnapper’s demands, and also texts her ex-husband, Brian, who goes into battle mode. Armed and ready to take on the kidnapper, he races across the city to get their daughter back, leading to a dramatic confrontation at a foreclosed house.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This week on The Perfect Scam.

0:03.0

I'm driving, I'm speeding down the freeway in a panic.

0:07.0

I'm just trying to get to the Gymnastics gym.

0:10.0

If they came and kidnapped it, that means they came and grabbed throughout the gym.

0:14.0

I'm sweating, I'm getting emotional. This is all these emotions.

0:17.0

I need to get to my child and figure out what's going on, why this is going on.

0:38.0

Imagine your morning being interrupted by a phone call from someone who says they've kidnapped your daughter and if you don't pay up right away, they're going to start cutting off your child's body parts. Well, today you're going to hear from a mom and a dad who went through that exact torture and you're going to

0:44.8

hear the criminals too because when Sherritt and Johnson got that awful call

0:49.5

she happened to have set up her phone to record all her calls for work.

0:54.4

So here is what that awful phone call sounded like to her.

0:58.2

And what happened to her 10-year-old daughter and their whole extended family.

1:04.0

It was around mid-morning, yes.

1:07.3

And where were you?

1:08.3

I was at home.

1:09.3

I had just come back from running in the errand.

1:12.3

You just probably didn't recognize the number right so I didn't recognize the number but the number stated it was from Singapore. So I was used to having people

1:22.3

Call me from different parts of the world.

1:25.4

So you had to answer because you might have to answer for work, right?

1:29.2

Absolutely.

1:30.6

When she answers the phone, this is what Sheraton hears.

1:34.0

We have your daughter in our van.

1:37.0

We kidnapped her.

...

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