Scam call puts local mother in the hospital, she’s now recovering from open-heart surgery
Marina Garcia
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Scam calls are becoming more and more common, but a Colorado Springs mother almost lost her life when the scammer targeted her child.
On February 18, Rosa Henry was at work when she got a phone call from an unknown number.
It was her daughter’s voice, and she was crying, saying that she had been in a car accident and a man was with her.
“He said, your daughter got into a car accident. She hit the back of my truck, and I do not need any police around me at this time. And your daughter already made the mistake of calling the police when she hit me. He said, that’s why she’s in my truck now,” says Henry.
The man then began making demands of Henry, saying that if she didn’t listen, her daughter would suffer for it.
He asked Rosa to drive to Walmart and then the bank to pull out money, but she wasn’t moving fast enough for him.
“He got so mad, and he was saying that my daughter was going to be raped. And she’s screaming in the background, crying for her life,” says Rosa Henry.
Henry then told the man that if he wanted money, he would have to call her husband, which he did. While on the phone with him, her husband, Reggie Henry, decided to hang up on the man and call their daughter directly.
“When I called her number, she answered right away, and she was okay,” says Reggie Henry.
Still shaken up by the experience, Rosa left work after the call and made her way back home to her husband, and that’s when she collapsed.
“I met her out in the yard, gave her a hug, and brought her in. She kept on grabbing her chest, saying, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe. Something’s wrong. Something in my chest. Something’s wrong,” says Reggie Henry.
She was rushed to the hospital, and in moments, Reggie was informed that Rosa needed open-heart surgery.
“Due to the stress of the phone call, her blood pressure spiked so high it tore her aorta in her heart,” says Reggie.
Now, the family is spreading awareness so other families don’t fall victim to these calls.
“When there’s emergency situations, come up with a safe word for your family. That could have prevented all of this,” warn their daughters, Sarah Hardy and Erica Donelson.
The family has reported the incident to the FBI’s scam tip line, and if you or a loved one find yourself in a similar situation, you too can file a complaint here.