A valiant act, filled with a sense of resourcefulness and morality. This is how the Ministry of Interior - Razgrad describes the actions of two men who saved an 88-year-old woman from Isperih from handing over her savings - 23,000 leva to telephone scammers.
Nedret Nuri and Herzin Memish are drinking coffee when a woman arrives, accompanied by a man in a car, and asks for an address in Isperih. However, the address cannot be easily explained and the two decide to take the strangers to the place.
"We were drinking coffee, we were leaving and a woman came, asked us for the address and I decided to take them there and I saw the old woman with the money, waiting outside and I took her inside the yard of the house. I just got suspicious because she was restless", said Nedret Nuri.
"A difficult address and we decided to take them straight to the place. We took them there and when we got to the address, we saw the woman outside with a bag and asked her for the address number. She said it was her, number 1. And she literally gave us the money straight away. And we realized it was some kind of scam", said Herzin Memish.
I shouted, go inside. And she went inside, I took her inside, in other words, I pushed her inside. She started to give me the money. And then I realized it was a scam," says Nuri.
"BNT: And what happened to the people in the back car who were actually looking for the woman to take her money?
- Nothing. She, only the woman got out, the husband stayed in the car. Right - "what are you doing here?", they said they were for some kind of aid, but then, the matter was clear and we said - "What kind of aid? She, the woman is holding, right, a bag of money". And while we're talking, the police reacted very quickly and arrived at the scene," added Nuri.
Nedret Nuri called the police immediately after taking the grandmother into the yard.
"Thanks to the boys who were next to me, their intelligence and morality signaled us immediately and literally seconds separated us from the grandmother, the woman, giving her the money,", emphasized Chief Inspector Konstantin Kostov.
"Upon the arrival of the colleagues at the scene and the conversation with the 88-year-old victim of telephone fraud, it became clear that earlier in the day she received a call on her landline again from an unknown person, who presented himself as a doctor from the city of Burgas and informed her that her daughter had suffered an electric shock accident, had burned her pupils and needed a huge amount of money to have a chance of regaining her sight. Unfortunately, once again the elderly woman believed this call, collected the large sum of money and waited in front of the entrance gate to hand it over," explained Chief Inspector Kostov.
The telephone scammers - the man and the woman - were detained for 24 hours, with the man having been repeatedly convicted of criminal acts. Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated.
An hour before the incident with the elderly woman, Nedret Nuri and Herzin Memish found a wallet with money, documents and bank cards. They handed him over to the police.
For their good deeds, the two were awarded by the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior-Razgrad.
"On behalf of the leadership of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior-Razgrad, represented by Senior Commissioner Diyan Simeonov, I would like to give each of the boys a congratulatory address and thank them for their brave act", said Chief Inspector Kostov.
"All our energy is directed towards showing the public that we are at their service, at their aid and support when they need it, and not to see us as such a repressive body. We are all really working for this and I hope that more and more such citizens will cooperate with us, as we do with them. That is the goal", said Chief Inspector Kostov.