Local News in Brief : Westminster : Pair Fail First as Con Artists, Then Kidnapers

Two con artists kidnaped a Santa Ana woman at knifepoint when she caught onto their scam, but released her after someone heard her screams and followed their car, police said.

Dep Thi Sopko, 41, was approached about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 9100 block of Bolsa Avenue by two women in their 30s who said they had found a bag of money and wanted her to help them find the owner, Police Lt. Mike Schliskey said.

“They showed her an envelope with Oriental writing on it and asked her to translate it,” he said. The women told Sopko that the envelope contained cash and that they would divide the money among the three of them if they could each pitch in some cash as “good faith” money.

Sopko gave the women $2,600 in jewelry and a check, but became suspicious when they took her to a nearby Security Pacific Bank on Bolsa Avenue to cash the check.

“They tried to get her to go in to cash another check, but she started questioning them,” Schliskey said. “That’s when they decided to make it an out-and-out robbery and one of them pulled a knife on her.”

Sopko screamed as she was forced into a four-door, brown sedan. Someone in the bank parking lot heard the scream and followed the car. The women noticed they were being followed and pushed Sopko out of the car at Hazard and Ward streets, along with her money and jewelry, Schliskey said. Sopko was not injured.