KOSSUTH COUNTY – Authorities in Kossuth county now have a pair of Florida men in custody they suspect hatched a “grandparent scam” first by softening up their prey over the phone and then visiting the victim in person to retrieve $10,000 in bond money to free a jailed kid.
NIT earlier reported that on February 24, 2025, the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office took a report of a subject from the Burt area that was the victim of a scam. The Sheriff’s Office and Algona police department put out information regarding a grandparent scam where the victim is told over the phone that a grandchild is in some type of trouble and needs bond money to be released from jail. The caller then scams the victim into believing that the only way they can help their grandchild is by paying a cash bond to a bondsman that will stop by the victims house to collect the money.
In the Burt case, the victim was told a bond amount of $10,000 was needed. A person came to the residence and collected the cash. Deputies collected video evidence and statements and worked with other local and state agencies in Iowa, as this scam was occurring in counties throughout the state, according to the Kossuth county sheriff’s office.
With assistance from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Kossuth deputies were able to secure GPS tracking warrants on two suspects in the Burt case.
On February 27, 2025, Kossuth deputies tracked one of the suspects to a motel in Humboldt, Iowa. With assistance from Humboldt County police and the sheriff’s office, two suspects from Florida were identified:
– 33-year-old Eddie Benitez Abreus of Miami, Florida was arrested on a charge of C felony first-degree theft. He has been in custody at the Kossuth County Jail.
– A warrant was also issued for 29-year-old Carlos Garrido Guzman of Homestead, Florida on a charge of C felony first-degree theft. Guzman was not immediately located.
The Kossuth county sherif’s office now says that Guzman was located on April 11 in Homestead, Florida, and extradited back to Iowa on April 16. They say the pair has undertaken other scams and they are held on warrants connected to those cases, as well.
