Maplewood Business Scammed

A scam hit a Maplewood business on Saturday afternoon.

A man walked into and asked for $20 in cash in exchange for four rolls of dimes. Owner Brian Pelletier made the trade. The problem was that the roll of coins had a dime on each end but was filled with pennies inside.

The con said he was making a delivery for and was paid in rolls of dimes, but he needed a $5 bill to give someone change.

“I thought it sounded sketchy, but looked at one of the rolls and saw the dime on the end and didn’t think much of it,” Pelletier said in an e-mail to members of the Maplewood Chamber of Commerce. “Plus I had customers waiting behind him.”

Pelletier described the suspect as standing 6-foot-2, in his early 20s, with blonde curly hair and recent scars on his forehead.

It's a scam that has hit other businesses just outside of Maplewood, said Sgt. Matt Nighbor of the . Police believe multiple suspects are scamming businesses.

“There’s more than one of these stories coming out,” Nighbor said. “It looks like it’s a different group of people doing this.”

Nighbor wants area businesses to be aware of the scam going around.