Elderly couple turns tables on con artists trying to steal Rolex watch
GRAMERCY PARK, Manhattan (WABC) -- An elderly couple is speaking out after they fought back when they were targeted by con artists for their Rolex watch.
Of all the easy marks in all the world, Larry Schwartz, 87, and his wife Joanna Cuccia are not among them.
"You have an attitude? I'll give you an attitude. I was raised on the street," Schwartz said.
The two have been married for decades and are pushing 90.
They found themselves the victims of a con as they walked into a senior center on 23rd Street.
A stranger approached them from behind.
"I'm from Dubai, he said, I need directions, could you give me directions," Cuccia said. "I said welcome to New York, what directions do you need, he said where could I go to find a Walmart. I said there are no Walmarts in Manhattan. He said tell my wife, tell my wife."
His partner, a woman, was in an SUV at the curb.
"She's going like this to me, come come, and she kissed my hands, OK what do you want, I thought she wanted directions or something," Schwartz said.
But she wanted to trade watches - her obvious knockoff Rolex for the real deal on his wrist.
"And she thinks she's got a sucker and she hands me this piece of sh** and I'm looking at it, and that's when a bell went off, I'm saying this is a con, at that point she's grabbing my hand and she's pulling it in the window," Schwartz said.
But Schwartz lifts every day. He used to box and even jumped out of planes in the Air Force.
"The only part of her I could get was her right arm, and I gave her what we used to call a three-quarter turn," Schwartz said. "Her face and head came up against the inside on the top of the car, and she hit that and she fell back, and he's getting behind the wheel and the car starts to move. I'm not stupid, I'm not gonna get dragged. And that's when I let go. And they're off."
He kept the knockoff Rolex and his real one, which was damaged in the scuffle, is now in the shop.
"It's unfortunate because I love New York, all my life I've helped tourists, but I won't do it again," Cuccia said. "I'm not as young as I was and I'm not gonna take that chance anymore and it's a shame."
Now police are investigating if it is all part of a bigger citywide robbery pattern. The NYPD financial crimes unit is investigation.
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