Frugal Fam Made Up Human Smuggling Rescue: Documents

The family who said they were trying save three family members from a human trafficking ring made up the story and were actually just trying to save $180, police said.

Cops were called in August to break up a baseball bat brawl among 20 people at the Riverside Commons strip mall in Greenwich but the men involved had left in four vehicles.

Cops embarked on a mission to find the people involved, detained them and heard a rather elaborate tale about a kidnapping, ransom and a possible human smuggling ring.

The men said their family members had been kidnapped in Texas and were being brought to Willimantic for ransom, police said. They had agreed to meet the captors with ransom money, but showed up with baseball bats and rescued the three, police said at the time.

But Hearst Connecticut Newspapers obtained police documents that show authorities later learned that the fight broke out after a driver asked the family for an extra $60 per person to bring the three illegal immigrants to Willimantic.

The three “victims” had actually just entered the United States illegally, Greenwich Time reports, citing an Aug. 12 Greenwich police report.

The family members had made arrangements with “legitimate transportation companies” to bring the people to Connecticut and refused to make the additional payment when the van arrived, the newspaper reports.

The immigrants and the driver have been deported to Mexico and Guatemala.
 

Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut

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