Employees of the upscale clothing retailer Fred Segal were duped by scam artists who claimed they needed jewelry immediately for use by diva Mariah Carey.
A male who identified himself as Michael called the Santa Monica Fred Segal store, claiming to be employed by Nick Cannon and authorized to secure some bling to be worn by Mariah to an unspecified event.
The fake employee setup a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. The upscale clothier dispatched an unnamed female store employee, merchandise in hand, to hook up with Cannon’s guy.
In the hotel lobby she spoke with a man dressed in a security guard uniform who indicated he would deliver the jewels to Cannon’s room for his approval and would then return with cash for items chosen. As you probably have already figured out, he promptly beat feet out a side door and the store employee called police to report the caper.
She told an LAPD officer that the con artist made off with thousands of dollars in jewels and never returned. An investigation in underway.
The news comes just days after Mariah Carey revealed that she “hated” her season of judging ‘American Idol.” She likened it to “getting up every day and going to work in Hell with Satan.”
Photo Credit: Revolutionpix-WENN, Facebook-Fred Segal Nina Collection