Supervisor stops senior scam at Walgreens

FARMINGTON HILLS — Thanks to the quick thinking of an employee, a dangerous situation was avoided at a local Walgreens.

Cody Moore, a shift supervisor and team leader for the Walgreens at 10 Mile and Orchard Lake roads in Farmington Hills, recently noticed one of his regular customers was getting frequent calls from out of state. He noticed this as her phone was sitting on the counter. 

The out-of-state number was from an unidentified person. The customer was trying to purchase gift cards totaling $500.

“Is this the person you are getting the gift cards for?” Moore asked, since he had never seen her purchase them before. He then decided to intervene. 

“Ma’am, I am not going to sell you these gift cards because you are being scammed,” Moore told her.

The senior citizen was very appreciative and grateful.

Rebecca Ulinski was standing behind the woman in line and posted what happened on social media. She said the woman looked so relieved and was so thankful.

“How it usually works is (scammers) get you once, and they get you over and over again,” Moore said. “They were probably just testing her to see if one (gift card) would go through, and then they would have gotten her for everything they could.”

Theresa Rich, the mayor of Farmington Hills, saw the post on social media and went to the Walgreens store to meet Moore herself. She lauded his leadership and bravery, telling him, “You are such a symbol of good things in our society.”

Moore and Ulinski were invited to the Aug. 11 Farmington Hills City Council meeting, where they both received certificates of recognition for their kind and selfless behavior. 

Moore has been with Walgreens for more than three years, and he has served at the Farmington Hills location for about six months. 

All Walgreen employees are trained to do what Moore did.

“We watch out for all of our customers, not just the elderly,” said Jenny Reckovic, the store manager at Walgreens. “I am very proud of him. He has made the store Happyville.”

The manager said people were coming into the store smiling and looking for Moore, recognizing him from the publicity online.

She also warned how scams are more popular during holidays and graduation time when people are looking for money. She said the most susceptible people include seniors and those who aren’t tech savvy.

“Be careful if people call and say, ‘You owe the IRS this amount of money,’ or (they say) ‘Your grandkids are in jail, and you need to give us this gift card for the bail.’ Normally, they are targeting these kinds of people,” Reckovic said. “And we (Walgreens employees) ask questions and will intervene, when we see fit.”