Salt Lake County authorities on Wednesday warned restaurant workers about a nationwide telephone scam after a female employee at an area Applebee's was forced to undergo a strip search.
Utah is only the most recent state reporting such an incident. The calls are believed to originate in Florida, and the suspect -- who calls collect from a pay phone -- is almost always male, said Peggy Faulkner, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The man calls the restaurant and identifies himself as an undercover police officer conducting an investigation, she said. He then asks who is working. When an employee says the name of a female, he asks for a description of the woman and then says, "That's the one." He tells them the female employee is suspected of stealing property from a customer, Faulkner said, and suggests a strip search be performed. The woman at the Applebee's submitted to such a search, she said.
Florida authorities are warning other law enforcement agencies that if one incident is reported in an area, more are almost certain to follow, she said. The suspect is known to contact several restaurants looking for potential victims.
The sheriff's office is asking restaurant workers to keep in mind that police would never ask fellow employees to search one another, Faulkner said, and also would not call collect from pay phones.
