The call that was supposed to empty a bank account instead built a criminal case. At about 3:01 p.m. on Tuesday, October 27, a man who said he worked for PNC Bank phoned a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detective and — already knowing the detective's full name — warned him that a woman named “Susan Taylor” was trying to withdraw $6,000 from his PNC checking account, according to a sworn probable-cause affidavit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court and reported by CBS12 News.
Source: CBS12 News / Palm Beach County Circuit Court affidavit, case 50-2026-CF-008085-AXXX-MB
The first call ended when the detective said he did not use mobile banking. He then called the number back and played along. This time, the callers told him the same woman was trying to take $6,000 from his Wells Fargo account through Zelle, and instructed him to withdraw the cash at a Wells Fargo branch while staying on the phone — and to tell branch staff the withdrawal was for personal business, because bank employees were supposedly part of the fraud and could not be trusted. The affidavit describes conversations with two male callers, and separately identifies the two men later arrested as the alleged collectors.
The “undercover FBI agent” driving an Uber
After the supposed withdrawal, the story changed again. The money, the callers claimed, was counterfeit, and bank employees would face criminal charges. An undercover FBI agent driving an Uber would collect the cash, they said, and the detective was told to pack it into a box together with a toy bought from a nearby store.
In reality, the affidavit states plainly, the detective withdrew no money at all. He handed an Uber courier a package the callers believed contained the $6,000, while detectives and agents from the South Florida Criminal Apprehension Team followed the vehicle from Palm Beach County into neighbouring Broward County.
In Pompano Beach, the person who arranged the Uber instructed the driver to place the unopened box beneath an unoccupied blue Honda Accord. Investigators kept the package under surveillance until a white BMW arrived. According to the arrest records, Levi John Cantarero, 20, of Fort Pierce, was the front-seat passenger who picked up the box, and Shawn Hamilton, 31, of Port St. Lucie, was driving. Deputies stopped the BMW after it left the collection point and found the package torn open on the front passenger floorboard.
Same two felonies, very different bonds
Court records list the same two felony accusations against each man: grand theft of property valued between $5,000 and $10,000 under Florida Statute 812.014(2)(c)(2), and defrauding to obtain property valued at under $20,000 under section 817.034(4)(a)(3). Cantarero's case is numbered 50-2026-CF-008085-AXXX-MB and Hamilton's 50-2026-CF-008088-AXXX-MB. The charges are allegations only; neither man has been convicted, and both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Source: Boca Raton Tribune reporting, via Oxford Daily
Their bonds, however, differ sharply. Cantarero's bond was set at $5,000 on each charge — $10,000 in total — and the sheriff's booking record shows he was released on October 28 at 11:11 a.m.; his scheduled first appearance was cancelled because he had bonded out. At Hamilton's October 28 first appearance, a judge set bond at $125,000 on each count, totalling $250,000, with GPS-monitored house arrest as a condition of any release and orders barring contact with the detective and with his co-defendant. Hamilton's court notice lists an initial case conference for December 17, 2026.
A July 2025 warning from the Broward Sheriff's Office described more than a dozen reports involving callers impersonating bank fraud employees — in one case a victim was persuaded to withdraw $15,000, and in another a couple handed debit cards to a supposed bank representative and faced more than $9,000 in fraudulent charges. Investigators said some callers arranged Uber rides and told victims to leave cash or cards in envelopes in the back seat. Those earlier incidents are separate from the October 2026 arrests.
Why this matters — and how to spot the call
The detail that should worry every reader is how much the callers already knew: they had the detective's full name and spoke about specific accounts at two different banks. Fraud investigators and the Federal Trade Commission warn that a caller knowing your name or account details does not prove the caller is your bank. For Palm Beach County's large community of retirees, new immigrants and Punjabi and South Asian families — groups bank-impostor scammers routinely target with urgency and fear — the script is always the same: a fraud alert, a demand for immediate cash, secrecy from bank staff, and a courier or rideshare pickup.
The FTC's advice is direct: if someone unexpectedly reports fraud and demands an urgent withdrawal, hang up and contact the bank yourself through its official app, website or the number on the back of your card. A real bank fraud department will never ask you to hide a withdrawal from branch staff or hand cash to an unknown courier. Anyone who has already shared account information or sent money should notify the bank promptly, keep the calls and messages, and report the attempt at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
What happens next: the two cases move through Palm Beach County Circuit Court, with Hamilton's initial case conference scheduled for December 17, 2026. The public court record does not say whether the two men who made the phone calls have been identified; the affidavit treats the callers and the alleged collectors as separate roles, and the investigation's next steps have not been announced.