Police Seek Scam Artists

East Hampton Village police are investigating the case of an East Hampton woman who told them on Saturday that she had been kidnapped and robbed two days earlier, during the early afternoon in the heart of East Hampton. Police are presuming that the incident was a scam and that the woman took part in it hoping to receive money. No weapons were used, they said.

Rosa Zhagui, who speaks no English and spoke with an interpreter, told police she was walking down Railroad Avenue last Thursday, when she was convinced to get into a car. Its occupants were two men and a woman, she said.

According to the story police have pieced together, Ms. Zhagui said the trio told her they had won a lottery but could not claim the cash prize because they had no identification. They promised her part of the prize money if she provided them with what they needed - cash.

Driving to her house on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, the three ransacked it and took about $450 in cash and about $500 worth of jewelry. Their next stop was the North Fork Bank on Newtown Lane in the village, where Ms. Zhagui withdrew and gave them $500. They then took off with their victim to Queens, stopping on the way to buy dinner.

Police said yesterday that when the group got to Queens, Ms. Zhagui borrowed another $1,000 for them from a friend. Later, they took her to a pay phone, ostensibly to call the friend for more cash. When she got out of the car, described as dark blue and four-door, they took off.

"I think she was really taken and really upset about it," Det. Sgt. Gerard Larsen said.

Photographs taken by security cameras at the North Fork Bank show a man wearing a leather jacket with an unidentified insignia on its back at the time of the withdrawal, police said, as well as the victim and two suspected accomplices, a thinner man and a woman with blonde hair whom the others called Bartolo. Police said all three, like Ms. Zhagui, appeared to be Latino.

Anyone with information has been asked to call the Detective Division of East Hampton Village Police Department at 324-1026. The names of all callers and their information will be kept confidential.