They told a Hercules woman they were churchgoers and wanted to hold her $24,000 while she prayed. When she opened her eyes the money was gone

HERCULES — Two shadowy figures here were somehow able to convince a woman to hand them a bag of cash containing $24,000 and close her eyes to join them in prayer, in another bizarre scam to hit a Bay Area resident.

When the woman finished praying and opened her eyes, the man and woman who’d run the scam were heading off with her money. She yelled at them to give it back, so the man threw her another bag full of what turned out to be counterfeit cash instead, according to authorities.

The scam occurred last January, when the woman, a Hercules resident, was shopping at the Smart and Final in San Pablo. Police in Los Angeles recently arrested a person of interest after her DNA was found on the counterfeit money, but no charges have been filed.

The scam worked like this: The female scammer posed as a person in need who was heading off to a local church to donate $100,000 of an inheritance from a deceased relative. She approached the victim and introduced the male scammer as someone she’d just met who was helping her facilitate the donation, but who couldn’t open his own bank account due to a religious restriction.

Over the course of a conversation, the two suspects convinced the woman to aid them by agreeing to store the money in her own bank account, so that they could donate cash to the church in increments. There was one catch: the suspects said they wouldn’t trust the victim to help them unless she proved she had a lot of money in her bank account already.

That’s where the $24,000 entered the picture. After the victim retrieved the bag full of her cash, the three sat in her vehicle and the man suggested she hand it over to him and join him in prayer.

It would prove to be the last thing she ever did with the cash, authorities say. The incident remains under investigation.