One Manteca grandmother remembered a newspaper story about pleas for money to get out of jail by “grandsons” that warned her of the fraud that was confronting her on the telephone.

Almond farmer Nellie Richetta, who with her husband operates their ranch northeast of Manteca, said she was called about 10 a.m. on Tuesday by someone who was claiming to be related to her and in Miami, Florida where he was being held in jail for marijuana possession. He told her that a friend had two tickets to fly to the southern state with his girlfriend. When the couple broke up the “grandson” took her place on the trip.

It was in a traffic stop that police supposedly found marijuana in their rental car and transported them to jail. The “grandson” needed bail money in exchange for his freedom. She said he was calling her grandma. She has always been called “mom” by her grandchildren.

Shortly after she asked the caller to tell her the name of his sister in California, the line went dead. He couldn’t answer that tidbit of information, she said.