With a perfidious scam, a fraudster brought a woman from Jena in Thuringia for almost 120,000 euros.
The stranger called the woman and pretended to be a police officer.
He claimed her money was no longer safe in the bank.
It is needed in the form of cash as bait for investigative work, the fraudster continued.
The woman believed the man and entrusted him with her property, the police said.
The man told the woman on several calls between April and August of last year that she would get the money back.
She should put it between the garbage cans in front of her house, he would then keep it for her.
The woman gave the man a total of 117,000 euros.
The perpetrator picked up the cash deposited there at an unspecified time, it said.
The hoax was exposed when the cheated woman finally came to the police earlier this week to ask about her money.
Now the police are investigating fraud and are looking for witnesses who have observed anything unusual in the street in question during the period.
Fraudsters repeatedly pretend to be police officers or public prosecutors in order to get hold of valuables.
The police emphasize, however, never to ask about financial circumstances and valuables, let alone demand the surrender of money and jewelry.
Icon: The mirror
lmd / dpa