20
Dec
2013
By Calvin at 15:43 GMT, 12 years ago
On KENS 5 News Channel’s website today is a story about a pair of burglars dressed in hardhats and reflective jackets carrying clipboards who posed as council workers to commit a burglary of an 80-year-old’s home in San Antonio, Texas.
San Antonio Police Department, who have charged two of the suspects, have reported that the suspects allegedly told the 80-year-old that they had to make measurements of his back garden because they worked for the council.
While one accused was out the back with the victim (who was holding the tape) the other accused, together with a third suspect who has yet to be arrested, went into the house and garage. The 80-year-old’s wife who was unwell at the time and inside the house found these two suspects later in the garage where one of them took a hardhat off the garage wall before both of them made off.
The guy in the garden then left, walked down the road and got into an old truck and drove away.
What the suspects didn’t know was that the victim had a CCTV system installed around his home, which recorded the whole incident!
TCPW Comment: This is an interesting case for several reasons. First of all it seems that the ‘bogus official’ type burglary, targeting older residents, seems to be a problem on both sides of ‘the pond’ using almost identical MOs. Secondly, it is a timely warning for all of us to guard against this type of crime and for the younger ones amongst us to look out for our elderly neighbours.
The third point of interest concerns the use of CCTV around the home, which may have provided the police with some invaluable evidence, if not to identify the suspects, at least to corroborate the victim’s account. And it is with this point in mind that I should mention that in the New Year I shall be having a small CCTV system installed around my home for testing purposes in order that I can assess its practical use and report back to you my findings.
So look out for my CCTV blogs in the New Year, which might be fun!
Source KENS 5.com San Antonio: http://www.kens5.com/news/SAPD-Women-dresed-as-city-worker-lures-elderly-man-while-two-burglarize-home--236711561.html
