Abington Police Say A Contractor Tried To Take Advantage Of An Elderly Township Resident

ABINGTON, PA — Local police say a contractor tried to take advantage of an elderly resident last week.

The resident reported that on Jan. 27 around 4 p.m. individuals claiming to be from a paving company approached the individual to say they had extra blacktop material from a paving job and wanted to see if he wanted his driveway paved, according to a police community alert.

The resident only agreed to have the individuals patch a small hole in his driveway, police said, but he ended up discovering that a larger portion of his driveway had been paved when the job was finished.

Police said no estimate or discussion of the price for the work was ever discussed prior to the work commencing.

The crew was made up of five men and one woman, in addition to two children who appeared to be between the ages of 7 and 12.

The resident had also allowed the woman and children to enter the home several times during the encounter, police said.

When the resident saw that more work had been done to the driveway than initially agreed to, he refused to pay the final bill and ordered the individuals to leave the property.

"Thanks to a vigilant neighbor who had been looking out for the elderly resident, the subjects left the area," the community alert reads.

The victim did not report any items missing from his home.

Police say the suspects had three vehicles: a white, four-door pickup truck with a utility body, a dump truck with Florida registration and a green Jeep Renegade also with Florida registration.

"Abington Detectives strongly believe that these individuals were attempting to fraudulently obtain money from an otherwise unsuspecting elderly homeowner," the police community alert reads. "This is a common tactic used by transient criminal groups, who tend to target elderly victims. These criminals will also deploy females and children, as was done in this case, to gain trust and sympathy of the homeowner to allow them to enter the home, where ultimately a theft is committed."

Police said some of these common schemes involve offers of driveway sealing, tree work and criminals posing as utility workers.

Elderly residents in particular are urged to become educated on these types of frauds by family members, friends and neighbors.

"Be aware of uninvited or unlicensed solicitors knocking on doors and looking for work," Abington police stated.

Anyone with information about the incident that occurred last week is asked to contact the Abington Police Department at 267-536-1100.