Brazen Con Man Victimizes Elderly Tosa Woman

A 91-year-old woman living in the 500 block of North 65^th Street reported Monday that she had been victimized by a stranger who made his way into her home on the pretense of fixing her garage roof, then stole her wallet and jewelry.

The woman said she had been meeting with a financial planner at about 2 p.m. when the doorbell rang. Because she uses a walker, the finance agent assisted her and opened the door.

Interviewed later, he said that the man at the door had asked for the woman by name, and he then turned to her and asked if she was all right. She said she was, and he took that to mean it was OK to let the man in.

The financial planner then left, as his business was done. According to the victim, the man at the door was unknown to her, and she said he just breezed into her home with some story about a neighbor asking him to fix her leaky garage roof.

The woman became flustered, she said, and couldn’t keep track of the man’s coming and going. She called a neighbor for help, but by the time he arrived, the scam artist had left, after first locating her bedroom and stealing her wallet, with cash, and a number of valuable pieces of jewelry.

She described the suspect as white, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, stocky, about 48 to 50 years old, with deep blue eyes, smooth skin and clean-shaven.

Her financial adviser thought he was taller and younger, saying he was 5 feet 10 or 11 inches tall and only in his late 20s to early 30s.