- Two men strip the elderly in the Somme.
- They pretend to be calendar sellers in order to enter their victims' homes.
- The suspects already have at least four facts to their credit in less than two days.
It's not just vegetables that are in season. Scams too. Several elderly people have been robbed by fake calendar sellers, we learned on Tuesday from the Gendarmerie de la Somme. The perpetrators are still running.
The first events identified by the gendarmes took place on Monday, "around the town of Péronne", explain the soldiers to 20 Minutes . The procedure is always the same. Two men in their twenties show up at the homes of the elderly claiming to sell calendars. Depending on the case, they claim to work for the town hall, the Post Office or any other body. Their creed is kindness, says our source to the gendarmerie, never violence. The two young people start the conversation on the doorstep until one of them asks to go to the bathroom. He takes the opportunity to search the home and steal cash or means of payment. They then leave quietly.
A single highly mobile team throughout the department
Monday, they stole 500 euros in a first house then forty euros in another. Their third attempt of the day ended in failure. However, they started a little later in Noyelles-sur-Mer, on the other side of the department. There, another elderly person was relieved of 60 euros in cash and his bank card. The two crooks returned to action this Tuesday, in the same sector, at Friville-Escarbotin. For this last fact, the gendarmes have not yet assessed the damage.
Investigators are therefore focusing on the track of one and the same duo, very mobile, which could even go beyond the borders of the Somme department. The testimony of victims has enabled the soldiers to have a fairly precise description of the suspects who have not yet been arrested. The authorities call on vulnerable people to be cautious, in particular by asking the canvassers for their professional card or by not allowing them to enter homes.
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- Picardie
- Fraud
- News
- Gendarmerie
- The elderly