Published
Video length: 3 min
Scam: watch out for fake police officers at home
Elderly people are often targets of fake police officers. Once they return to their victims’ homes, they steal valuable objects from them. – (France 2)
Elderly people are often targets of fake police officers. Once they return to their victims’ homes, they steal valuable objects from them.
Fake police officers manage to enter private homes with armbands and sometimes even badges. Once at their victims’ homes, they steal jewelry and valuables in just a few minutes. This phenomenon is on the rise. A nonagenarian woman let in a man who posed as a police officer. She was forcefully pushed while her 101-year-old husband was in the bathroom. One of the three men threatened her directly and another stole 100,000 euros hidden in a cupboard.
“There are more and more”
For the couple, the thieves knew where to look and had obtained information. Criminals primarily target people aged over 75. The perpetrators of these false thefts can take on several identities: delivery man, electrician, cockroach exterminator. A fake plumber and two fake police officers were arrested in Val-de-Marne. “We realize that there are more and more of them because it’s the lure of easy profit”indicates Reda Belhaj, spokesperson for the SGP Police Île-de-France Unit.
