About 30 years ago, my grandmother was the victim of a crime. There is a certain name for this type, it's just not coming to me right now. Anyway, it went down like this: She remembers a van pulling up in front of her house. A young woman got out with a little girl and they both came to her door. The woman said her daughter was sick and could she please have a glass of water. My grandmother let them both in and took them to the kitchen. She didn't bother to lock the door behind her. In fact, it was a hot summer day and she just had the screen door shut, but not locked. While the little girl drank the water, in the kitchen, her mother kept trying to get my grandmother to take her outside to look at the flowers in her garden.
My grandmother knew that something was wrong and considered going into the front part of the house to see if everything was okay. She decided against it for safety reasons. This may have saved her life. While my grandmother was in the kitchen with the little girl and her mother, other people came out of the van, through the open screen door and proceeded to steal valuables from my grandmother bedroom. When the woman finally left, with the child, my grandmother found everything in her bedroom had been tossed. She had no cash lying around, but they had stolen her wedding ring, which had been hand made by my grandfather.....
The reason I thought of this? The local newspapers have been reporting variations of this crime recently. One, involving people posing as utility workers trying to gain entry to elderly people's homes. The other? Elderly homeowners noticing strange people in their backyards? When they inquire as to why these people are in their yards, the people state that they are inspecting the fence for the neighbor. In both cases, the homeowner stays out in the yard to keep an eye on these people. Only to find, later, that while they were outside, their houses had been ransacked.
After reading this, I called my parents and warned them. I felt real weird doing this.... Why? Because I was acknowledging that they were now elderly and may become targets of scum sucking assholes like this.....
Posted by Valkyre at March 13, 2003 05:23 PM