Friday, August 21, 2009

Carpet Selling Scam Artists Move Into Deerfield Area

  Flooring-bearing scam artists moved their act into the Deerfield Community Thursday, targeting a home occupied by two older women.

  The sixty-six-year-old resident reported to Lawrence County Sheriff’s Deputies that a neighbor who had been visiting her Orton Road home was leaving as the man approached. She indicated that home healthcare workers had begun to visit her mother, age 90, and she assumed that the man entering her home was with the health care service. She quickly realized he was not.

  According to the victim, the man, who identified himself as a “Hollis,” acted as if he knew her from years before and stated that he was from the area, had lived in New York for sometime and had recently moved back to the area. He told her that he lived nearby and was opening a flooring business.

  The man called for a second man, who entered the home bearing a rolled up piece of flooring. The two attempted to keep the residents distracted, unrolling the flooring and using it to block the view to the front door. The younger resident stated that she heard the front door open and other sounds in the house, but that the pair prevented her from checking other rooms.

  According to the resident, she told the men repeatedly that she was not interested in purchasing the flooring and made several attempts to get rid of them, but they would not leave. When she began telling them more forcefully to leave, she reports that the men began rolling up the flooring and quickly left the premises.

  Suspecting that the men had entered the home to steal items, the resident made a quick check and discovered that money and a checkbook was missing from her purse. The cash was also missing from the mother’s purse, as well as two one dollar bills that had been left inside the wallet of her deceased father. A 911 call was placed at this point and deputies responded to the scene.

  The resident reported that approximately $2,500 worth of jewelry items had been stolen, including a class ring from LCHS Class of 1967, a sapphire ring, diamond cluster ring, yellow topaz ring, and a golden cross necklace given to her fifty years before, on her 16th birthday, by her father. Also taken were two unfilled prescriptions and around $500 in cash.

  The men were said to be traveling in a new model, black, crew cab, four wheel drive truck, possibly a Chevrolet.

  One of the men was described as a white male, around thirty years old with dark hair and a stocky build. The other man was between 60 and 70, six foot tall, with a thin build.

  The case remains under investigation at the present time by detective’s with the department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone who has additional information regarding the crime is encouraged to contact the department at 762-3626.

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