BSO Warns About Thieves Targeting Elderly Residents
DEERFIELD BEACH (CBSMiami) – Broward Sheriff's deputies are warning residents to be on the lookout for anyone attempting to lure them out of their homes.
BSO reports that two elderly homeowners were targeted this week.
According to detectives, one suspect knocked on the door of a home on Southeast 1 Way in Deerfield Beach and told 88-year-old Loren Leonard that a water main had broken in his backyard.
As Leonard followed the man to see flooding, he noticed someone had opened his front door. He went inside to find the person walking out of his bedroom, detectives said. The men fled in a white pickup truck. The men were only able to steal the man's rosary beads.
In a second incident, 75-year-old Paul Knapp, who lives on Woodlands Way was approached by a man claiming he was spraying behind the man's townhome for spiders.
Knapp was asked to allow the person inside to check his home and he was also told to go down the street and look at a tree infested with spiders.
Knapp did not fall for it, detectives said. Instead, he called BSO.
Witnesses reported seeing a white Dodge pickup outside of the man's home with four men inside.
Anyone with additional information is asked to contact BSO Detective Lesley Washecka at (954) 480-4294 or Detective Krista Robson at (954) 480-4316 or anonymously report tips to Crime Stoppers of Broward County at 954-493-TIPS (8477).
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