Watch out for the “my cat is in your backyard” con

SAN DIEGO: an 85-year-old woman, Kearny Mesa, says that she has been conned and her jewellery, credit cards, purse and keys stolen. The thief and her accomplice used a story about a lost cat to get into her house.

A young woman turned up at the front door of the elderly lady’s home. She was carrying a puppy under her arm and she said that her pregnant cat had escaped her property and was in Mesa’s backyard. Could she come in and search for her cat? Mesa felt sorry for her (as you do) and let her in to her backyard through the garage door.

It would appear that the garage door was left open or unlocked at this time allowing an accomplice to enter Mesa’s home to steal the items mentioned above. While the theft was taking place the woman with the puppy was searching with the elderly lady for the mythical pregnant cat in the backyard. They searched for 30 minutes at which point the elderly lady went inside and the young woman left the property.

When Mesa went to bed about half an hour later she saw that her jewellery box in the spare bedroom was open and that items were missing including her late husband’s 1951 ring and wedding band. This obviously had a great sentimental value because all she had of him was her memories.

She used to look at the wedding band and see his love for her and her love for him. They were constantly together.

A neighbor was a victim of the same method of theft. While the young woman was searching for the non-existent cat in the backyard she spoke on the phone to someone. Mesa believes that that person was her accomplice inside the home stealing her jewellery.

I’ll speculate that the ‘pregnant’ aspect of the story and the puppy were employed to soften up the victim and make it hard to refuse entry. The elderly are incredibly vulnerable to cons and scams especially via the phone and internet. It is getting a lot worse. Internet crime has grown exponentially and the police are incapable of combating it.

Source: 10News.com