By: Sharon Aron Baron
A 90 year-old Tamarac woman bravely fought off a man posing as a water company worker who entered her home to steal her jewelry.
The woman, who we’re keeping her identity private, lives in the Woodlands Country Club and believes she may have been followed home after shopping at the Publix at Midway Plaza last Friday, because the man, who dressed as a water company employee, arrived shortly after.
She describes the man who appeared at her door as “white and clean-shaven” dressed in a tan hat wearing a reflective vest.
Believing he was from the water company after he told her he needed to do a test on her water, she let him in. Once inside, he pretended to spill an acid-like substance on her, but she grew suspicious and told him it looked like soap. He then told her to take off her rings.
“I’m not taking off my rings,” she told him, so he forcibly tried to take them off her fingers. She hit him as he ran off with only one ring – her engagement ring of 67 years, leaving behind her wedding band.
The woman was wearing a safety monitor around her neck and she pressed a button for medical help and they immediately dispatched police. The Broward Sheriff’s Office arrived within five minutes, searched for the man, but could not find them.
Her wrist and fingers are black and blue and she says she can’t believe she fought him off. She realizes now letting him in went against her better judgement, especially after hearing this same story from a neighbor a few years ago.
BSO Captain Neal Glassman warns residents, “If you’re not expecting anyone to do work, do not let them in. Call us and we’ll come out and verify.”
