Scammers strike again in Schaumburg
Schaumburg police issued a community alert Thursday warning residents, especially seniors, to be on the lookout for men trying to con their way into homes by posing as a utility worker or new neighbor.
Police have released a composite sketch of a man who they say posed as a new neighbor as a way to get inside a home earlier this week.
Tuesday, police said, a man knocked on the door of a home on the 600 block of Webley Lane around 4 p.m. and told the woman who answered that he'd recently bought the house two doors down.
Police said the man was talking on his cell phone in Spanish the whole time.
He asked to look in the backyard because he was going to be digging holes for a fence he was building, police said.
The man, police said, then asked where the homeowner's husband was. She said he was upstairs sleeping.
A few minutes later, police said, the husband woke up and found another man rifling through bathroom drawers.
That man ran downstairs when he saw the husband was awake, police said. He and the man who'd initially knocked on the door fled together.
Nothing was reported missing, police said.
Saturday, a man used the same ruse to enter a home on the 500 block of John Court, police said.
That location is less than a half-mile away from the more recent incident. Both streets are off Weathersfield Way between Roselle and Plum Grove roads.
During that burglary, $800 in cash and five gold necklaces were stolen.
In other instances, police said burglars have posed as utility company workers and say they need to come inside for an inspection of some sort.
Similarly, they distract the homeowner while an accomplice enters the home and commits the burglary.
Police said residents should always request photo identification of anyone claiming to be from a utility company. Homeowners can also call the utility company to verify they have an employee scheduled to be there.
The man claiming to be a new neighbor in the more recent case is described as being in his 40s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and 160 pounds. The second man was described as being in his 20s, about 5-feet-11 with a thin build.
Anyone with information is asked to call Schaumburg police at (847) 882-3534.