Barrington police warn seniors of home repair scam

Barrington police are warning seniors to be suspicious of anyone coming to their home to solicit repair work.

The alert comes after a couple of incidents in the past two weeks where groups of men went to the home of senior citizens encouraging them to hire them for some repair work.

Barrington Deputy Chief Jerry Libit said he believes the goal is for one of the men to distract the homeowner, while another tries to slip inside and steal things.

"You should be very leery of tradespeople coming to your home and soliciting work," Libit said.

The first incident occurred about 1:20 p.m. June 10 at a home on Ela Road.

Libit said the two men came up to the elderly female homeowner and told her they wanted to do some repair work on the home's chimney and driveway.

"They tried to insinuate they recently repaired her roof and tried to talk her into other repairs," Libit said.

The resident didn't fall for it, Libit said. She told them she had already been the victim of a similar scam.

He said the two men then left in a black pickup truck.

On Tuesday, Libit said four men, also in a black pickup truck, approached the elderly resident of a home on Raymond Avenue and again tried to encourage her to get some repair work done on her chimney and driveway.

When the resident went inside, Libit said one of the men came to the door and asked for a drink.

"He said he felt ill and needed to come inside for some water," Libit said.

The woman became suspicious and told the men she was on the phone with her daughter, Libit said. At that point, all four men left the area.

Police said it's one thing to invite a repair man to your home to do some work, but quite another when one comes to you looking for a job.

"Be very suspicious," Libit said.

He said under no circumstances should a resident let someone like this into his or her home.

Police throughout the area have dealt with scams like this.

This February in Schaumburg, five men stole jewelry from a home after they were let inside while posing as employees of the water company.