Smooth Talking Con Men Work Their Way Into Bronx Homes Before Ripping Off Victims
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- A pair of smooth talking con artists have allegedly been posing as repairmen and ripping of Bronx residents.
"This guy comes to me, 'are you the owner', I said yes I understand we have a problem with the water," Vito D'Erasmo told CBS 2's Steve Langford.
Vito and his wife Elide let the two men into their Morris Park home where a plumber had been unable to solve a drain problem the day before.
The D'Erasmo's described the suspects as 'very nice and polite', they asked the couple to run the water in the kitchen and the bathroom.
"So me like a jerk, I'm standing by the sink opening and closing the water while he's searching to find things," said Vito.
The thieves knew exactly where to find the couple's money because they had already asked for $100 for a part they claimed they needed to install.
"He went exactly where I got the money and he took it," said Elide.
It was at that point that the D'Erasmos began to suspect that the men did not work for the city.
"Then I got kind of scared like what am I going to tell him he's got a gun he's going to kill me," said Vito.
The couple was relieved and embarrassed when the men finally left.
The human reflex to open the door may be a hard one to break, more than one of the victims of this crime spree opened the door CBS 2, including a Pelham Gardens man who said that the men showed up on his property to fix a neighbor's fence.
The man who did not want to be identified, told CBS that the act was very convincing.
"He had his walkie-talkie, says to come in with the tape measure and paperwork so he could measure everything," he said.
Once inside the house the pair snatched $400 and bolted.
"They did a u-turn, flew a zillion miles an hour," he said.
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