They come to your door saying they need to trim your trees or check some pipes because there is a water pressure problem in your neighborhood. While one or more offenders keep you busy, another heads for rooms inside your house and steals money, jewelry — even safes.
Downstate Danville, Illinois and Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department is warning of scams that are similar to scams that have occurred in Arlington Heights and Mount Prospect.
In Danville, two white/males in their 30s or 40s with foreign accents were reported to be driving a gray, full-size newer model van with windows. They knocked on the door of a house and identified themselves as city employees in the area to prune trees. They tried to get a woman to go in the back yard with them, but she refused. Danville has no employees trimming trees in the backyards.
Also in Danville, a male/Hispanic in his late 20s tried three common scams in once incident. First he said he was working on tree trimming, but the woman said she had not trees in her backyard. Then he walked to the kitchen and turned on the water and said he was checking for frozen pipes. When the elderly woman asked the offender to leave, he demanded money for ‘an inspection’ — she refused, and he finally left the residence.
Outside the city in Vermillion County, two men ‘with strong accents’ were reported to be driving a dark-colored SUV and claiming to be Danville city employees in the area trimming trees at a house behind her property. One of the offenders led her to the back yard to show her where they would trim the trees, while the another offender, and possibly a third offender, went into her house and stole a safe and other items.
SOURCE: The News-Gazette Scam artists posing as city workers in Danville