Police in CCTV appeal after vulnerable victims targeted in burglaries
POLICE have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with two burglaries in which blind and bedbound victims were targeted.
Vulnerable residents in Denton were told their roofs would be fixed before they had cash taken from their homes, officers say.
Police were called to reports of a distraction burglary on Windermere Avenue.
Following initial enquiries, officers discovered that around three men had shouted to the bedbound victim from outside, to say that they were carrying out roofing work and needed the entry code to the property. After being given the code, the group is believed to have entered and searched the address, before stealing a large amount of cash and jewellery from the victim, and then leaving. The next day, police were called at 1.30pm to a similar incident on Kynder Street.
GMP says the same group of men knocked on the door and entered a property while telling the victim, who is blind, that they were due to carry out roofing work.
The group told the victim that she owed them money, despite no building work taking place.
While the victim found money to pay the men, they are believed to have distracted her elderly mother - who has dementia - and stolen a number of items while taking the cash with them.
Pc Rick Beswick, of Tameside’s serious acquisitive crime team, said: “We are now keen to speak to the man captured in this CCTV image. If you know this man or have some information, please get in touch with police.”
Anyone with information can call 0161 856 9338 or report the incident online at www.gmp. police.uk, quoting log 1249 of November 24, 2021.