Fake Surveyors Commit Burglary

Conmen steal silverware from elderly couple
by Lindsay Field
lfield@mdjonline.com
September 01, 2012 01:04 AM

MARIETTA — An elderly couple who have lived in Marietta, GA, for about 40 years were the victims of what police are calling a “distraction burglary” earlier this week.

Officer David Baldwin with Marietta Police said that on Monday three men, who were all described as clean-shaven white males between 35 and 40 years old wearing khaki cargo pants with polo shirts, stole valuables from the couple’s home on Atwood Drive in the Keller Woods area off Kennesaw Avenue.

The couple, who have lived in their Atwood Drive home since 1992 and in Cobb since about 1973, asked that they not be identified.

The husband said he was outside his home working just a few feet away from the door on the side of his house when a man approached him saying that the fence in their backyard was approximately four feet into the neighbor’s yard.

The suspect then asked to take photos of the fence line, which the husband agreed to, and they went into the backyard.

After a few minutes, he overheard his wife shouting and shooing two other men out of the house.

“I walked through the living room and ended up in the sitting room and I see these two men in the dining room,” she said. “I asked who they were, how did they get in here, what do you want?”

She said they told her they were looking for a piece of paper and pencil to write down things about the fence in the back because the couple had “misappropriated land.”

“I was walking towards them so that they would get out,” she continued. “By the grace of God, they managed to walk out backwards. I was repeating the same questions … ‘Where’s my husband?’ My focus was on what had happened to him, why he had allowed two men to come into the house and where he was.”

The three finally left the home and drove away in a van.

The wife said she soon discovered the men had taken their wedding silverware, which was given to them in 1963.

“They took teaspoons, demitasse spoons, soup spoons, the soup spoon server, salad forks, luncheon forks, dinner forks and the butter knife,” she said.

She immediately told her husband they had been burgled and called police.

“I know everyone thinks that one would be terrified … but I wasn’t concentrating on myself. I was concentrating on what happened to my husband, why he let two men in and where he was,” the wife said. “I felt something was very, very wrong because I couldn’t imagine why he let these men in our house.”

She described the suspect who walked to the back fence line with her husband as an angel.

“I realized what I was looking at was evil, but he had an angelic face, so I’ll remember him anytime,” she said. “He looked just like an altar boy.”

Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspects, who were last seen driving away in an unmarked, white minivan.

“We’ve heard of stuff like this before, but this is the first reported incident over in that area,” Baldwin said Friday. “Our biggest concern is that it may or may not be an isolated incident … that somebody is going to target a specific subdivision and then try to hit as many homes as they can.”

The couple said this is the first time they’ve not felt safe in their home.

“I’m afraid,” said the wife. “I had a meeting (Thursday night) at the church, and I even debated not going. I had to talk myself into the fact that I would not become a prisoner of my house, so I went.”

They are looking into getting an alarm system now.

Anyone with information in this case or any similar unreported case is asked to contact police at (770) 794-5388 or the Marietta Police Anonymous Tip Line (770) 794-6990.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Conmen steal silverware from elderly couple