Swindled
Last night around 11:30 p.m. our doorbell rang. My spouse answered the door, and it was a young woman—"freaked out"—who had locked herself out of her apartment. She asked for $20 so that she could pay the locksmith and said that, as soon as she had paid the locksmith, she would go an ATM machine and return the $20.
Needless to say, she never came back.
I called the Somerville Police Department this morning to report the incident and was treated with condescension by the officer who took the call. I was told that this is an ongoing scam and that, unless vicitms report the crime immediately, there is nothing the Police can do.
I told the officer that, while I could appreciate his frustration that citizens are not reporting the incidents in a timely manner, I did not appreciate his condescension. Furthermore, I noted that there has been no public information about this scam. If the City and/or the Police Department had notified the public about the scam, citizens like me could recognize it and report it while it is in progress. The officer replied that there was nothing he could do about the lack of public information.
So I called Thomas Champion, Director of the Executive [i.e. Mayor's] Office of Communications. Champion told me all about the City's new 311 non-emergency service system, which is accessible to Verizon phone customers. (I am an RCN phone customer.) When customers (i.e. citizens) call 311 they will receive a tracking number so that they can track the status of their customer service order on the internet. This part of the system has not yet been implemented.
Champion said that my call was the first call had received about the grift. The Director of the Executive Office of Communications did not state that the City would notify the public about the I'm-locked-out grift.
The swindler:
white, female, late 20s
reddish hair, shoulder length, pale skin and dark eyes
thin build, thin face
clear local accent, though not a really hard Somerville one
wearing black, knee length, quilted parka, no hat, no gloves
called herself "Jen"
Update 23 December 2005: In addition to postting information about the "I'm locked out" scam here on the somerville dog weblog, I also posted to the "davis_square" community on LiveJournal, and to the "unionsquare" on Yahoo! Groups. Members of each group have posted that they have recently been victimized by the same person:
In the davis_square group, a user who goes by the name "mrmiasma" wrote:
I was a victim of this as well last night. She came around my way about 9PM. She gave me the same story, but mentioned that she needed $65 for the locksmith (she even quoted me a locksmith name) and that she only had $45 thus far. She said she was actually one of my neighbors a named a number and street of the apartment which was right around the block from me. At first I asked if I could ask a rude question, which was for her to show me the $45 first. She said she left it at her girlfriend's place on Summer St which is where she called the locksmith from. She said she'd go and run back to her girlfriends place to show me the money before I gave the $20 to her. I figured this was enough legitimacy and figured I'd just give her the $20. . . .
A member of the unionsquare group wrote:
I have also had the same experience with the same woman. It seems she is asking for a lot more money now.Saturday night (12/17/05), she came by at around 11:30pm asking for $10 for a locksmith explaining that she lived down the street at 125 School Street (by City Hall) and that her name was Jen. Though suspicious, I figured what the heck, it's the holidays...if she's actually locked out, it would be nice to help her out. She also looked teary-eyed. I asked her for her last name (Massey) and gave her the 10 bucks. . . .
The unionsquare group member cc'd the Mayor. I directed both reports to the Director of the Executive Office of Communications. Champion has followed up with the police, raising both the issue of how my call was handled and whether the City should be issuing community advisories through the media or via the web.
Update 6 January 2006: To give credit where credit is due, I recieved a much-appreciated e-mail from Tom Champion today, apprising me of the outcomes of his follow-up with the Police Department.
My report as well as the reports that were posted to the Davis Square and Union Square groups were reviewed by a detective who was also assigned to keep an eye out for additional cases.
The detective found one prior report that might have been related, but in which the suspect's modus was significantly different in several respects. In the days since your report, the police didn't receive any additional reports of this type of crime in the area....Had they found further evidence of activity on her part, they agree that some sort of community alert would have been appropriate....
Also, Champion confirmed that the tape of my call to the police has been reviewed by senior officers and assured me that the Somerville Police have taken my concerns very seriously: they did not try to excuse or explain away the officer's conduct. Rather the officer who took my call has received counseling and will receive additional training in dealing with the public.
The moral of the story has nothing to do with whether or not the victims of grifters are "marks" or whether or not philanthropists are suckers. It is rather that the right and the responsabilility for public safety are the right and responsability of the citizens. The police work for us.
Check out the family-oriented dog demonstrations Saturday and Sunday from 11:30a-1:30p: