An early morning call to an Otorohanga address prevented an offender taking flight after the man allegedly targeted elderly residents by stealing their ATM cards claiming to be looking for a lost bird.
Western Waikato Investigations Manager, Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Whitehead, said a 39-year-old man was arrested at an Otorohanga address this morning as a result of a today’s operation.
“This investigation relates to an offender targeting elderly victims, doing burglaries then impersonating a Police officer to obtain PIN numbers and withdrawing cash from eftpos cards over the past two weeks.
“It appears that over recent weeks this man has targeted elderly people, particularly in retirement villages or flats and gained access to the interior of their homes by various ruses including pretending to have lost his grandmother’s dove and getting the victims to help look for it whilst stealing their wallets.”
Mr Whitehead said the offender would then call the victims a short while later, pretending to be a Police Officer.
“He tells them he has either found their wallet or stopped a car with some young men in it and they have the victim’s credit card. He convinces the victim to provide their PIN numbers so that police can put a stop on any transactions.
“Once the PIN has been obtained the offender withdraws thousands of dollars from the victims’ accounts. He has also used the victims’ cards to purchase a number of items.”
Since the investigation began investigators have identified about 40 offences from across the District including burglary, theft, impersonating a police officer, obtaining by deception and using a document for pecuniary advantage.
“And we anticipate receiving further complaints as people’s knowledge of what happened grows.”
Mr Whitehead credited media and social media coverage of the initial five offences for alerting victims and prompting them to come forward.
“The initial posting on the Te Awamutu Police Facebook page attracted over 15000 hits alone. This coverage and some very good investigative work over a short period of time led to today’s result.”
“While it is pleasing to be able to reassure the public this offender is being held to account we would also like to remind the public that Police would not contact people over the phone and ask for their eftpos or credit card PIN.
“Fraud can take on many guises’ but at the end of the day one thing remains the same, if something doesn’t seem right it probably isn’t and we would encourage you to contact Police.”
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