Burglars posing as tree trimmers Tuesday distracted an elderly couple with talk of cutting down their trees while the thieves stole more than $50,000 from their Glen Cove home, police said.
An 85-year-old woman answered a knock at the door of her Wolfle Street home, where a man told her and her 79-year-old husband that he needed cut down some trees in their yard at about 1:30 p.m., Glen Cove city police said.
While the three spoke inside the house, the husband noted that the couple doesn’t have any trees in their yard, police said. When the suspect used a walkie-talkie around his neck to call a second man into the house, both suspects and the husband walked into the backyard to talk, police said. Then, the second suspect walked back inside the house while the first suspect and the husband remained outside, police said.
Moments later, the first suspect and the husband walked inside, when the husband noticed a gray four-door pickup truck with a cover on the back bed backing out of his driveway, police said.
When the burglars left southbound on Wolfle Street, the husband checked his bedroom and noticed that his safe containing more than $50,000 in cash, their life savings, was missing, police said.
Fifteen minutes later, a man fitting the description of the first suspect entered the First Street home of another elderly couple, police said. The suspect told a 93-year-old man and his wife that he was there to pick up a table when their home health aide confronted the burglar, who fled the scene, police said.
Both suspects were described as white men wearing walkie-talkies around their necks. The first suspect was described as 5-feet, 11-inches tall with a mustache and wearing a baseball cap. The second suspect was described as 5-feet-, 7-inches tall, heavy set with short, dark hair and wearing dark clothing.
Glen Cove police ask anyone with information on these cases to call detectives at 516-320-7929 or e-mail them at tips@cityofglencoveny.org . All calls will remain confidential.
