Dunwoody police are on the lookout for a pair of suspected burglars who lured an elderly couple from their home, made their way inside and stole at least $20,000 in jewelry and a gun.
According to the police incident report obtained by Channel 2 Action News, the theft occurred Wednesday around 3:30 p.m. at a home on North Peachtree Road.
A 79-year-old woman, whose identity was being withheld, said a Hispanic man claiming to work for the city came to her door and asked if she had received a notice that the city was going to cut down trees around her home and use a bulldozer on her property.
The woman said the man was driving a tan pickup truck, and a second Hispanic man was waiting inside the vehicle.
After the woman and her husband said they hadn’t received any notice, they said the man, dressed in “a nice white shirt” and jeans, followed them through their home to the back yard to see trees that supposedly would be cut.
After reaching the back yard, the man, who spoke to the couple in English, began talking in Spanish on a two-way radio, the police report says. The couple suspected he was talking to the man left inside the truck.
“I believed what he said when he said he worked for the city," the woman told Channel 2 Action News. “He said he worked with the city and that they were going to be trimming trees and cutting down trees in the area.”
It wasn’t until the next morning that the woman told police she found jewelry and a gun missing from her bedroom, according to the police report. She valued the jewelry at “at least $20,000” and it included an engagement ring she received 53 years ago.
“He cleaned me out, except for what I had on,” the woman said. The stolen gun was described as a stainless steel .38-caliber pistol.
During the suspected burglary, the couple said their 30-year-old grandson was in his bedroom on his computer, with the door closed.
The man who approached the couple is described as being in his 30s, and between 5 feet 5 and 5 feet 9 inches tall. The couple could not provide a description of the man inside the pickup truck.
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