Scam alert from Hopewell Township Police
Police are warning area residents to make sure they ask for full identification from people claiming to be municipal workers, utility workers or contractors after a couple was scammed out of several hundred dollars.
On July 20, an elderly couple on Pennington Lawrenceville Road was solicited by two men to have their driveway seal-coated for $600 cash. The victims allowed one of the men into the home and he followed the victims to a bedroom, where the money was stored.
The two men then left in a grey pickup truck with no front license plate. The next day, Friday July 21, at 2 p.m., two different men came to their door and falsely informed them that they were Hopewell Township Public Works employees who needed to do tree work in their backyard. The men asked the couple to come look at the work area. The couple and one of the men went to the back yard for approximately 30 minutes. When the men left, the couple went inside and realized that a large sum of cash had been taken from their bedroom.
The couple described one of the men as a Hispanic male in his mid 20’s with a skinny build,bad teeth and a gold plate or bridge in his mouth.The other men were also described as Hispanic but more detail was not provided. The investigation is ongoing.
Police said whenever a worker comes to a home, residents should ask for full identification and make sure the works is in a proper uniform. If you are not sure who the person is, call 9-1-1 and do not let them in your home.
A Planet Princeton reader also reported on Friday that two men in a silver Chevy Silverado truck promised to tar and seal a driveway for around $800. The reader said the product they were laying down allegedly was just diesel #2 to make the driveway look shiny, and was not actually a sealant. One of the men allegedly was caught smoking from what looked like a crack pipe. After being questioned about the product they were laying down on the driveway, the men hopped into their truck and sped off quickly. The men have been going door to door in neighborhoods trying to scam people and were last seen in Burlington County, the reader said.
It is not clear whether the two incidents are related. A photo of the back of the truck and license plate from the Burlington County incident:
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
It would help to identify the name of the state on the license plate. It looks like Iowa, but I can’t tell 100% from the photo. Iowa license plates are fairly rare in this neck of the woods, so if that is in fact the state it would help catch these despicable crooks. Thank you.