Many areas of life such as sports, business, and even politics engage in copycat tactics all the time. If something is successful for someone else, it’s typically not a bad idea to re-purpose, retool, or completely reuse it for your own benefit. Crime is another industry that is rampant with duplicate acts and why you’re going to want to know what happened in Lubbock, Texas.
Most burglaries are the result of forced entry. According to data from the FBI, 59% of the 1.9 million that took place in 2013 involved forced entries. But after a recent string of what local police believe to be a scam involving a supposed grandma and stubborn local locksmith, they issued a warning to local residents.
As reported by the local news source appropriately named EverythingLubbock.com, there have been multiple reports of a man knocking on doors asking for cash to help out his grandmother, who locked her keys in her house and needed local locksmith services. Considering that about 2 million people locked themselves out of their homes in 2012 alone, the situation was more than plausible.
The mysterious man then goes on to explain that the local locksmith won’t help them out until he gets paid first and his grandmother’s debit card is — of course — on the inside of the house.
“I went to the door, because my wife always makes me answer the door.” Jeff Crane, one of the scam’s targets, said. “He started telling me about his grandmother. That he had this grandmother who was a neighbor from just a couple houses down.”
The man asked Crane for $42, claiming the local locksmith would only accept cash. As Crane and another almost-victim of the purported scam, Brian DeCanio, began to question the man about the story, they started to realize the whole thing was probably a hoax.
“The more his story unraveled and he didn’t want any of the other help I was offering him,” DeCanio said. “I figured it wasn’t a true story.”
Neither of the men ended up giving the man any money and it’s unclear if anyone has been successfully bamboozled in the area, but it’s important to be aware of should the con artist show up anywhere else.
Being a locksmith is something of a sacred responsibility and these sort of business practices don’t normally happen. Helping people is a nice thing to do, but make sure you protect yourself and family. Call the police if you suspect any suspicious activity in your neighborhood.