Gangs of thieves are not only pretending to be Gardaí to get into peoples houses in Carlow and Kilkenny but are now using the excuse of giving home-owners security advice to snoop around their homes.
Houses in Carlow town and the Ballyragget area were targeted last Friday (16th December) with a renewed appeal for information about the men who were travelling in a silver, grey or beige Toyota Yaris.
One local person was conned out of a significant amount of cash after the conmen said they needed to check it for counterfeit notes.
Sgt Conor Egan says we have to be suspicious of anyone who calls uninvited, telling KCLR; “We don’t cold-call to a house like that to inspect cash or the other ploy that they use is that there’s been a number of burglaries or robbers in the area and coming to give crime prevention advice, we wouldn’t do that”.
Sgt Egan advises people to ask for ID and check it with your local station as those involved in one of the latest incidents appear to have been carrying fake badges; “Two men claiming to be members of An Garda Siochana gained entry to another house, again one of the men produced a badge which appeared to be a Garda ID, as one of them engaged the homeowner, the second one went into a room in the house and searched drawers, fortunately in this incidence they left empty-handed”.
