San Diego

A 32-year-old unemployed painter was arrested by San Diego police Thursday and charged in the robberies of a dozen people in senior citizen apartments downtown.

Arrested and booked into County Jail on 11 counts of robbery and 12 counts of burglary was Herman Ward, who was living at the International Motel, 818 Beech St., police reported.

Ward is suspected of in the robberies of 12 elderly people inside their apartments since Sept. 20, according to police spokesman Bill Robinson.

The bandit, sometimes accompanied by a woman, tricked his victims into letting him into their homes by identifying himself as a plumber or a representative of a charity.

Once inside, the robber would threaten the senior citizens with scissors or a knife he found inside the dwellings, then tie them up with a tlephone cord, Robinson said. No one was injured, and losses ranged from $20 to $270.