Man Posing as Officer Robs Couple

Authorities were searching Wednesday for a man who entered an elderly Glendale couple’s home by posing as a police officer, then stole bank bonds valued at $50,000 from the couple’s safe.

Police said the robbery suspect briefly displayed an oval silver badge in a black wallet while pretending to conduct a burglary investigation.

The incident occurred at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the 100 block of North Everett Street. Dorothy Gladys Stoft, 79, told police she was returning home when a man approached her, displayed a badge and told her he was a police officer investigating a break-in at her home. Police said a break-in had not taken place.

The heavyset man, who wore a straw hat, a yellow and orange flower-print shirt and light-colored slacks, told Stoft that two juvenile suspects were being held at his station and that he needed to look for evidence inside her house.

After they entered, the man ransacked a locked closet after he told Stoft he needed to look inside and urged her to unlock it.

The intruder persuaded Stoft to open a safe by saying one of the juvenile suspects was a locksmith who told police he had broken into the safe. When she opened it, the man pushed Stoft to the ground, grabbed papers from the safe and left through the back door, according to police.

The couple reported that the robber fled with bank bonds valued at $50,000. On Wednesday, investigators were trying to determine whether the bonds could be cashed by anyone other than the Stofts.