Police Warn of Scam by ‘Distraught Father’
A man posing as a distraught father with ailing children has been scamming people into giving him money in Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks and Studio City, police said.
Officer Shelley Gale, a senior lead officer in the community-based policing department of the Van Nuys Division, said the man--who is described as Latino or white in his mid-20s to early 30s, 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-11, with stocky build and a pierced left ear--has been in the area for about two months.
Gale warned residents to be skeptical of anyone knocking on their doors and asking for money.
“We don’t know who he is,” Gale said. “We’re telling residents not to give money to anyone who comes to the door, regardless of how sad the story is.”
The man apparently knocks on people’s doors and tells them variations of a tale involving sick children and not having any money to get medical attention for them or of running out of gas, Gale said.
In at least one occasion, the man identified himself as a neighbor.
A Van Nuys woman who asked that her name not be used said that two days after Thanksgiving, the man knocked on her door about 9 p.m. and told her that he was the father of twin children who lived down the street.
“Well, there are twin children who live down the street, and that family just moved in so we don’t know them very well,” the woman said. “He said that one of the kids had an epileptic seizure and he didn’t have enough money to admit him into the hospital.”
The man asked for $62, and she gave it to him. “He makes it a very odd number so it doesn’t seem too blatant,” she said.
“It’s hard enough when there is a real emergency to open your door; now people are really going to be reluctant to open their doors,” she said.
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