A Make-Yourself-at-Home-Invasion Robbery

The tale that Supora Thaxton wants to share with the world begins with a stranger at her door.

She was a tall, slender young woman with a friendly smile. It’s so good to see you, she told Mrs. Thaxton. Gosh, it’s been so long.

Then her patter went something like this:

What? You don’t remember me? I sure remember you! I’m Lisa, remember? We lived right around the corner. My mom was a friend of yours. Gosh, that was 20 years ago. I remember your pretty yard, your pretty flowers. It looks so nice. Gosh, I would really love a hug from you!

Supora Thaxton is 91 years old. She was widowed 44 years ago and never remarried. She still tends the garden at her Northridge home, watering, pulling weeds, clipping dead roses. She couldn’t place this young woman in her memory, but maybe she’d just forgotten her.

She opened the door. The young woman walked inside and gave her a big hug.

*

The home invasion robberies that make headlines tend to feature violent criminals who force their way in with guns drawn.

Then there are the crooks like “Lisa,” sweet-talkers who prey on the elderly, using guile instead of guns.

Mrs. Thaxton says she didn’t really know what to think. She was being her polite self. Two other young women opened the door and “Lisa” identified them as her sisters--just toddlers when they lived around the corner. Soon Mrs. Thaxton had three visitors inside her home.

Lisa was so curious, so interested in Mrs. Thaxton. She wanted to know everything about her.

Then one of the young women asked if she could use the bathroom.

Lisa was fascinated when Mrs. Thaxton told her about how she still teaches classes at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lisa told her that she and her sisters might want to join her at church sometime.

After one young woman asked for a glass of water, she followed Mrs. Thaxton into her kitchen. When she saw a grapefruit, she told Mrs. Thaxton that she had hyperglycemia and would you mind if I have half a grapefruit? Mrs. Thaxton obliged.

The young women never inspired a glimmer of recognition. When they asked Mrs. Thaxton if she lived alone, she told them no. When Mrs. Thaxton asked them where they lived, they told her they lived close by. They gave her an address. The street was close, but the number wasn’t.

Before long the women departed. Mrs. Thaxton became suspicious enough to call a friend. She also called the Los Angeles police. She was asked if anything was missing.

Mrs. Thaxton had given her home a cursory inspection. No, nothing seemed to be missing.

A few days passed before she would hunt for her stash of cash saved from her birthday and Christmas. A billfold that once contained more than $200 was empty.

With trepidation she checked her jewelry. Gold chains were missing.

So was the beautiful blue-white diamond ring with gold filigree setting that Arden Thaxton had placed upon her finger in 1927.

The money can be replaced, she said. But there’s no replacing a wedding ring that has been cherished for 70 years.

“I’m just heartsick,” she said.

*

Supora Thaxton said she is also angry with herself and wonders how she could have been so trusting and foolish. The police officer who came to her door obviously had heard it all before. “Did they ask to go to the bathroom?” he asked. “Did they ask for a drink of water?”

Officer Ron Gould of the LAPD’s West Valley Gray Squad, a unit that specializes in crimes against senior citizens, recently circulated a bulletin warning of “home invasion thieves.”

It’s a clever, cynical con. The crooks, Gould says, exploit the guilt that the elderly feel for failing to remember somebody they actually never knew.

“Do not feel embarrassed if you do not remember them,” the bulletin advises. “This is what the scam is about.”

Often, Gould says, the crooks also benefit because the elderly, once they discover they’ve been had, are too ashamed to share the story with police, friends and family.

Mrs. Thaxton understands that such embarrassment won’t do anybody any good. She volunteered her cautionary tale to warn other senior citizens and frustrate the crooks.

She doesn’t seem optimistic about recovering her wedding ring. By now it’s probably been fenced.

But wouldn’t it be something if the thieves still had it and had a change of heart?

Wishful thinking, I know. But it sure would be nice to find a happy ending for Mrs. Thaxton’s story.