Fraud cable guy robs elderly woman

The old ‘cable guy' trick, topped with fear of electrocution, worked like a charm on an unsuspecting 61-year-old woman, when a fraudster posing as a worker from a cable company made away with her gold bangles.

Cable con: The accused tells Rekha Lochwani to hold the cables and gives the remote to the maid, asking them to tell him when the TV got reception, while he pretends to check the wiring

Last week, 61-year-old Rekha Lochwani was in her house at Sodawala Lane, Borivli (W) when in the afternoon, a man knocked at her door. He identified himself as the representative of her cable provider and said he had come to check the set-top box. The domestic help, who had come a while before him, was in the house at the time.

After he returns from a survey of the house, he asks Rekha to remove her two gold bangles or else she would get roasted with the current flowing through the cables in her hand

According to officials from Borivli police station, the man entered the house and asked for some water. He then asked Rekha to hold the cable wire and thrusted the remote in her maid's hand, asking them to watch out for reception on the TV while he fidgeted with the wiring. In reality though, under the guise of checking the lines, he surveyed the entire house for about 15 minutes.

Rekha does as bidden and places the bangles aside. Having diverted their attention, the accused decamps with Rs 80,000 worth of bangles. Illustrations/Amit Bandreu00a0

Popular science
When his recce yielded nothing valuable to be stolen, he set his sights on the gold bangles Rekha was wearing. Assuming a concerned tone, he asked her to remove them because the metal could catch the current passing through the cables she was holding. He scared her with the vivid possibility of electrocution, and Rekha immediately took off the bangles and placed them aside.

The cable guy. Pic/Nayan Sahane

The accused diverted her attention, and pretending to fix the connection, decamped with the gold bangles worth around Rs 80,000.

For some time, Rekha and her maid did not realise that he had fled. The investigation officer from Borivli police said, "We have registered a case under IPC section 420 (cheating). Based on the description given by the victim and her maid, we have made sketches of the accused. Till now we have no leads."