S Pienaar, Constantia
We feel very stupid to have allowed ourselves to be fooled by a young man calling himself “Andrew”, who claimed to be from the city council.
He first visited us at 5.30pm a few weeks ago and asked to check the sewer which runs at the bottom of our garden. He pretended to do so and left.
On Thursday March 23, “Andrew” rang our doorbell, at 7am, and asked us as a matter of urgency to let him in to check the sewer again. Since we knew him from his previous visit, we reluctantly did so.
He “examined” the sewer again and left after 10 minutes, taking with him our two new laptops and R500 while our backs were turned.
“Andrew” is a well-built young African man of medium height. He wore, on both occasions, a smart white satin shirt with black piping and black buttons tucked into neat black trousers. This may be his calling outfit.
He is very well spoken in English and has an engaging manner. He arrived on foot both times, but our neighbour saw a white minibus with a logo on the front parking just up the road shortly before 7am.
If you see him, do not let him in, and call the police or security services to check if he is connected with case number 274/3/2017 at Wynberg police station.
More importantly, and as we should have done, always ask anyone who claims to be working for the council, for identification before letting them onto your property. We are always being told this. We all know it. Yet it is all too easy to be taken in as we were and live to rue the day.
