'Roofers' Scam Resident, Burglarize His Home

Residents should beware of a scam in which men in the guise of roofers wanting to inspect a job try to gain a homeowner's confidence in order to pull off a burglary.

It happened to one Wauwatosa resident, who fortunately lost no property in the episode.

According to the police report:

At 2:01 p.m. May 30, officers were called to a residence in the 12000 block of Diane Drive on a report of a burglary.

The homeowner said that he had been working in his front yard when a pickup truck pulled into his driveway with two men inside. One man got out, introduced himself as Tony, and said that he had helped replace the roof on the home some years before and had been asked by his company to stop by and check its condition.

The man asked if there was anyone else at home, and the victim told him there was not. The suspect then asked if he had a ladder about – a roofer without a ladder – and the victim took him to the back of the house to get one.

The suspect set the ladder against the back of the house and climbed onto the roof, where he kept asking the homeowner questions and asking him to get things, keeping him in the back yard for about 15 minutes.

The victim grew increasingly uneasy about the other man who had remained in front in the truck. The homeowner had left the door to his attached garage open and the door from there into the house unlocked.

When he finally insisted they go back to the front of the home, the man quickly made a phone call and gave some kind of directions in Spanish.

When they got to the front of the home, the second man was seated in the truck, where they had left him, but upon returning to his unlocked home, the owner found that the master bedroom had been entered and his wife’s dresser and other things were disturbed.

He described the first suspect as a Hispanic man, 20 to 30 years old, 5-feet-6-inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds. He did not get a good look at the second suspect, but said he was also Hispanic. He said they were driving a newer model dark blue pickup, possibly a Ford, with a black cover on the bed.