Warning for the Elderly at Barnsley General

Just a note for anyone who has elderly relatives using the Hospital , a pretty despicable thief is at work.
My 87 year old mother was robbed today in the entrance way , where the glass foyer is at the main entrance .
My old mum is very independent and switched on , she went on her own for a routine appointment without telling us .
After seeing the consultant she used the cashpoint to draw some cash to pay the taxi and also a few bills . He or they must have been sat in there watching her , she went and sat in the glass part to wait for the taxi coming and was approached by a very well dressed man with a heavy east european accent , he held out a £2 coin and asked her to change it , she got her purse out and changed it for two one pound coins, he then handed a one pound coin back and asked for change for that , she gave him a fifty and five tens...then he said he wanted 20 pences , all the time getting closer and closer until she became frightened and pushed him
away , at which point he turned and went back inside the hospital , at that moment the taxi turned up and she was relieved to get in .
When she got home she went in the purse to pay the taxi driver and it was empty . The heartless ******* had done her for over £100 .
She's Ok apart from floods and floods of tears and we're just relieved she wasn't hurt . The Police are involved and hopefully CCTV can nail the shithouse , but if you know of anyone going ask them to take care .

 

The scumbag.

 

That is bad. Glad your mum is ok after what happened.

 

Something very very similar happened to a customer of ours. I'll set the scene. Regular customer comes walks into our shop, elderly gentleman who struggles to walk most days and uses a walking stick. Just as he comes in a very well dressed man (shirt, trousers, shoes and a jacket slung over one arm) comes in behind and our regular customer lets us serve the well dressed man first. He asks if we do mobile phone repairs (in a very well spoken and well mannered eastern european accent) we dont so he goes on his way and we think nothing of it.
Our regular customer then continues on talking about us doing a repair job on his equipment for him but not before mentioning his wife his waiting for him outside (which she always does). 20 minutes pass and suddenly his wife walks into shop and says to him I think i've been robbed.
So the story as our customers wife tells us goes. She drops our customer off outside shop and then turns around and goes to park up across from our shop. She goes into the boot of her car to get her shopping bag containing her purse and other items, as they are about to go shopping, and gets back into the drivers side of her car. Then this very well dressed man opens the car door and sits down next to her in the car. (yes, actually gets in the ******* car!) And then asks her for some change and proceeds to confuse the poor lady asking for different change all the time. Getting closer and closer to her invading her space. Eventually the lady tells him to get out of the car. And he does and swiftly scarpers. Then after checking things through she realises her purse is missing from her shopping bag which had quite of lot of notes in it. Anyway not even thinking that its the same man who walked into our shop (we have cctv in the shop) we tell her to go to next door as they have CCTV on the outside of the shop looking at the street. Low and behold they pop back into ours and say that the man walked into our shop first then went back across the street waiting for the lady to park up then got in the car then left the car and went on his way.

It was three weeks before the police came and enquired with us about the footage. I dont know if they caught him yet but from your story it sounds like the same guy or a similar tactic probably used.

The customer that it happened to dont come to Barnsley that much as they live in Tickhill and normally only come to our shop as they have been a customer for years. Just a bit crap that the only time they do come some scumbag does this to them.

 

Scum. Hopefully he'll show up on CCTV and the Bobbies will catch him.

 

Cue the onslaught from the usual crew for mentioning the "East European accent."

 

I doubt anyone will take it that way...just a fact of the case to warn other elderly people of the dangers .

 

There really are some heartless b*******s in this world.

Hope they get him but knowing our fine boys in blue I suspect it's a forlorn hope.

 

Rotten basturd. Hope Mam's ok Andy and the cameras will help get him nicked. Mine has to go next tuesday, I'll be going with her.

 

Aye, the Oswalds will be all over that.
Scumbags are scumbags no matter where they're from and no place is immune..

 

Ha Ha, knew you'd be one of the first to bite!

 

Thanks for that RM , can I ask do you still have a copy of the cctv footage ?

 

Just a note to say thanks to the milkman who uses this forum , for changing a cheque for my mum at the weekend to save her going to the cashpoint whilst she's still feeling vulnerable .
Top geezer !!... whoever you are......many thanks.

 

Oh that will be Ernie, top man.

Sad to hear your mum is now wary of going out. Quite understandable. I hope she regains her confidence soon mate. Has there been any progress on catching the scumbag?

 

You are welcome. We do try to be helpful to our customers. Most of whom are elderly. A declining industry unfortunately. Seems as though people would rather give their cash to Tesco than their local small businesses.

 

Thanks to all for showing their concern , just an update...apparently my old mum's faculties passed the test , her description was good enough for them to trace the b*****d on the Hospital CCTV , which has led them to link it to town centre CCTV footage of the same man and several accomplices being mini bussed in from out of town ( the Police now know where ) and robbing pensioners in and around the market...some arrests have been made , although that particular scumbag is still waiting for a tug on the collar .
Thanks for your concerns...she is fine , and the news of this progress has cheered her up no end .