Elderly couple fall victim to theft
While preparing to celebrate their 68th anniversary, a Canton Township couple were unceremoniously scammed and had their wedding rings and other items stolen less than a week before the big day Sunday.
Debi Sutton said her elderly parents, who live on Lincoln Hill and do not wish to be identified, were the targets of thieves after they answered a knock at their front door Tuesday from a woman claiming to be a property surveyor.
Sutton said the woman at the door mentioned her parents’ neighbors by name and said the neighbors needed access through their property. The woman then allegedly asked them to show her their property line, which is when they left the house and walked with her through the yard.
Sutton said the woman started talking on the phone with a person she said was her boss, but she believes the woman was communicating with an accomplice inside the house. The next day, the couple discovered about $500 cash was stolen from their master bedroom drawer, as well as about $3,000 worth of jewelry and $200 in collector coins.
Sutton said many of the items in the jewelry box were costume jewelry, but others have important sentimental value. She said her parents liked to give collector coins to their grandchildren, and it is upsetting that they may not have their wedding rings for their anniversary Sunday.
“That’s the thing that’s the most heartbreaking, that my mom doesn’t have her wedding ring,” she said.
The family will provide a $3,000 reward for the returned property.
According to state police, the woman was wearing a low-cut blouse, black pants, hat and black and orange work gloves. A light-colored pickup truck and a light-colored sedan were at the scene.
Sutton said her parent’s credit cards and checkbook were untouched, so she knows “that they were just after things that obviously were available without tracing.”
Sutton said it is “frightening” someone would take advantage of older people like her parents, who are in their late 80s.
Sutton hopes that the person who stole the rings will be sensitive enough to return them. To report any information regarding the stolen items, call state police at 724-223-5200 or Sutton at 724-225-8863.