The Brussels prosecutor’s office has issued a warning of a fake postman operating in the city, heating his way into the homes of mainly elderly ladies and robbing them.
“He has already struck 14 times,” a spokesperson said. He is thought to be accompanied by a woman. The robberies recorded took place between March and the present, mainly in the police zone encompassing Uccle, Auderghem and Watermael-Boisfort, particularly in the area of Avenue Winston Churchill.
The technique barely varies: the man rings at the home of an elderly lady and says he has a package to deliver. The occupant goes downstairs to open the door, leaving her own apartment door open, at which point the female accomplice, who has been hiding in the common stairway of the apartment block, enters the apartment and robs the occupant.
As the woman thief is leaving she passes the victim in the hallway, and explains that the “postman” has gone to fetch the package from his van. Eventually, the victim tires of waiting and goes back to her apartment, only to find she has been robbed.
The total value of what was stolen in the cases so far has not been revealed, while all cases reported have been put in the hands of a special magistrate, in an effort to identify the thieves and bring them to justice.
“We are calling on everyone to be particularly cautious,” the prosecutor’s office said. And they advise persons living alone to lock their apartment door when going downstairs to deal with someone at the door, and to call police if the fake postman fails to appear or a woman appears to explain his absence.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
