Police are warning residents to stay vigilant as a series of imposters, one posing as an appraiser for bank, appear to be targeting a Phoenix neighborhood, according to a report from ABC TV-15 News.
Kacia Huddleston, a Phoenix resident, told the station she was fooled by the appraiser impersonator because she saw a lot of people coming and going from her home because of house renovations.
There were construction workers moving about inside Huddleston’s home when a woman came to her door claiming to be an appraiser for the bank.
“That’s how she got in. I thought my husband forgot to tell me someone was coming over,” Huddleston told the television station. “The woman told me she was there to take pictures and had arranged the time with my husband, Bryan.
“She knew my husband’s name, and as I was in the midst of texting my husband to see if she was supposed to be here, she walked right in,” Huddleston added.
Huddleston said the woman claiming to be an appraiser walked into her home and began taking pictures. Footage from the home’s surveillance camera showed the woman looked into Huddleston's mail box before approaching the home. Bryan Huddleston told his wife he had no idea who the woman was.
“The whole time that I’m asking her questions, she never stopped taking pictures. She was moving fast through my house,” Huddleston said. “I asked her to leave at that point, and she kept taking pictures while she was walking out of my house. I kept asking for ID, and what bank she worked for, but she didn’t even look at me and ran out to her car and took off.”
Huddleston thought the appraiser impersonator was casing the house in light of other related incidents in the neighborhood.
The police department stated officially to be sure of someone’s identity if they are in your house, or lurking about the neighborhood.
“Ask them for ID, ask them, ‘Hey, let me see a business card,’ ” Phoenix police Sgt. Mercedes Fortune told the station.
Phoenix police calls the trend troublesome, but not new. Locating personal information online is the first step these impersonators likely will take.
“What we share is what people will use against you if that’s what they’re up to,” Fortune said.