It is the kind of crime that is considered utterly shameless and unimaginable… preying on the elderly. But tonight, we report on a barefaced theft that could have very well resulted in a home invasion. Seventy-six year old Loretta Wright, mother of Anglican Bishop Phillip Wright, was at home inside their Southern Foreshore residence on Tuesday morning when a man, posing as a collection agent for a cable company, came knocking. The elderly woman, by her own admission, doesn’t normally open her doors to strangers but when she did she became the eleventh victim of a serial conman. Pretending to be there to collect outstanding arrears and check signal reception, the man made his way as far as the woman’s bedroom where he relieved her of money stowed beneath her pillow. The impostor took the opportunity while Bishop Wright was at work just around the corner and, when the ordeal was over with, he had made off with cash and jewelry. News Five spoke with the septuagenarian who recounted the incident.
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Loretta Wright, Robbery Victim
Loretta Wright
“Di man come and I gwen up soh ih come back and ih tell mi dat ih di work pan dis street here and ih seh ih mi di ya from Monday, but because ih noh si nobody ih sih di twenty-five pan di house. So I tell ahn no, I seh no, ah seh collect cable, ih seh yes, ah seh how so? Ah seh, no my son dehn suppose to pay da si office. Ih seh no because dehn wahn cut mi out and all dehn thing. Soh I tell ahn, ah seh hmm…deh ina di phone now and ih say ih di talk to the boss now and the boss tell ahn I fi give ahn twenty dollars or dehn wah cut me out. I tell ahn no man so I said alright then. Then Ih say I must click put on the TV and I said what’s wrong mien. So ih say but why? I said anyhow, I have wah money here, but it is not all for me—it is for me and mi daughter. So I tell ahn I wah give yo fifty dollars. Ih say okay. I say bwai ih noh make sense yo go nowhere because the TV di show good. So ih say but dehn wah cut yo. So I gone into the bedroom; I neva know the man deh behind mi di watch mi. So I take out the money from underneath mi pillow and take out wah fifty dollars. When I look back I say, but dah weh yo di do yah? I said wait outside and I will bring it. So I take out the fifty and I put back the purse with the money under the piullow. So I tell ahn why? I said anyhow go man; go dah front…I di come. Well the man come out dah front by the dinner table. And ih say oh I see wah cable wire. But I say that noh di work. The man come out and I say hah, see the fifty dollars yah. Ih say alright granny I gwen go get the receipt. Mi mind say go into the bedroom and when I gone under the pillow, mi little purse weh got the money gone. I said…when I come out yah, I noh see the man at all, at all. I gone so nobody and I gone the next side and nobody. That man gone with mi.”
Isani Cayetano
“At any point did you fear that this could have become a home invasion seeing as though you may have made yourself vulnerable to him having entered the premises?”
Loretta Wright
“Yes. So I believe that dah mi true because of how this man dress, dark blue with lotta hole and ih got on a black cap; ih kinda full and ih belly high and ih face kinda fullish, but dah wah dark dark man. I said well. Ih say anyhow, but it look like everybody di hustle ina this yah. I got wah face, but I can’t remember the name ah di man.”
The Belize Police Department has issued a be on the lookout warning for this con artist who is described as a dark complexioned male in his mid-fifties, dressed in a purple shirt and blue jeans pants.
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