Burglars Posing as WSSC Employees Hit Montgomery County

Takoma Park Police warned residents of a transient criminal group posing as WSSC employees and targeting the elderly. A group of burglars who started in Pennsylvania migrated down to Germantown recently, police said.

Detectives from the 5th District Investigative Section are investigating a residential burglary that occurred on Jan. 28, in Germantown, where the suspects represented themselves as employees of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.

Around 2 p.m., officers responded to the 19500 block of Scenery Drive for the report of a burglary. The investigation revealed that the 86-year-old male victim saw a pickup truck enter his driveway, police said. Two suspects knocked at the door and told the victim there was a problem with the water line and that needed to check pipes in his basement. The victims heard a noise upstairs, and the two suspects ran out of the home. Three suspects were seen leaving together in the pickup truck. It was later learned that a third suspect had entered the house, forced open the master bedroom closet door and taken a safe containing jewelry, police said.

 The truck was described as being in good condition, silver in color, perhaps a 2000 to 2004 model with a very wide back end.