We’ve been hearing reports of another scam making the rounds in Queen Anne this week. The door-to-door “locked out of my house,” or “locksmith scam” is back in action in several neighborhoods around the city. This scam was making the rounds back in January, but had died out some until May, when the scammer reappeared in Green Lake. All the reports indicate that this particular scam is being run by the same guy, who has tried the same story, with a few neighborhood specific variations, in a number of communities around town. From our partners over at My Green Lake:
The man known as the “locksmith scammer” is described as being between 5’6″ and 6′ tall, of slight build, African American, and balding.
The man typically claims to be a janitor working at a nearby school and he sometimes says that his partner works at Microsoft. He’s new to the neighborhood, he says, and is locked out of his house. However, he claims, he is a few dollars short of the money he needs to pay a locksmith.
The locksmith scammer has been spotted running his scam in Green Lake, Roosevelt, Maple Leaf, Laurelhurst, Ballard, and now Queen Anne. One of our readers, Ron, says the scammer showed up at his North Queen Anne home (in the Florentia, 3rd Ave area by SPU) at around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday introducing himself as a neighbor and asking for money.
“He came to my house and I had read about him though the Green Lake blog. His story changed a bit, said he was a janitor at SPU and living around the corner in a townhouse, but the rest was the same. Only needed a few dollars to pay the locksmith, etc.,” he wrote.
We haven’t heard of any incidents of theft, assault or violence in relation to the scammer, but in one case in Green Lake back in May the scammer tried to persuade a woman to let him into her apartment. From My Green Lake:
Kailea Ball, who manages an apartment building just west of Green Lake, reports that the locksmith scammer recently knocked on the door of one of her tenants. “I guess he got REALLY pushy until he realized her [boyfriend] was there,” Kailea tweeted earlier this evening. “Wouldn’t leave. Kept asking to come in, saying ‘Let me in. I’m gay – I’m not going to hurt you.’ When they gave him $ he demanded more.”
* Thanks to Ron for the tip!