Warning over cold callers

Gardaí have issued a warning in relation to cold callers claiming to be water inspectors or trades people after receiving a report this week of a theft under these circumstances.

Superintendent Derek Smart of Ennis Garda District said the incident occurred between 2pm and 3pm on Monday, December 2 when a man gained entry to a house in Connolly Villas, Ennis on the pretence of checking the water connections. While there, he stole a sum of money.

Superintendent Smart said, “This person just turned up to the door. The advice is not to let anybody into your house. Legitimate people who are carrying out water metering checks do not need to go into your property, so you don’t need to let them into your house. If you are at all in doubt, just say you are closing the door and you are phoning the gardaí to establish their bona fides. Anybody doing this door to door stuff should have identification”.

He explained, in this particular instance, no one was subjected to violence. “We call it a sneak test, once they get into the house, they manage to take money that is there. The same applies to anyone calling to do jobs on people’s roofs and things like that, no one can tell by looking at a roof that there is structural damage, they would have to go up and examine it before they could establish that. The other issue we have is people looking to clean other people’s chutes. If you don’t know those people, do not let them onto your property at all because once they look at the chutes, they start to say there are other problems and before you know it, they are totting up the money.”

Carol Byrne