sure i just wanted to talk a little bit today about the fact that we've seen a very troubling crime trend in recent weeks especially on the west half of district 7. in at least a dozen cases we've had elderly women whether they're out running errands shoveling snow or whatever the case may be as they're returning home they've been accosted by at least a single male in a couple of occasions there may have been a second male they were strong robbed which means they were knocked to the ground and their purses and belongings were taken from them and we're hoping to get the message out to the citizens of district 7 in hopes that they will be more vigilant in their neighborhoods pay attention to their surroundings and watch out for each other what we've found is that very often these women are traveling alone to and from stores or in other cases just running errands or shoveling outside as they're returning to their residence they're approached by a male who generally tries to knock them down and take their purse in a couple of occasions he's actually pushed them into the house and taken some other items all the cases are similar but there are different words spoken and he's approaching from different locations in any in every case so we can't really say there's a specific pattern that they should be watching out for what we are asking the citizens to do is watch out for each other and of course as far as the elderly victims are concerned we're hoping that they do pay attention to their surroundings i know very often when they're returning home they feel safe in their neighborhood but they really should be paying attention as they're approaching their house especially at night watch for suspicious people or vehicles and i would hope that if they have family or friends that are at home when they're returning home it might be a good idea to call ahead and just let the family or friends know that they're arriving so people can be watching out for them as they return home lighting is very important if they have exterior lighting on their garages or houses i would ask that they have those lights on at night and the police officers of district 7 are very aware of what's going on we have a number of officers devoted to this crime trend along with detectives from the criminal investigation bureau and we do hope to have this person identified and apprehended in the near future the descriptions generally are a black male in his 30s to early 40s 5 foot 10 stocky build and very often the description we get is a dark jacket he is usually on foot when he approaches the women although we do have evidence to indicate he has access to a vehicle we don't know how they're being targeted we're re-interviewing a lot of the victims we do believe that as they're out running errands shopping or whatever the case may be they may be followed to their residences that does appear to be the case at least in some of the instances at other times they are out shoveling snow or doing work in their yard and somebody may be walking or traveling past in a vehicle and notice that they're out by themselves and target them for that reason we're talking west of 60th street generally between locust and hampton avenue