okay uh today we're just here to uh get some information out regarding some burglary investigations that the city of Milwaukee Police Department is currently investigating that we refer to as theft by Trick investigations these uh incidents are occurring primarily on the south side of the city of Milwaukee we have had a couple of incidences that have occurred on the north side of the City these suspects typically Target elderly individuals uh they are appearing at their home they will typically appear to uh uh the residents as a contractor or some type of utility worker they will attempt to gain entry into the residences by some type of uh story indicating that they're there doing work on either a neighbor's residence or uh for a utility company and they need access to the house to uh complete their work um once they lure these uh victims either into the basement of the residence or out into the yard then uh additional co-actors will enter the residence uh rumage through the home looking for money jewelry other property to to take uh typically there's communication that is conducted by either a cell phone or some type of radio and uh once the actors that are going through the residences complete what they're doing and they make contact with the initial suspect that has lured these individuals to whatever location either outside or in the basement uh he completes what he is doing and then leaves the residents and the victims usually will find that their homes have been burglarized at some time uh later during that uh day or the very next day um right now we are looking at approximately 10 incidents that have occurred since the end of October uh five of which have occurred this week alone uh with one additional one occurring ing uh last week uh and as I indicated most of the victims in these incidents have been elderly citizens uh one thing that we are looking at is that the possibility that some of these individuals have been followed from either uh uh shopping uh with for groceries or other various errands that they've run uh so we do want the citizens to be aware of their surroundings especially when they're driving home to make sure that they're not being followed and if there are some concerns when someone appears at your door indicating that they either work for a contractor and or a utility company to request some identification uh if they're legitimate then they will not have any problem either producing identification or giving you a phone number that you can call to contact that company and if they are legitimate they will be willing to wait if they leave uh then that may indicate that they are trying to somehow scam their way into your residence uh what we would like is if anyone who may have had some someone appear at their residence and uh has not been the victim but just was uneasy about these individuals and didn't feel comfortable you may have some information that may be pertinent to our investigation we would like you to contact the Milwaukee Police Department at uh 935 7360 with anything that you have um we have a couple of detectives that are working on this case during the day and the second shift and they will be uh happy to get that information from you uh we are aware that there are several other cases that are being investigated also by the Suburban uh police departments west of the city uh of a very similar nature so anything that you have would be certainly appreciative for us to uh continue our investigation with uh the descriptions we've uh obtained from Witnesses are either Hispanic or white males with very dark skin usually ranging from uh anywhere in their 20s um to about the mid to late 40s uh we have several vehicles that have been observed uh at this locations at these locations uh usually a light a light gray or silver minivan a small tan or beige minivan a white or gray box style vehicle uh a red Auto and then a light cream colored Auto as well so received any calls we would certainly like any descriptions of any individuals any descriptions of any aut if you are able to get any vehicle plates we would certainly like that information as well if you see these individuals going to any particular residence and you feel uneasy about a neighbor please CH down the license plate number uh any information you can provide will be grateful true uh they've used the rules of uh being from the water department so they need to get into the basement to check the water pipes they'll go down there they'll bang on some pipes uh some IND individuals will say that they've had a a break a water main break in the area so they need to check on uh the the pipes and the homes so that would be attributed to the cold weather