Warning over leaving out Mutual Aid payments

A reader has contacted me to say that money he left out by his front door for a Covod-19 Mutual Aid volunteer to pay a bill was stolen before the volunteer arrived. It was inside a housing block and the reader said that he had never before been a victim of crime and now he had been while shielding with possibe Corona-Virus in his own home.

He wanted to warn other vulnerable people via Wembley Matters. The local Mutual Aid  group told me that the procedure should be that the volunteer rings the intercom or the telephone to say they are outside before the recipient puts the money out.

The Mutual Aid group have clubbed together to make up for the loss.

Please be careful.

Warning: Robbers posing as builders in Wembley Park

I tweeted about this yesterday evening and my neighbour who was the victim popped in this morning to give me more details.

Yesterday evening around 7pm a white English man, 30-35 years old with no discernible regional accent knocked on my neighbour's maisonette door to say he was doing some work in the flat below and to apologise for any noise nuisance.

He returned 30 to 45 minutes later to say the work had been completed and my neighbour assured him that he had heard nothing. The 'workman' turned to go and then, Colombo style, stopped and asked if he could just check the water pressure which might have been affected by the work he had done.

He went into the kitchen to the stop-cock under the sink and then asked my neighbour to hold something while he checked elsewhere. My neighbour's suspicions were aroused when the man then closed the kitchen door on him.

Coming out of the kitchen he discovered all the cupboard doors open and the man investigating a tin box. Simultaneously another man, black baseball pulled down, came through the front door which must have been left ajar by his accomplice.

My neighbour, no Spring chicken, managed to kick them both out.

Be warned.