A police officer doing rounds disturbed a bogus Neighbourhood Watch member trying to con an elderly couple in Redbridge.
The 89-year-old husband and his 94-year-old wife had let the man into their home because he told them he believed they had been burgled.
A Redbridge Police spokesman said the couple answered a knock at the door at 2.30pm to a man saying he was from the local Neighbourhood Watch.
She added: “He told the woman he believed some of her items had been stolen and asked to check her jewellery and where they kept cash.
“They took him to the bedroom and showed him where they kept jewellery in a draw and the husband showed him money in the room next door.”
By coincidence, a PCSO doing house calls then knocked on the front door.
A police spokesman said: “When the thief heard it was police he fled out the back.”
The con artist escaped from the property in Falmouth Gardens on February 28 empty handed.
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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