Charleston Police Chief Justin Gammage is warning citizens to be extra vigilant in the wake of the reported Tuesday robbery of a city resident by two men posing as door-to-door rug salesmen.
Robert Yarbrough, a senior citizen who lives on Railroad Street in west Charleston, welcomed into his home two unknown white men who knocked on his front door at about 2 p.m., Gammage said.
In a report filed with police less than an hour later, Yarbrough said one of the men engaged him in conversation about rugs, Gammage said.
Yarbrough noted that he lost track of the whereabouts of the other man, who apparently slipped away from the front of the house to a bedroom in the rear.
After the sales pitch was wrapped up, the pair — one described by Yarbrough as an older white male and the other, younger — left Yarbrough’s home, driving away in a black or dark gray pickup truck, Gammage said.
It was not until they were gone, the chief noted, that Yarbrough went to his bedroom in the back of the house to find it “ransacked” and a .38-caliber revolver he kept there missing.
Gammage said he believes the men are merely posing as door-to-door salesmen while operating a scam whereby once allowed into a home, one man distracts the homeowner while the other searches the residence.
“We are pursuing any leads,” the chief noted, asking that anyone with information contact the police department at 647-5841.
