New sketches released in deception burglaries

NEW YORK (WABC) -- There's a new clue in a rash of burglaries on Long Island, where one woman distracts the homeowner while another gets to work.

"I'm mad. I mean let's face it. Somebody comes in takes your jewelry boxes and everything and just walks right out and things nothing of it," said Marie Sorenson, the homeowner.

A jewelry box filled with decades of memories is now gone from the dresser where it sat for 46 years.

Two days after Christmas, Marie Sorenson was out of the house.

Her 81-year-old husband Gilbert, who served his country in Korea, was home alone watching Eyewitness News when the door bell rang.

"I said, 'Oh I have to get up', and I went to the door and she said, 'Oh I'm your new neighbor. I just moved in down the street,'" Gilbert Sorenson said.

She told him she'd spotted a problem with his backyard fence.

So he went with her to look as an accomplice entered the front door and cleaned out Marie's most cherished possessions.

"It's all sentimental stuff, see. It isn't stuff you can ever get back, you'll never get it back," Marie Sorenson said.

"Somebody, a stranger, has to come into your life just to make trouble for you and it caused me a lot of trouble," Gilbert Sorenson said.

The Sorenson's are in good company.

Wednesday, police released the second of two composite sketches, depicting a pair of thieves they say have been casing Nassau County's neighborhoods for more than a month and conning over half a dozen elderly victims.

"It's unbelievable. They are targeting our most vulnerable citizens. They are literally just preying on people who perhaps do not have the ability to distinguish between a con artist and a legitimate utility worker," police said.

The first three cases happened in mid-December in Wantagh, Massapequa Park and Jericho.

10 days later, there were another five cases in West Hempstead, Merrick, Massapequa Park and Bellmore.

A week after that, in early January, the last known case happened in Oceanside.

Sometimes, they've been driving a red car with a Florida license plate.

Investigators are hoping someone knows something that can help catch the crooks that targeted the Sorenson's, and so many others.

"Even if I didn't have the money, if I was starving or something, I wouldn't pick on the elderly, I'd pick on somebody who'd give me a formidable fight," a resident said.

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