Wait? This is a scam? I can let go?

An unfortunate incident but it makes me wonder. Do people get progressively dumber as they get older? How does this work? We start out dumb and get progressively smarter. Except for the years between 14 and 20 where there is a precipitious, and as yet, unexplained drop in intelligence. We then resume the upward trend but where is the apex in this learning curve? At what age is the breakpoint and the ensuing steady decline? 40? 50? 60? This scenario holds true for most people but I myself seem to be an anomily. I just keep getting smarter and smarter. I calculate that at this rate, by the time I am 91 I will have the intelligence of 17 Albert Einsteins. I will NOT stand there holding the toilet handle down to keep the house from exploding. I will TAPE it down. It must really suck to not be me. You may think this post cruel and insensitive but you must realize, I am smarter than you and will be even more smarter than you tomorrow.

What kind of person does this? Scumbag is an understatement.

what a scumbag.

geeze, with that kind of ingenuity, think of the kinds of white collar crime that guy could pull off if he got a job on Wall Street or something............he could do it legally..........

When I lived in the Heights, this crew (or a group similar) pulled a scam like this on my neighbor (he was in his 80's). They are slick and really put fear into their victims. If you have an elderly neighbor, please take a moment to let them know these scum are trolling our neighborhoods again.

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Cops: Jersey City senior holds toilet handle while water company impostor ransacks house
by The Jersey Journal
Monday November 17, 2008, 8:56 PM

A man pretending to be a United War employee gained entry to an apartment on Cator Avenue in Jersey City this afternoon and then stole $3,650 from the 91-year-old resident, reports said.

Responding to a knock on her front door around 2 p.m., the female resident told police she found a man who told her he was an employee with the water company and that "there was an emergency" and "he had to check the water," reports said.

The man first opened and shut a faucet in the kitchen and then went into the victim's bathroom where he flushed the toilet, reports said.

The man then instructed the victim to "hold down the flush handle or else the house will explode," reports said.

The victim, who said the man was speaking to someone on his cellphone the entire time he was in her house, did as she was told, reports said.

But after about two minutes, the victim told police "I didn't care if the house exploded" and walked into her living-room, at which time she discovered her house had been ransacked, reports said.

The man -- described as white, slender, and in his 40s -- got away with $3,650 in cash the victim kept in a metal box, reports said.