The Kensington Dog Watching Scam

For the last week, KWT Neighbors, the local Kensington Windsor-Terrace listserv, has been abuzz about a man who rings your doorbell with a dog in hand, asking you to help him out. His sister, Dawn, has just moved into the neighborhood; he’s managed to lock his wallet and key inside her apartment. He’d like you to dog sit and finance his cab ride to pick up a duplicate key.

This scam had occurred 3 times since just before Christmas: once today, and once Thursday evening. Both Carey and Lisa, this past weeks’ targets, had a better idea of what the dogs looked like than they did of the man. Jullean, the person approached before Christmas, described him as a “slim built white man.” Lisa agreed.

I sent them all a NYPD CRIME Description Sheet to nail down the man’s physical description and jog their memory on what occurred, but I didn’t hear back. According to Jullean’s post, the scam man said his kids go to PS 230. When one of the targets suggested he could ask Pet Haven or Sean Casey Animal Rescue to watch his dog, he knew both.

Two KWT bloggers thought the dogs could have come from Sean Casey Animal Rescue.  But Sean Casey, who talked to me this afternoon, assured me these dogs were not his: a “rather sweet-looking Chihuahua mix"; a “big black dog with no tail”. or in Lisa’s description: “a sweet looking dog; a pit bull mix— kind of gold colored.” Moreover, Sean emphasized, adults do not walk his dogs.

But Sean continued, he is almost sure he knows who is doing these scams: a long- time resident who has a pack of dogs, and indeed, has kids at PS 230. The man has done scams before, Sean added, but never using dogs.  His “magic number” is to ask for $40.  Sean said he would call both the 72 and the 66 Precinct and give them the info he had.  Without a complaint on file at the precinct, however, he said, his info would be ignored.