An 85-year-old woman and her family are asking for help identifying the three women who attempted to use a distraction and burglarize their home in Colton around 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 5.
The homeowner, Margarita Martinez, said that she was enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon sitting on her porch when she was approached by a stranger.
As seen in footage from Martinez’s front door Ring camera, the unknown woman started asking the 85-year-old questions like, “Is someone in the house?” or, “Are you alone?”
The homeowner’s daughter told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson that out of precaution, Martinez told the woman that her son was inside the house.
“My mom said at one point she put her hand in her purse and that’s when my mom worried,” said Martinez’s daughter. “She thought she might have a weapon or something.”
However, instead of grabbing a weapon, the woman grabbed her phone and asked Martinez to call her son – but Martinez refused.
The woman then proceeded to ask for Aloe Vera plants, persistent in keeping the 85-year-old’s attention, saying which specific plants she wanted.
The moment she got Martinez to turn away, two more women appeared from hiding behind the bushes and one of them quickly went inside the house.
“It seems like they had signals to each other because you could see them waving and saying it’s clear,” detailed Martinez’s daughter.
What the three women didn’t know was that Martinez’s daughter and her husband were inside the house.
“At that point I started yelling, you need to get out of the house, get out of the house and my husband also started yelling,” said Martinez’s daughter.
The three women quickly left as Martinez and her family called the Colton police.
Other than plants, family members told KTLA that it’s unclear if the three women managed to take anything else.
Martinez and her family said the incident rattled their sense of security. In addition to reporting it to Colton police, they also posted the surveillance video to social media in hopes that someone would recognize the three women.
“We’re praying that they’re caught so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Martinez’s daughter.
In addition to investigations by Colton police, Chino police told KTLA that they are also investigating a similar-looking group of women – matching the descriptions of the suspects in Martinez’s case – who broke into a home on Dec. 18.
Witnesses or anyone with information that could be helpful in solving this case are encouraged to contact the police.
An 85-year-old woman and her family are asking for help identifying the three women who attempted to use a distraction and burglarize their home in Colton around 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 5. The homeowner, Margarita Martinez, said that she was enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon sitting on her porch when she was approached by a […]
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