The Santa Fe Police Department is warning of a female heroin addict with bad teeth who is allegedly going door to door soliciting money by claiming she has a sick child.
SFPD has received numerous reports over the past year that the woman, described in a press release as "appearing to be younger but looked older due to possible drug use (maybe 30s-50s?), 5'05" tall, slim build, dark longer hair in a pony tail, Hispanic, medium skin tone," uses the panhandling activity to case houses for future burglaries. Her boyfriend has been caught burglarizing houses, says Sgt Peter Neal, but police won't release his name at this time.
The woman was most recently reported in the Arroyo Chamiso area on Wednesday. She usually carries a cup with a photo of the child.
"We need people to call the police and not to encourage her by giving her money," Neal says. "One time we stopped her and she had like $80 cash and even a check somebody had written out for her—but she's actually taking advantage of these people's compassion, because while they're holding the door open for her and going to get money out of their purse or write a check for her, she's looking in the living room to see what they have, so her boyfriend can go break in a week or two later and steal their flat screen TV and stuff like that. I can't even describe how low I think that is."
Neal says it's important to notify police so they can give her citations to discourage the illegal activity and protect the neighborhood from possible burglaries.
