{"id":383895,"date":"2026-04-17T08:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:07:08","slug":"police-alert-on-rogue-gardeners-targeting-elderly-after-3500-masterton-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383895\/","title":{"rendered":"Police alert on rogue gardeners targeting elderly after $3500 Masterton scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">They cut some branches, trimmed a hedge and charged $3500 for two hours\u2019 work. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThey\u2019ve driven the man, who\u2019s in his 70s, to the bank so he can withdraw the money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt should\u2019ve been a $600 job. These people take advantage of vulnerability and tend to target elderly victims or people who can\u2019t do the work themselves,\u201d Thom said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">He said it could be helpful to have conversations with older relatives or neighbours and make them aware that there are \u201ccharlatans who will try to get every dollar they can out of people\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Thom urged people to shop around and get recommendations from friends or family. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cTake your time and make sure you\u2019re not going to fall victim to these opportunists,\u201d Thom said. <\/p>\n<p>How to avoid being swindled<\/p>\n<p>Get recommendations from friends and family \u2013 and always get at least two quotes, in writing.Check the reputation of the business online, and check their credentials.If someone can\u2019t give you a written quote for their work decline their services.Be aware of those who resort to stories about coming back to do more but that they need the payment now.Take your time finding the right person to do the job \u2013 if they\u2019re putting pressure on you, it\u2019s likely a bad sign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They cut some branches, trimmed a hedge and charged $3500 for two hours\u2019 work. \u201cThey\u2019ve driven the man,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[199267,74,41242,8530,13239,15453,199266,29190,209,11551,3112,5511,89421,111,43,139,69,90,675,130623,1461,148136,42338,17902,4576],"class_list":{"0":"post-383895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-199267","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-alert","11":"tag-carried","12":"tag-charged","13":"tag-elderly","14":"tag-gardeners","15":"tag-gardening","16":"tag-group","17":"tag-hours","18":"tag-job","19":"tag-just","20":"tag-masterton","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-on","26":"tag-police","27":"tag-rogue","28":"tag-scam","29":"tag-shoddy","30":"tag-strangers","31":"tag-targeting","32":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}