Penza, 5 May 2015. PenzaNews. Penza police continue investigating a criminal case on robbery of a pensioner. The suspects are two residents of Mari El.

“In December 2014 the attackers separately got into the apartment of an elderly man, 85. First, one of them dressed as a woman, introduced himself as a Pension Fund employee and told the old man that a currency reform is coming. Under this pretext, he asked the man to provide all the available funds in order to copy the bill numbers. A few minutes later the second attacker arrived. He introduced himself as an employee of the city gas inspection and pretended to be checking the gas equipment in the apartment,” the press service of the regional department of the Internal Affairs Ministry informed PenzaNews agency.

The ministry added that when the pensioner brought all of his savings, 167,000 rubles, the men pushed the victim aside and pulled the money out of his hands, after which they fled from the scene.

“The victim ran after them into the street, where he saw a neighbor, to whom he explained that he was robbed. The man started chasing the robbers, who threw some of the stolen money on the snow and fled,” the ministry said.

The police noted that during the operational-search activities, the Criminal Investigation Department officers identified the suspects.

“One of them is a Mari El resident, 28, previously convicted of similar crimes, was detained. Currently, the police conduct operational activities to detain the second attacker,” the press service stressed.