D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton scammed at her home by fake HVAC crew

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting representative in the House, was scammed out of more than $4,300 by swindlers purporting to be an HVAC crew, police said.

The scammers arrived at Ms. Norton’s home in Southeast just after 3:30 p.m. Thursday and said they were doing fireplace and ductwork. Ms. Norton, 88, let them in and place a charge on her credit card, according to a Metropolitan Police Department report cited by WRC-TV.

The police said the swindlers had tried and failed to solicit Ms. Norton in August and September, but were told to leave before they could enter the home. 

Jacqueline Pelt, Ms. Norton’s campaign manager, reported the incident and told police that no one was scheduled or authorized to do service work at Ms. Norton’s residence, but the delegate’s credit card was charged $4,362, according to WTOP-FM.

“The Congresswoman employs a house manager who oversees all maintenance services, so she initially assumed her staff had arranged the visit and provided her credit card for payment. Upon notifying her house manager, who reviewed Ring doorbell footage and confirmed that no such appointment had been scheduled, the incident was immediately reported to the police,” Ms. Norton’s office told WRC-TV in a statement.

Ms. Norton’s office also said that the police were erroneous in claiming in their report that Ms. Norton, the oldest member of the House, suffers from dementia and has a caretaker.

“The medical diagnosis included in the police report was based on an assumption the reporting officer was unqualified to make,” her office said.

D.C. Council member Robert White, at-large Democrat and a former staffer of Ms. Norton’s, told WJLA-TV that the crime was “cruel” and that “it makes me angry, the fact that there are people who are going to prey on residents of D.C. I hate that that happened to her.”

Mr. White has launched a campaign to challenge Ms. Norton in next year’s Democratic primary. Ms. Norton, 88, has said she will seek re-election, having served in the House since 1991.

“I say that my seniority is what is very important, and I am not going to step aside,” Ms. Norton told Axios last month.