MEN posing as plain clothes policemen stole £2,080 in cash from two elderly people in Chippenham on Monday December 17.
The thefts took place within 20 minutes of each other in Malmesbury Road and Downing Street, about half a mile apart.
The first theft took place at Parklands, a sheltered housing complex in Malmesbury Road.
The accommodation has a security lock and password but the men got in and knocked on the door of a 71-year-old man.
"They said they were police officers and had come to warn him about robberies in the area," said PC Andy Fortune, of Chippenham Police.
The pensioner let the men in and said one man started looking at bits of paper on a table and the other looked through drawers.
The elderly man became suspicious, asked the men to leave, and after they had gone, found £80 that had been on the table was missing.
He described one of the men as white, about 25 years old, 5ft 10ins, slim, with bushy black hair, pale skin, and was wearing a dark jacket and jeans.
The second man was also white, in his 20s, about 5ft 8ins, of heavier build than the other man, with blond hair. He was also wearing plastic gloves.
The second theft was from an 86-year-old woman living in a bungalow in Downing Street, Chippenham.
The men got in through the front door, which was unlocked, and one went upstairs, and the other went through to the living room.
The woman lives downstairs because she has trouble walking.
One of the men told the woman he was a plain clothes police officer investigating a burglary and asked her whether she kept any money in the house.
She said she did, and the man took £2,000 in savings before leaving, telling the woman a police inspector would be along shortly.
PC Fortune said the man upstairs did not take anything.
The elderly woman said the man who came in to the living room was white, between 30-40 years old, and dressed smartly.
In a third incident a white man thought to be between 20-24 years old was confronted in the hallway of a pensioner's home in Park Lane at 8pm.
The man had got in through an unlocked front door, had looked through a cabinet in the living room, and met the house owner, who is 84, in the hallway.
The intruder went to leave but was then confronted by the man's son before escaping.
The man was clean-shaven, wearing a long-sleeved close-fitting jersey, black trousers, and was about 5ft 6ins.
"The three offences may well not be connected, but we cannot discount that," said PC Fortune.
Anyone with information is asked to call Chippenham police on (01249) 654455.
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