HAMMOND | Police are hailing a Wednesday traffic stop with bringing them their first major breakthrough toward stopping a rash of thefts from senior citizens which began last year.

More than three dozen robberies or attempted robberies of elderly residents in their homes committed by men claiming to be utility or service workers have been reported in Hammond and surrounding communities since December.

In each reported instance, an individual purporting to be a water department, gas, electric or other employee enters a senior citizen's home, and then distracts the resident while partners sneak in and ransack the house for cash and valuables.

Police on Wednesday stopped a red late-model Pontiac sedan at the corner of 165th Street and Calumet Avenue shortly after noon on reports that the men inside had been offering gas station patrons the use of their credit card for purchases in exchange for cash.

The four men in the car appeared to be Hispanic, police said, but were actually of Eastern European heritage with residency in Calumet City. Each reportedly carried a walkie-talkie radio.

Local victims of the distraction robbers have described the thieves as "looking Latino," and reported how the group's frontman talks into a mobile radio or cellular telephone in a language which is not English.

Pawn shop receipts for jewelry also were found in the car, police said.

The FBI classifies these distraction burglaries committed against the elderly as one of a variety of so-called "gypsy cons," named after a group of people who migrated to Europe from the Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages and who were virtually wiped out there during the Fascist pogroms of the 1940s.

Dark haired and dark eyed, these "Gypsies" -- who refer to themselves as "Rom" or "Roma" -- arrived in North America in the early 1900s, and today number around 1 million, according to law enforcement gypsologists.

The FBI reports that many family groupings of Rom Gypsies make their livings through retail theft, home-improvement fraud, "lonely hearts" scams, and distraction burglaries -- mostly committed against senior citizens.

Nearly all of the local victims in the recent series of robberies are 80 or older, and many have lost their life's savings through thefts of $10,000 or more.

The men questioned on Wednesday had names commonly associated with people of Rom descent, police said.

Because no credit card was found, the men were released. But police photographed them and their vehicle, and documented the pawn shop receipts for reference.

Hammond detectives and their counterparts in other communities with similar reported robberies -- including East Chicago, Highland, Munster, Merrillville and Portage, and the Illinois suburbs of Berwyn, Oak Lawn and Western Springs -- have been working on a multijurisdictional approach to solving their cases since May.

Information gained from Wednesday's traffic stop could go a long way toward stopping the crime spree, Hammond Police Chief Brian Miller said.

"I have been a lawman for 18 years, and in all that time these are the first 'gypsies' I have ever encountered," Miller said. "Sometimes it pays to get my lunch 'to go.'"

Miller reminded residents that all city employees and legitimate utility workers carry official identification and will show it on demand, and he recommends calling 911 if a suspicious person comes to their door.

The Hammond Police Department Web site, www. HammondPolice.com, features a map which tracks reported attacks by the thieves over the past eight months.

Anyone with information about the gang is asked to call Detective Michael Daniels at (219) 852-2961 or Detective Steve Guernsey at (219) 852-2978.