ASCENSION PARISH - Like any grandmother, 84-year-old Martha Gray loves to show off her family photos. In fact, she was doing just that when her home was robbed.

"He said 'All of these are your children?' I said 'Well, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren,' and he kept me busy really just talking about all the pictures," Gray told WBRZ. 

Gray, whom family and friends loving call Mama Nell, says it all started when a man in a white truck pulled up into her driveway.

"He said 'Well hey! How you doing?' Real friendly. I said, 'I'm doing great' and he said 'You don't recognize me do you?' And I said 'No, I don't.'"

The man tricked her into thinking he'd built her roof, and that he was offering repairs for free. He told her all he needed to perform the repairs was boiling water, and asked her to put a pot on the stove. It was a ploy to distract her while another man slipped inside.

"Went over my head," she said. 

After using various distractions like the family photos on the fridge, the two men left. They never got on the roof. 

"All of this is going through my mind and I'm thinking: What has just happened?"

It wasn't until her daughter arrived that it dawned on her. 

"I said 'Niecy, I really believe that I have just done something really bad' and I went in my bedroom and sure enough, I had about four envelopes of money - every bit of it gone."

Since that day, Gray has had multiple security cameras installed around her home. 

"It's just a horrible thing that people would take advantage of somebody that is so sweet and kind," said Gray's daughter Lynn Wells. 

Gray wasn't the last victim, according to Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office, these men have conned their way into three different homes here and three in St. Tammany Parish.