Masontown scam artist

People of Masontown, be warned! The police are warning against a door-to-door scam artist asking for money and claiming his car ran out of gas between 8 and 9 p.m. Residents are advised to call 911 "in a timely manner" so they can find him. In other words, don't hang out for a few hours and then be like, "Oh, yeah, some dude came to my house but he's gone now."

I'm all for vigilance, but how do they really know he didn't run out of gas?