A man posing as a Seattle P-I newspaper carrier robbed an 83-year-old Ballard woman of $140 last week by talking his way into her house and asking for water, her neighbor said.

The clean-cut man arrived around noon on Nov. 26 on Northwest 66th Street and snatched $110 from her purse and $30 from a table, the neighbor, Kayte Teeple, 62, said.

After the woman opened her door, her cat tried running outside. The man grabbed the animal and introduced himself as her new newspaper carrier.

Inside the house, he asked the woman, who uses a walker and is a P-I subscriber, for a glass of water. When she returned with one, he said it was too cold and requested tap water.

As she was getting the tap water, she had a feeling that something was wrong, Teeple said. By the time she returned, the man was leaving in a four-door, dark blue car that he parked outside.

"He drove right up to her house. He could have pushed her over so easily," said Teeple, who was home for lunch and saw him briefly.

The woman or her son later called Seattle police, Teeple said. The reason for the delay, she added, is the woman felt embarrassed about what happened.

Nothing else was taken from the house, she said. She has informed her neighborhood block watch captain and neighbors about the robbery.

The Seattle Times Co. handles delivery for the city's two daily newspapers. Company spokeswoman Jill Mackie said carriers work in the mornings because home-delivered papers are supposed to arrive by 5:30 a.m.

"Our carriers have no reason to ask customers for access to their homes," she said.

If a person has doubts about someone claiming to be a company newspaper carrier, he or she should call the police, she said.

The woman's son has posted a note about the robbery on MyBallard.com. The Seattle Police Department offers personal safety tips on its Web site.