A man pretending to be a United War employee gained entry to an apartment on Cator Avenue in Jersey City this afternoon and then stole $3,650 from the 91-year-old resident, reports said.

Responding to a knock on her front door around 2 p.m., the female resident told police she found a man who told her he was an employee with the water company and that "there was an emergency" and "he had to check the water," reports said.The man first opened and shut a faucet in the kitchen and then went into the victim's bathroom where he flushed the toilet, reports said.

The man then instructed the victim to "hold down the flush handle or else the house will explode," reports said.

The victim, who said the man was speaking to someone on his cellphone the entire time he was in her house, did as she was told, reports said.

But after about two minutes, the victim told police "I didn't care if the house exploded" and walked into her living-room, at which time she discovered her house had been ransacked, reports said.

The man -- described as white, slender, and in his 40s -- got away with $3,650 in cash the victim kept in a metal box, reports said.