Dozens of people have responded to a television crime show appeal for information about the theft of jewellery from hundreds of elderly women living in residential care.

Police had appealed for witnesses and other victims to come forward following the arrest of a 31-year-old woman who is thought to have gone on a two-year crime spree.

The woman knocked on the doors of her victims’ rooms and posed as a member of staff looking into security at the home. She then stole jewellery, some of which she later sold. Most of the robberies took place on Tuesdays and Sundays around lunch time, police said.

The woman was arrested in July after stealing jewellery belonging to an elderly woman in Delden in Twente. A search of her home turned up hundreds of items, mainly silver and low carat gold.

The items will be on display at Apeldoorn’s main police station on Friday for potential owners to recover their property. The thefts took place all over central parts of the Netherlands, from Laren to Haarlem and Middelburg.