Please be on Alert for People Posing as Utility Employees

There has been several reports lately of a burglar going around to North Oak Cliff homes posing as a utility company employee.?? The clipboard toting suspect in his 40s or 50s knocked on the door and asks questions, and then in one case asked the residents to evacuate the home so he could turn off their gas line.?? In the one case he was pretending to work for Oncor and the resident told him they were leaving soon, and he said he would come back.?? He did come back when they were gone and robbed their house.?? A legitimate employee would have had an Oncor or Atmos truck and he would have been in full uniform with a photo id badge showing the company logo.

 

We have also had reports of people posing as AT&T or Cable or security alarm company employees and asking inappropriate questions, which we believe was a chance to determine if the house was worth robbing at a future date.???? The security alarm scammers offer a ???free inspection??? of your house to ???show you??? where you have security issues while they are finding your weak points and checking out your valuable so they can come back. ????These burglars and scam artist particularly pray on the elderly, but they can scam anyone.?? ??Legitimate employees will be wearing uniforms with the utility logo on them, and should always have a id badge showing their picture and the company logo and should be driving trucks marked clearly with the utility company brand logo.?? Don???t be fooled, and please be extra cautious of any people coming to your door or walking door to door in your neighborhood.?? It is VERY rare for legitimate businesses to do this, and people soliciting for curb painting and other things have been known to come back and rob houses later on.

 

Please report all suspicious people to the Dallas Police by calling 911 immediately.?? If people call 911 we can get these people out of our neighborhood as the officer will respond and find the people, check id???s, etc. and either arrest them or get them out of our area for other reasons.

Jerry Beech

President, North Oak Cliff United Police Patrol, July 2014