Somewhat fishy visit from a maintenance worker

[prog.livejournal.com]

This afternoon some guy mashed the doorbells on the house I live in until I (a home-office type) answered. He identified himself as from the City of Somerville, come to look at the house's "meters" (I didn't catch which kind), because they were emitting "bogus" readings.

He interrupted my workday, so since my mind was grinding away on other tasks, I robotically let him inside to diddle around in our basement without getting any ID or name or nuthin, or even looking outside to note the presence or absence of a Somerville-branded vehicle. Presently, the man emerged to report that all was in order, and left.

As you are aware by reading this far, I now feel like an idiot, rather aghast at how far away I let my head float. My landlord (who I emailed about this) is understandably like "wtf" at me.

Help me, I am stupid: Does it even make sense that a city worker would care about "meters"? Isn't that more the provenance of utility companies? If it does make sense, who would I call to confirm that they sent a guy out? (And would they be open on the weekend? Can you understand why the fact this all happened late Friday afternoon would make me more paranoid?)

More to the point, has this dude maybe visited anyone else with a similar goal? He was a 40/50-something heavy-set white guy in work clothes. Seemed sane and apologetically professional. So he either was who he said he was -- which is, I imagine, the more likely case -- or I totally got pwned, and have no idea what kind of horrible plots are even now hatching underneath my kitchen floor.

Comments

[laryu.livejournal.com]

It's possible that it was the water department. They changed my water meter last summer.

With that said, I fear the worst. The City sent me a number of communications and scheduled the visit for internal work. But you could call them, that department has been relatively responsive over the phone, including when I had billing issues several years ago, and should have a schedule of any planned work by property.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

I second calling the city water people, and if they have no idea, immediately call the cops. Even if nothing bad came of it for you, they will want to know that there's some sort of scam going on. . .