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

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

You might want to go check all of the doors/windows that you keep locked in the basement. Because I can totally see that as the scam - unlock a basement door during the day, wander in at night while people are likely to be asleep.

(the water meter was my first guess too, fwiw)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

yeah, totally. make sure everything is secured, locked. test it to make positive sure.

then look around, with a flashlight, and see if anything is disturbed. i can see a scam where they mess with your heating or something else, so you have to call in to have work done.

but really, i wouldn't let anyone into my house without significant ID, pre-warning from the city, or a court order ;)

#

[prog.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. I'll go bang around downstairs right now, before lights-out. If nothing seems out of order I'll feel a lot better about this (though still kinda dumb).