Sep 30, 2005 By Christine Haines 3 min read

LUZERNE TWP. – If an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. An Allegheny Power security agent is investigating at least two reports of a man impersonating an Allegheny Power employee going door to door and telling people he can help them with home improvements.

“He was a big man, very tall, very heavy set, with bad front teeth and he was very determined to get inside the house,” security agent Walt Komoroski said.

Komoroski said just about anything Allegheny Power needs to do at a residence can be done from outside, so employees should not be insisting to enter anyone’s home. In addition, Allegheny Power doesn’t have any programs that would help people pay for renovations, Komoroski said.

Komoroski said he has received two calls so far reporting the attempted intruder. The first came from a woman living along Bull Run Road.

“She actually let him in, but she was suspicious enough about what he was offering to give us a call,” Komoroski said.

Komoroski said the man showed her an identification card saying he was an Allegheny Power employee and that he was going to go across the street to her neighbor’s house. The man reportedly told the woman he would also be working in the Labelle and Allison 1 and 2 areas.

Komoroski said the woman was not injured in any way, but he was concerned that the visit might have been a set-up for a return call in which the house would be robbed or financial information obtained.

“I’ve got an elderly dad and an elderly mother-in-law, and I wouldn’t want this to happen to them,” Komoroski said. “If I thought this had any legitimacy at all, I wouldn’t be here.”

While the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority does have a weatherization program that offers financial assistance for home improvements, executive director Andrew French said the staff does not go door to door.

Appointments are made and a clearly marked Weatherization Program van is used, French said.

Komoroski said Allegheny Power employees can also be identified by their vehicles, and they are never far from their trucks.

“Our guys, our linemen and meter readers, drive company trucks with a big blue A and Allegheny Power on the side,” Komoroski said.

Komoroski said neither caller could describe a vehicle, but both gave the same description of the man as being a very large white male in his late 30s or early 40s with rotten front teeth.