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Phony electrical workers ransack Derry Township home

DERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — An elderly Westmoreland County couple is learning the hard way about opening the door to strangers.

Someone claiming to be from the electric company showed up at the house in Derry Township and while he was let into the basement, an accomplice ransacked the place.

"It was done quietly. I was just so thankful that no one was hurt,” said a neighbor, who was too scared to be identified after two neighbors were targeted and robbed.

The couple -- in their mid-80s -- had a knock at their door Monday off Route 982 outside of Bradenville.

Two men, posing as employees with an electric company, said the couple's power would be shut off when work outside started.

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"And he needed to come in to find out if they could give them a generator while the power would be shut off so he got them to take him to the basement," a neighbor said.

While downstairs with one worker -- the homeowner heard someone else upstairs.

"The man that lives there made his way upstairs as quickly as they could, and found someone rummaging through things trying to break into a safe," an unidentified neighbor claimed.

They got away with cash. But Pennsylvania State Police have a description of one of the men, said to be in his 30-40s, with a thin build, brown hair, a brown beard halfway down his neck and missing his top front teeth. He was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans.

"They grew up in a different day and age. They trust everyone. If you go up and knock on their door and ask for a cup of water, they're going to give you a cup of water," said the woman Channel 11 talked to, who also put up a post on social media, warning others before it could happen to someone else.

"I mean we feel violated. We don't know if they were watching us or for how long," she said.

The victims told police the men were in a darker gray, newer dodge, four-door Dodge truck, with rain guards on the side windows.

If the descriptions of that vehicle or the one thief sound familiar, you are asked to call state police in Greensburg.