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Men posing as utility workers steal $3K from 93-year-old widow

GREEN TREE, Pa. — Police have been looking for two men who pretended to be utility workers who, instead, stole $3,000 in money and jewelry from a 93-year-old woman's Pittsburgh-area home.

Officials said the workers pulled up behind the woman's vehicle in a white pickup truck when she returned home last week. One man told the woman they were workers who needed to install some electrical wiring in her backyard.

“When they were done with whatever they did, they tried to collect the money. She had to go get change, and apparently they followed her into the home,” Green Tree police Chief Robert Downey Jr.said.

The woman told detectives she didn’t realize what happened until after the men had left.

“They take advantage of the most vulnerable people. I don’t call them scam artists, I call them scum artists,” Downey Jr. said. “The problem is, people get too trusting with strangers they don’t know and that’s what happens. They trust them and let them into their homes.”

The suspects’ truck is described as a white, late-model Ford F-150 with a painted white cab. Downey Jr. said most companies have laws against door-to-door solicitation. When in doubt, call authorities.

“They aren’t going to stay here. They’re going to go to different communities and different neighborhoods. Everybody’s got to beware,” Downey Jr. said.

Police said both men are white and in their 20s or 30s. One of them had a tattoo on his neck and the other was shorter than 5 feet 4 inches tall.

Officials with Duquesne Light say residents should always ask to see workers' identification and say the company ra

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