ST. PETERSBURGH, FLORIDA — A family had some visitors that they weren’t expecting, and the visitors claimed to be from Duke Energy. One of the men knocked on the door of the home, and after the man briefly spoke, a woman inside can be heard shutting him down quickly.
“We’re not selling anything, we need to let people know what’s happening with the meters for Duke, with the electricity,” said the man.
The woman said again that they weren’t interested, and the man seems slightly agitated and tells the woman that some type of scheduled maintenance will be happening in a few days. He then walks off with a few other people who were waiting on the side.
Upon closer inspection of the video, we can see two other young men behind one of the vehicles, and another off to the left with something in his hands.
The man in the white shirt is filming, as we clearly see that it’s a camera he has around his neck and on some sort of handle / tripod.
We live in the age of YouTubers and pranksters, and it happens more often than you’d think. That’s exactly what I think was going on here, but their prank failed because the homeowners didn’t come to the door to interact with the main claiming to be from the power company.
While I don’t believe that anything sinister was taking place, it is a reminder to make sure you know who is at your door when they come knocking. Even if they’re wearing what looks to be a uniform from a company, it’s not hard to get things made in 2021 and shipped right to your home. The safest route is to have a camera set up, just like these folks do, and speak to who is at the door either through the door or via the camera.
If you do open the door, don’t open it completely, and make sure you’re positioned in a way that you can close it quickly if the need arises.
I’m not saying to be paranoid, but a healthy amount of suspicion isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
