Water Department Impostors Attempt to Enter Six Homes

Two men posing as workers from San Diego’s Water Utilities Department tried unsuccessfully Friday to gain entrance to at least six homes, authorities said.

The water department received six phone calls, all before noon, from elderly residents asking whether department workers were making house calls, said water department spokeswoman Kathy Williams. One of the calls came from Serra Mesa.

In each incident, the men would offer to give tips on how to conserve water and ask to be let in for a demonstration, Williams said.

The water department makes appointments before showing up for house calls, Williams said, and workers wear photo identification cards prominently displayed. Also, the department is not sending workers to individual houses to give water-saving tips, Williams said.

Last weekend, two men posing as water department workers stole jewelry and $4,000 in cash from a woman in Middletown, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. One of the men went to the back of the house to gather the items, while the other kept the woman, in her 60s, occupied by asking her to move her car.