TIPS TO AVOID BEING A VICTIM
If customers suspect a visitor to their home or place of business is impersonating a Georgia Power employee, the company recommends that the customer:
• Call local police or 911 immediately.
• Call Georgia Power at 1-888-660-5890 to verify the employee’s ID.
• DO NOT let the individual inside your home or business.
• DO NOT go outside with the individual.
• DO NOT provide them with your account number or any personal or financial information.
For more information, please visit www.georgiapower.com/scam
They posed as Georgia Power workers, but instead the three men forced their way into a Buckhead apartment Wednesday morning and tied up two people, according to Atlanta police.
Investigators were called to an apartment complex in the 700 block of Morosgo Drive, where a resident and a house guest heard knocking on the door around 8 a.m., Officer Kim Jones said.
“They looked through the peep hole and noticed a male wearing a hard hat and a Georgia Power shirt,” police said in an emailed statement. “They opened the door and three suspects, one who had a handgun, forced their way inside.”
The three men tied up the victims’ hands with zip ties and taped their mouths while asking where someone was, according to police.
The three intruders then put the victims’ cellphones and laptop in the kitchen sink and turned on the water before leaving with a Rolex, an Apple watch, $5,000 cash, and a $2,000 money order, according to police. It was not known whether the three got into a vehicle after leaving the fourth-floor apartment.
One intruder was believed to be in his late to mid-20s and was wearing a white construction hat and a white Georgia Power shirt and was carrying a tool box and a handgun, police said. A second man, in his late 20s, was heavyset and wearing a striped polo shirt with cargo pants. No description of the third person was available.
According to Georgia Power in an emailed statement, employees dispatched to customers’ homes should have a badge identifying them.
“If an employee needs to visit a customer’s home or business for a service-related issue, they will be in uniform and present a badge with a photo, their name and the Georgia Power name and logo,” the statement read. “They will also be in a vehicle marked with the Georgia Power logo.”
Wednesday’s incident did not appear to be related to a string of violent home invasions earlier this year in Buckhead.
In June, a couple was held at gunpoint for more than 90 minutes while two masked men demanded cash and jewelry. A month earlier, armed robbers burst into a Buckhead mansion overnight, threw towels over the residents' heads and kidnapped a man, forcing him to withdraw cash from an ATM before returning him to his home, police said.
Two men were later charged in connection to the May incident.
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