Houston police warn of fake CenterPoint Energy employees looking to enter home

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – While thousands of people are sitting at home without power due to the Houston winter storm, police say fake employees at an energy company are looking for their next target.

According to a tweet posted by Chief Art Acevedo on Monday, the police department received reports from people who pretended to be workers at CenterPoint Energy.

“We have reports of criminals posing as [CenterPoint Energy] employees have access to the houses to victimize the occupants, “wrote Acevedo.” Restoring interruptions in our area due to bad weather does not require entry into homes. “

The Texas power grid suffered a system-wide failure on Monday morning, with increased demand due to historic winter conditions across the state.

The network managers declared an emergency after the record use of energy to overload utilities beyond capacity.

Outages across Texas can last for hours, even for days, due to several power generation plants that are offline, according to officials. About 75% of Texas’ power generation capacity is affected.

Acevedo is asking anyone who sees suspicious behavior in his neighborhood to call 911 immediately.