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Yesterday morning a man knocked on our neighbor's door, then approached me and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cattitude and started asking about our utility meters. When we said they were inside he said "they" would need access to the basement. We put him off, both because I was suspicious and because we were on our way out and wanted to be on the Bikeway, not in the basement. I was suspicious in part because the man was wearing a "Liberty Utilities" badge, and we get natural gas from National Grid and electricity from Eversource. There are at least two US companies called "Liberty Utilities," and one of them even serves a few places in Massachusetts, but not Arlington or any of the adjacent cities or towns.
When we talked about it later, I thought the man had been asking about the electricity, but Cattitude, who talked to him more than I did, said it was gas, so National Grid. I called them this morning, and they said they weren’t subcontracting with Liberty Utilities, and weren't doing any work in my neighborhood, or anywhere in Arlington.
I then called Liberty Utilities, who confirmed that they have nobody working in Arlington, since they don’t provide service here.
So: I have confirmed that this was some sort of scam, either to try to learn our billing information (so he could con us into switching providers), or to get into the building. I had asked the Arlington email list for information, so I posted my conclusions there.
This evening, I looked at the National Hurricane Center's charts of current Atlantic and Eastern Pacific storms, and then followed a link on hurricane preparedness. Along with "make sure you have enough insurance" and suggestions of how much food and water to store, they advise looking up your hurricane evacuation zone.
It turns out that I live in zone B, and zone A (higher risk) starts on the other side of the street. It's a complicated map, which led us to speculating on the history of Mass Ave (the shape of the map, with a long strip where the land right at Mass Ave is not in an evacuation zone, but a block or two away is, strongly suggests that it's slightly higher ground). The risk here is clearly flooding from rainfall rather than storm surge: not just because we're inland a bit, but because of how closely the evacuation zones hug Spy Pond and parts of the Mystic Lakes.
cattitude and started asking about our utility meters. When we said they were inside he said "they" would need access to the basement. We put him off, both because I was suspicious and because we were on our way out and wanted to be on the Bikeway, not in the basement. I was suspicious in part because the man was wearing a "Liberty Utilities" badge, and we get natural gas from National Grid and electricity from Eversource. There are at least two US companies called "Liberty Utilities," and one of them even serves a few places in Massachusetts, but not Arlington or any of the adjacent cities or towns.When we talked about it later, I thought the man had been asking about the electricity, but Cattitude, who talked to him more than I did, said it was gas, so National Grid. I called them this morning, and they said they weren’t subcontracting with Liberty Utilities, and weren't doing any work in my neighborhood, or anywhere in Arlington.
I then called Liberty Utilities, who confirmed that they have nobody working in Arlington, since they don’t provide service here.
So: I have confirmed that this was some sort of scam, either to try to learn our billing information (so he could con us into switching providers), or to get into the building. I had asked the Arlington email list for information, so I posted my conclusions there.
This evening, I looked at the National Hurricane Center's charts of current Atlantic and Eastern Pacific storms, and then followed a link on hurricane preparedness. Along with "make sure you have enough insurance" and suggestions of how much food and water to store, they advise looking up your hurricane evacuation zone.
It turns out that I live in zone B, and zone A (higher risk) starts on the other side of the street. It's a complicated map, which led us to speculating on the history of Mass Ave (the shape of the map, with a long strip where the land right at Mass Ave is not in an evacuation zone, but a block or two away is, strongly suggests that it's slightly higher ground). The risk here is clearly flooding from rainfall rather than storm surge: not just because we're inland a bit, but because of how closely the evacuation zones hug Spy Pond and parts of the Mystic Lakes.
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