Thieves Pose As AT&T Workers, Ransack OKC Family's Home

A metro family is out hundreds of dollars after thieves ransack their home. It happened to an elderly woman and her daughter. The thieves were posing as AT&T workers.

They got away with hundreds of dollars in cash and things you can't put a price tag on, like the elderly woman's wedding ring. Now she and her daughter want to warn others to keep them from becoming victims, too.

Late Thursday afternoon, an elderly woman in northwest Oklahoma City answered her front door to a couple of men claiming to work for AT&T.

"He tried to tell her that he was doing survey work for AT&T, that they were going to redo some of the lines, and he wanted her to go out to the back door," the woman's daughter said.

The woman and her daughter asked us to conceal their identities. Both women were home at the time.

The men said they needed to work on the phone lines in their neighborhood.

"[They said we'd have] less static and our lights wouldn't dim, all these other wonderful things, that our bills would be less because we're using so much electricity just to keep the phone system going," the woman said.

A third man appeared, and they were all wearing dark jumpsuits. The fake workers told the women to turn off all the lights and TVs.

Then they lured them outside and kept them distracted for about 30 minutes.

"After they left we came back into the house, and that's when we discovered somebody else had been in the house and ransacked the bedroom looking for things," the woman said.

The thieves got away with jewelry, and about $300 in cash.

"It makes you feel very vulnerable," said the woman. "It makes you feel like, ‘why didn't I see what was going on here?'"

The family did file a police report. They didn't see the suspects' vehicle, but they say the men were in their 40's or 50's.

As a reminder, companies like AT&T say their workers will always provide identification if you ask them.

Police are investigating a similar situation that happened to an elderly woman in Norman on Friday. Those men claimed to work for OG&E.