Both suspects wanted in the murder of a Rochester Hills man are in custody.
The two men are accused of posing as DTE employees showed up at 72-year-old Hussein Murray's home on Friday.
I spoke to DTE about what the company suggests people do to protect themselves.
"I think it's just better to be on the safe side, and just make sure you have some procedures in place with you and your family. I mean there's a whole lot going on," Stephanie Williams, from Detroit, said.
Like many people around the city, she heard the tragic news out of Rochester Hills where two men impersonating DTE employees conned their way into a home on Friday, killing Murray and tying up his wife, according to the sheriff's office.
"Strangers out here, people doing all kinds of crazy things and if I don't know you and you don't have an appointment, then I'm not going to open that door for you," Williams said.
DTE trucks are often all over metro Detroit doing a variety of work.
“All cases, we want you to verify. As a utility worker, I want you to trust that I actually work for DTE gas," Bryan Valrance, the GM of gas operations for DTE, said.
Valrance said the first thing a resident can do if they're concerned about someone at their door claiming to be with DTE is to look for a uniform. Ask for their ID card, it should have a photo.
If you still have questions, you can call DTE's 1-800 number to have customer service verify.
If it's after normal business hours or on holidays, residents can connect with DTE's emergency line to verify a worker. That number is 800-477-4747
He said very rarely does a crew show up unannounced.
“In, we’ll say 90% of the time, if not more, we’re going to send you a letter. We’re going to call you ahead of time, we’re going to mail you a postcard. We’re going to have some kind of communication with you to tell you that we need to do maintenance on our equipment," Valrance said. "We’re gonna need to make an appointment, show up. On occasion, we’re gonna show up and try to make that appointment face to face. Occasionally there’s that emergency situation.
“I’m the boss, and I get calls to verify legitimacy all the time and I appreciate that. I was agitated at the story that the guy said he was from DTE gas in Rochester Hills. It’s not even DTE gas territory," he said. "We encourage you to verify we're legit, and we're not offended when you do it."
If you still feel unsafe, Valrance said don't let anyone in until you're comfortable.
"Call the police, do something out of the box. The police will come out and say hey who are you, why are you here. I will have to prove my legitimacy to them," he said.
