Houston police are warning of fake CenterPoint Energy employees intending to invade their homes

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) – While thousands of people are out of power at their homes due to the winter storm in Houston, police say employees of fake energy companies are looking for their next target.

According to a tweet posted by Chief Art Acevedo on Monday, police have received reports of people posing as CenterPoint Energy employees.

“We have reports of scofflaws impersonating someone [CenterPoint Energy] workers to access homes to victimize residents, “Acevedo wrote.” It is not necessary to enter homes to repair outages in our area due to severe weather. “

Texas’ power grid experienced a system-wide outage Monday morning as demand spiked due to the state’s historic winter conditions.

Grid operators declared an emergency after record-breaking energy consumption put pressure on utilities.

Outages across Texas can take hours, even days, due to multiple power plants that are offline, officials said. An estimated 75% of Texas power generating capacity is affected.

Acevedo asks anyone who sees suspicious behavior in their area to immediately call 911.