So at 9:15 tonight there was a guy outside my house with a flashlight.

Fortunately, it was a DTE Technician.

Turns out there was an electrical problem a few houses down the road, so they were checking everyone’s houses in the area. I called DTE to find out/verify, and to chew them out a little.

I mean, it’s 9:15 at night. And there’s a guy outside my son’s window with a flashlight. You can imagine that created more than a little excitement in the house.

How stupid do you have to be to not knock on someone’s door and say “Hey, I work for DTE, here’s my ID. it’s pitch black in your yard, and I’m going to be back there with a flashlight, tinkering with the back of your house. Please don’t shoot me, call the police, send your dogs out to kill me, or any combination of the above.”

So the guy and I had a brief chat. Then I let DTE know that a good way to piss people off is to scare the crap out of their families by sending people into their yards after dark.

“Well Mr. Caselli, some of our crews work until 10pm.”

“Well sir, we live out in the country, and some of us own guns and big dogs to protect our families from intruders who are skulking around our windows at night. A service call after dark should be announced, not a surprise.”

I mean, come on.

Dumb.