Two men who falsely identified themselves as staff of the Greene County Assessor's office on Friday tried and failed to enter two different homes in the Lake Springfield area.
“The first homeowner told them he didn't believe them and sent us video from his video camera,” said Brent Johnson, Greene County assessor.
Johnson handed the video over to the Greene County Sheriff's office, which is investigating the two incidents from May 26.
A similar incident happened in the same area on the same day, only in this case there was no video.
Again, the homeowner did not allow the men into the home.
Johnson, who became assessor in 2021, said this was the first instance he knows of in which someone has posed as a member of the assessor's staff.
Johnson said assessor staff in the field will never ask to enter a home without a scheduled appointment in advance and they will only examine exterior property unless the property owner has contacted the office for an interior inspection.
Assessor employees will have Greene County credentials and will drive clearly marked assessor vehicles.
If Greene County residents have concerns or believe they have been contacted by impersonators, they should call the assessor's office at (417) 868-4101 or they should call 911 if they feel unsafe.
