Law enforcement officials are warning residents of an apparent pair of con men in the area claiming to be lightning rod repairmen.

Two residents have called Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand in the past week, including one who called Monday night about two men approaching farmsteads in the county and offering to repair lightning rods on the properties.
Brand said the homeowners agreed to let the men fix their lightning rods at a rate of $17 per foot. The men climbed around on the roof for about an hour and tried to charge the owners $2,600, Brand said. He said the homeowners refused to pay that amount but eventually forked over $500 before the so-called repairmen left. The owners also discovered various forms of copper missing from their roof, Brand said.

The victims reported one of the men appeared to be in his 20s; the other looked to be in his 40s. They said they were from Wisconsin and drove either a white or gray pickup truck.

Brand warned people, especially those living on farms, to be wary of such offers to repair lightning rods and to report all such encounters to the sheriff’s department.

“It sounds like a scam to me,” he said.

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