Re: Would they ever...
Worryingly, this reminds me of an incident a few decades ago. I was at work, just going into a meeting, and got a phone call from my wife.
Wife: Why haven't you paid the electricity bills, we've been cut off!
Me: Why did you let them into the house?
Wife: Let who into the house?
Me: The people from the electricity company!
Wife: What people from the electricity company?
Me: The. People. From. The. Electricity. Company. Who. Cut. Off. Our. Electricity!
Wife: What people from the electricity company?
Me: DidYouLetAnybodyIntoTheHouseToCutOffTheElectricity?
Wife: No.
Me: Then. How. The. Hell. Did. They. Cut. Off. Our. Electricity???
Wife: Well, I just assumed they did....
Me: HOW?????!!!!! *NEVER* let anybody into the house claiming to be *ANYTHING*!
As you can infer, it was just a local substation fault, and the power came on a few minutes later, but wifey assumed that no leccy = power company had broken into house and removed supply, and if neccessary, SHE WOULD HAVE LET THEM.