DHS warns about strangers pretending to be government officials

The state’s Department of Human Services is warning people to make sure strangers have adequate I.D. if they claim to be from the government, after residents in western Iowa reported a man claiming to be a social worker tried to contact their kids.The agency’s Roger Munns says in one case, a man called a home, in another he came to the house — but families who contacted the D-H-S and talked with real staffers found out the unknown man was not a state child-protection worker. He says in one case he actually came to the door, in another, they’re not sure if it was the same man but someone made a phone call, and no harm was done but it’s a matter of concern if people with unknown motives are trying to gain access to children pretending to be state workers. He says they don’t know much about the man.They only know the man came to the door and was assumed to be a child-protection worker, and the family can’t say whether he showed any kind of ID. No children were harmed, but Munns says all state workers carry official I.D. and you can check it and also call police or the agency they claim to be working for. Any D-H-S child-protection worker who goes to a home will have official identification and Munns says it’s “completely appropriate” to ask them to show it. In each case, the families learned the truth when they contacted REAL agency staff. The human services department has turned the information over to local law enforcement in its 16-county western region.