HARMONY — Tom and Lois Black have been living on Pfeifer Road for about 48 years.

Although the couple has seen burglaries before, they were not prepared to be victims of an elaborate robbery on the morning of May 1.

“You’re violated when this happens to you. It’s scary,” Lois Black said. “It makes you not feel safe in your own house.”

The couple’s home was visited by people impersonating contractors surveying the next door property, which was scheduled for clearing.

The Blacks said the men claimed they were checking for property lines.

“This was a planned trip. They had to have done this before because they were good at it,” Tom Black said.

The couple described the robbers as dark-skinned, speaking broken English and having a Latino heritage.

While one perpetrator talked to Tom Black outside the home about the property lines, another person walked in the house and up the stairs.

Lois Black was upstairs and was “frightened” to see a stranger. However the man explained to her about talking with her husband and lured her to the home’s outside porch.

While the two were outside, another unseen robber or robbers rifled through the couple’s bedroom belongings, grabbing earrings, necklaces and pins among other jewelry.

One of the items robbed included Lois Black’s wedding ring.

When Lois Black told her husband about the man who went upstairs and talked to her, Tom Black went outside to confront them. However, their pickup truck was gone.

After that, Lois Black discovered the bedroom was ransacked and called 911.

“They went into every room and closet, opened drawers and moved clothes around looking for money or whatever they could find,” Black said in her police statement.

The couple said they do not keep much cash around.

The couple filed a report with the Lancaster Township Police Department, but have not heard anything since then.

What also concerns the Blacks is how the robbers found out about their property.

“They were very knowledgeable of the property next door and the work to be done to clear it,” Lois Black said. “They had to be informed of something that made us not suspicious of them, because we’re used to talking with a lot of people.”

Tom Black said he now carries a revolver by his side in case he and his wife ever face a similar situation.

The two have warned neighbors and hope others will be on guard for suspicious activity.

“This could have ended badly,” Lois Black said. “It can happen to anybody.”