Joe,
My wife just called me to tell me of her random event which just happened. I leave for work around 7:30 and she will do the same around 9:00. At about 8am she heard a knock at the door. Once she answered it, there was a young college aged guy explaining that he was a recent grad from Arizona State University who was completing a study of new moms. Now it’s not very difficult to know that she is a mom considering her car in the driveway with all the tell tales in it. (ie: sun shades on the rear side windows, car seat in the back seat….) What struck me as odd is first of all this guy is going around in the rain. Second of all when she told him she was not comfortable letting him in he offered to speak with her on the back deck, not the front porch they were standing on. Lucky for me my dogs felt something strange and when they peaked their heads around the corner of the door and started barking, this guy had the smarts to excuse himself.
The event just seemed very strange and odd. Just wanted to put that out to you incase others have had the same thing happen or as if to serve as a warning to others.
Concerned Citizen.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
37 comments:
Two days ago, I also had a young male to appear at my door with backpack and papers. He said he was from Arizona State and immediately asked him if he was selling something. He said "I am at the wrong place" but continued to ask for the names of our neighbors.I refused to answer and he provided a couple of last names that he thought I would recognize. I shut the door and walked away. I live on a country road in Parsonsburg. Be careful.
For what it's worth, I also had someone come to my home, (in the country) in Delmar claiming to be from Utah State, or something like that. He wanted to talk about children and I told him I wasn't interested. The sign at the end of my driveway clearly states, NO TRESPASSING.
People arm yourselves for the protection of your families because its going to get crazy. Get a shot gun and learn the weapon and use it till your comfortable with it. Teach your wife as well.
I got a shotgun, I know how to use it and will do so without hesitation. Our property is posted with no trespassing signs, venture up our lane if you dare.
I wrote the post and we live in Pittsville. Same description a young guy carrying a back back stating he was from Arizona State Univ.
I had the same thing happen. 2 College aged kids came to the house trying to sell text books. He did the same thing about asking for names. I am a police officer with a take home vehicle.
My vehicle was in the yard, however, I was not home. I live in Delmar as well and this seriously concerned me.
These kids wanted you to sign up for a text book that supposidly would help with teaching your kids new methods of learning.
The part that my wife found the strangest, was she asked him if he had any pamphlets that she could research and he said they didnt carry any. He said to her, "If you buy it and like it great, if you buy it and dont like it, you dodnt buy it from me".
At that point, she told him he was no longer welcome at our house and asked him to leave.
Very very very strange!!!
Sounds like some sort of I.D. theft ring to me.
Yeah there was a guy a few weekends ago from University of Utah walking around the Eastfields neighborhood in Fruitland. Drove a red CRV car, wanted to show us videos about better family life or something, told him we are not interested, said our neighbors already watched them with him, I said bye we are leaving
Yep, had this happen to my neighbor. Something odd about this going on.
The young man just left my home.(Pittsville)He is NOT dangerous, so put away your guns. He is selling educational material(books and computer games) He has been to several homes of people I know. He is wearing a teal shirt with plaid shorts. You are safe...no need to worry.
Yeah, the books are in the mail, just like the check.
He said he had the books with him.
Well then, clearly you didn't buy any. Just because he said he had them doesn't mean he did. He could have been scanning your home and the contents within too. Just be very careful.
He would of pooped his pants by the time he left here.
I will let you know, because my neighbor apparently purchased some. When he told me the computer games were $99, I had to tell him no. You can pick that kind of stuff up on ebay.
He came to my home also. Showing me names of people. I said how did you get my name he said people told him. I said let me have a business card. He said I dont have any. That was way too much for me any decent salesman has a business card. When he first pulled up it looked like he was writing down the tag numbers on my vehicles. Also he said the books would be mailed you do not get them upon writing a check.
Frustrated
Door to Door salesmen went out with the Fuller Brush man and Watkins extracts. No one sells door to door in residential areas anymore. It's foolish to even attempt it.
Joe,
The same guy with a female came to my home in Pittsville on Thursday around 11:00am, my wife was on the phone with a neighbor whom had called her to let her know that these people were coming our way.
A knock on the door and my wife answered it, (after I had told her to leave the inside door open).
The guy introduced himself as a recent graduate from Arizona State University who was selling CD’s to improve children’s homework, (he had tried to get a donation for Pre-k students from our neighbor, I suppose that they have a different agenda for each home they visit), he wanted to come inside the house to talk to her, my wife said no, that her husband was inside sick with the flu, (actually I was inserting the clip into my Glock 21 as I sat in my recliner watching her talk to the guy with her back against the storm door). After the refusal to let him in, he wanted to go into the back yard and talk, after that refusal the female that stood beside the car while this was going on, got back into the car.
My wife and the guy spoke for a short time and then they left!
Oh yeah, my neighbor wouldn’t let him in either!
If these people were legitimate, don’t they know that now is not the time to be soliciting without proper identification from the company they are working for?
These people didn’t see me, now if they had tried something, who knows what this may have escalated into?
If I had known that they were asking for something different from my neighbors, I would have held them for the Sheriff to check out!
NS
Mmmm, wonder how many of you bright lights bothered to call the police to report a suspicious subject? I'll give Joe something productive to do. I have no idea if solicitors in this county must apply, be screened and then issued an identification card from the county before they can go door-to-door. If they don't, the county needs to pass a law requiring solicitors be registered with the county.
Yes Becky that sounds like the same kid as these others have reported. As Anonymous 10:45AM stated "No one sells door to door in residential areas anymore" at night out in the country, that's an invitation for lead or at least Bruno to have a snack.
I have a pair of size 12 work boots a large dog dish an NRA flag and a Republican sticker on my porch, it keeps the riff-raff away!
We had a white male come to our home in Delmar...out in the country. Told us he wanted to talk with us about his college experience in Arizona. We told him to take a hike. The world has gone mad.
I had a guy that claimed to be from new Mexico. About two weeks ago and was driving a old red truck. Some story, and both my dogs that are normally very friendly where acting very strangely. I live outside Snow Hill in a small community. So once he was gone I called the county police and gave them all the information. My wife had me install the dead bolts in the doors that I had been putting off and the security camera for the drive way. Several other people have told him top get lost. I am armed and next time I will not be so nice.
I personally think you are being too paranoid. I did let this man inside alone and had no trouble whatsoever from him. I feel that I read people pretty well and don't feel he was a threat. Had he wanted to do something, he had plenty of opportunity. Maybe he isn't supposed to be going door to door, but I don't feel he is dangerous to anyone. What am I missing here? What else could his agenda be?
Anon1:10 -
What if this friendly guy reports to his group (that you too are friendly and allow people inside) and the group sends another set of people to your house (with their real agenda)?
I don't know... but by testing the waters with a friendly person is a good start.
Anon 1:54
I guess anything is possible. I guess I just give people the benefit of the doubt. Normally I would have had my door shut and hid and not even answered the door because I don't want to buy anything. I am going to follow up with my neighbor whom he said purchased from him.
Boom,Boom your dead.
The initial post was put out there with the intent to find a pattern. This way it could be reported to the authorities as suspicious activity. With all the comments earlier this morning it has in fact been reported.
Stay off my darn property unless invited on.
This guy came to my house too in rural Bishopville at 8AM on a Saturday. It was very inconsiderate to come to our door that early on a weekend. His vechile had the word JESUS on the back in large letters. He never did explain what the heck he was selling. I should have had the pitbull go after him...
WTF are you people thinking? You don't have to open your door just because someone knocks on it. That's just plain stupid nowadays. I can't understand why someone would ever open their door without knowing who was on the other side. It's just asking for trouble. Be anti-social. It might keep you safe.
I too live outside Snow Hill - probably in the same neighborhood as 1:07PM. He is a white young man with a red older Toyota truck with a cap on the back. He has been to the house 3 times. Twice I've refused to go to the door but once my husband went to the door and the man made a comment about being nervous because he saw we have a Rott....
It made me wonder if he was testing when we were home, when our neighbors were home and what was in the back yard.
And yes, our normally calm dog was VERY UPSET!
I live outside of Snow Hill as well and this guy came to my house twice. The first time I answered the door and after his speech he wanted to come in. I told him that I didn't have the time to talk to him then. I thought it was very odd that he was out in the pouring rain and had his bag open on the steps. He told me of names of some of my neighbors that he had visited which I thought strange as well. The entire time my usually very friendly dog was going crazy trying to get out of the house at him. I thought the whole thing seemed strange and something was not right with this guy. He returned the following day but I did not answer the door.
Call me paranoid,but I live out in the sticks so if I do not recognize a "visitor",and hubby is not home,guess who is not getting the door? I may be paranoid but its better than being a victim.
Times have changed. We will never let a stranger in, and you have to be careful with any information you give out.
I was getting my oil changed and a stranger working there complimented me on my (sort of expensive) vehicle. He was nice at first, so I let my guard down a little. He mixed questions about my vehicle with some- what seemed like innocent enough talk about where I work and stuff. Before I knew it, he asked if I had the day off to be able to be there the time of day I was and that type of stuff, that made me stop and think, that they already had my address on file, and if I told him what days and hours I worked he had all the info to plan for something of that sort, not that he would, but I enabled some of it. So I threw in something about our mean dogs and other false info, just in case.
Delivery people for furniture, appliances, etc. also have more knowledge about your house and schedules than you might want them to.
Joe,
My cousin came home this evening to find that her house had be burglarized today. She also lives in a rural area. One week ago, she came home and found her front door wide open--someone had been in her house. She was particularly disturbed because this first event occurred with her car parked in the driveway. In talking with the police today, she found out that another home a few miles away had been hit today also. The owner of that house also reported that someone had been in their home the week before. With the rash of burglaries in the area recently, please let your readers know about this. Urge them to report anyone suspicious. Reading all these comments makes me think that if she had been home the first time the burgular "cased" her house, she would have gotten a similar story to the ones posted in these comments. Notice how all these stories of people coming up to people's homes are similar but not exactly the same. They also occur during times when people would normally be at work!
Another good way to protect yourself is to know your neighbors,Talk to them and look out for each other.Know who has done time,or who has a rep for stealing,etc.
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