Did this guy want to rob me or am I just paranoid?

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I had a knock on the door a few weeks ago after dark, after grabbing the 1911 I found out is was the neighbor down the street that was collecting signatures to get on the ballot for county sheriff.:eek:

It was under my shirt, but he knew it was there, but never said anything about it... guessing hes not going to knock on the door after dark.
 
Before anyone gets close enough to knock on our door they hear two dogs barking then rushing to the door and jumping up to look. I don't open the door because of the safety of the person on the "other" side.
 
I have met a few people who go door to door selling magazines. One guy explained to me how they flew him from CA to Texas for training. It is pretty high pitched. He was up at 5am drinking coffee with the other trainees. The way the owners set it up obviously motivates these people very much. I would not be surprised if some of these younger salespeople would push their way into someone's house to try and sell. I had one guy walking across my yard dressed like a punk trying to sell. The police actually stopped him and told him to leave.(that was for school) Another time a guy tried to sell to me at my house. We ended up talking for awhile outside and skateboarded a little. He was actually flown to NH from Minnesota. He was younger like me. These folks are very motivated for some reason though.
 
I was at a car club meet a few months back and 2 guys in a SUV drove up giving some story about how they are home electronic installers and they got a 40" plasma TV from their supplier extra. They said they were just wanting to "give" it to someone since the house they were working on didnt have room for it. My BS meter went off immediately and im sure they got the impression that we werent interested.
 
While living in Canada I had to throw a guy out of a girlfriend's apartment once about 25 years ago for the exact same thing. We were sitting in the living room when her roommate made the mistake of opening the door and letting him in.

To fully appreciate the scenario, you need to picture this girl - beautiful blonde, very well endowed, standing there in a baby doll nightie holding her pet cat. I heard his sales pitch and Stephanie told him sweetly that she wasn't interested. He continued to persist, accusing her of not wanting to help the young people of Canada. I started to get up at that point, but my GF at the time, knowing my temper, motioned for me to "stay" (yes, she had me well trained) and she walked out to the entrance way and told him firmly to leave, no one here was going to buy any magazines no matter what he said. At that point he became abusive and I'll never forget what he said to Stephanie: "I'm trying to do something to get ahead in life and earn a trip to Europe and you stand there playing with your pussy (the cat) refusing to help out?!"

I chuckle about it now, but at the time I saw red. I got up, came through the kitchen and went straight to him. He wasn't expecting a male presence, obviously, and stopped in mid sentence when he saw me. Without a word I rushed him and pushed him hard out the open door. He lost balance and fell back, slamming into the wall on the other side of the hallway and I immediately shut the door. Stephanie started to berate me that what I did was unnecessary until the punk recovered and pounded on the door. She froze and looked at me to see what I was going to do. I whipped the door open and started towards him but he just yelled "My stuff!" - He had dropped his paperwork when I rushed him and my GF tossed it out the door and told him she was calling the police so he better leave the building. He left.

Stephanie was gorgeous but she was an anti-everything, utopian hippie type and we had words about my violent response and her lack of judgement opening the door to a stranger particularly (un)dressed the way she was. She wasn't getting it and it wasn't long before her antics resuted in Pauline moving out and getting her own apartment.

PS: Mike the Wolf -
I had to practically beat this in to my braindead mother who still quietly tiptoes to the door at a snail's pace, taking at least 30 seconds to get there. There is NOTHING to be gained from not answering the door, and plenty to lose. Period.
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I'm sure you didn't mean it to come across like that my friend, but I cannot begin to fathom how a man could ever speak that way about his mother.
 
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i too am in raleighwood...i had a guy come to my door with the same spiel a few weeks back...early evening still light out and started with the same lines...trying to win a trip or something, stay outta trouble..he was not terribly dressed but was not a student looking kid...

i noticed a piece of paper on his clip board that was for lack of a better term..a hand drawn 'map' of the neighborhood and he had names of folks written down and did the whole..." ms smith two doors down said that...'

i had my gun sob and quickly said no thank you and closed the door...

funny enough...about a week later there was a rash of car break ins..go figure huh?
 
I had the same spiel given to me about two months ago. I live in an apartment in a college town, and this kid knocks on my door trying to sell magazines, has the whole laminated card, trip to europe, everything. I think he was legit, but I still answered the door with my foot behind it.
 
Get a NO TRESSPASSING sign.
Get a smaller NO SOLICITING sign.


It is a popular scam in Maryland, to go door-to-door trying to sell anything (magazines, great-deal coupons, window replacement, gutter cleaning feed the starving children, help this policitical cause) just to get valid credit card information. Never respond to a stranger's initiating a request for your cc.

In a few months, we'll have the fake census people swarming, demanding personal information (name, social security, birth date, driver's license). And then we'll have the local news reports about all the old people swindled, and then how the tax assessments went up because people have 100 non-residents claiming their address as a primary residence.
 
It looks like one of your locations is San Antonio, TX. Is that where the solicitation occurred? I had someone stop by with the same pitch. She was a high school student looking to sell extremely overpriced magazine subscriptions in order to build up points for a trip somewhere. Very pushy.
 
It seems like I get these about once a year. A couple days ago some kid stopped by selling $8 candy bars for "teens of the future". I'm sure it was just a scam where the guy went to Sam's Club and stocked up on cheap candy, but I doubt he was casing me. I'll happily buy Girl Scout cookies (yum!) from the kids down the street, but no way am I buying stuff from a shady door to door saleman.

I'm sure this is a common way of casing a house, though. Home invasions seem to be more common here, too. I don't currently answer the door armed unless something is really weirding me out, but I do have a big overprotective dog. Maybe I need to be thinking about it.
 
I don't answer the door much...unless it's someone I know. If someone is casing my house, I would much prefer they break in while I'm there as opposed to having all day to shop and load up their truck.
 
I know the badges and ID things seem silly and sure enough they wont protect you. I wear a badge for my company which states I am the owner of the company and it has my picture on it. I do believe it eases the minds of some folks.

Thats no reason for them not to have a good awareness of whats going on.
 
These folks are very motivated for some reason though.
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There's quite a bit out there about these magazine sales organizations and how they treat their employees (which they claim are "independent contractors"). It's pretty shocking stuff, and the whole system is very cult-like.
 
People just like you describe frequent my neighborhood. Here's the deal. A shady company puts ads in the papers, "Management Training" make up to "$" a week. They prey on the ghetto types.
They are then loaded in a van and dumped in a neighborhood and told to sell (whatever). They walk door to door all day.
I've probably turned away 50 of them. I've never had a problem.
However, any stranger in my neighborhood bears watching. Since they are poor, you never know if they will take something.
Paranoid? Never, I prefer to think of it a vigilant.
 
I had a scary situation once. Hispanic male came to my door, claimed he needed to read my gas meter. He said he was with xx company, contracted to the gas company. He was not wearing a company shirt. He was not wearing an orange safety vest. His vehicle was an unmarked white minivan. He had what appeared to be a toolbelt but I could not determine what was in it. I asked him to have his company or the gas company call me so I could verify his identity (I know better than to call them. He could give me anyone's number and the person answering could say "Yeah, he's one of ours". The gas company would have my phone number, though). Five minutes later, no call. I am unable to verify his identity. I asked him to leave without opening my door.

After asking him to leave, he did not leave. He sat outside on my bench for several minutes, then went and sat outside my house in his van. That van was there for over 15 minutes. At this point, I called police. He had already left by the time police showed up. The police told me they'd found him still in the area and verified he was legit (why he couldn't have proven that to me in the first place I don't know). I got the number of his company and called them to discuss what happened. They seemed genuinely concerned that he was not even wearing his orange safety vest and dressed entirely in street clothes. They told me some line that the gas company did not, in fact, have my phone number on file (which is BS because my family has owned this house since it was built in the 1970's and the phone number and gas company have never changed, and they've called us before). So long story short, the guy eventually read my meter and left.

I'd had my Ruger GP100 there with me the whole time, so I'd covered my bases, at least.

I'm sure you didn't mean it to come across like that my friend, but I cannot begin to fathom how a man could ever speak that way about his mother.
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I'll put it this way: I've missed multiple deliveries because of that, and plenty of shady people have had lots of time to fathom breaking in. She used to not answer the door at all and just keep quiet if she didn't recognize the person. And despite explaining it repeatedly that it endangers her and can cause a major inconvenience, she still won't yell "Who is it?" when the doorbell rings, and actually gets mad at me when I do it. I'd be the one who would have to face down an intruder if one broke in, or go fetch the package from the UPS or FedEx hub after she missed delivery twice, so I'm none too happy about being on the firing line because of someone's bad habit that they're not willing to change even after being presented with logic.
 
I was at a car club meet a few months back and 2 guys in a SUV drove up giving some story about how they are home electronic installers and they got a 40" plasma TV from their supplier extra. They said they were just wanting to "give" it to someone since the house they were working on didnt have room for it. My BS meter went off immediately and im sure they got the impression that we werent interested.
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That's an old scam. Back in the day, it was empty stereo speaker boxes (filled with dirt or trash for weight). The pitch varies, usually "my boss loaded the van with 20, but the paperwork only says 15. If I take them back to the store he'll just keep them. So I need to sell the extras fast for cash." Sells them out of a van for cash, drive off. The buyer lugs them inside, opens them, and is screwed. You can't call the police I say "I thought I was buying stolen speakers and all I got was dirt."

I imagine plasma TV boxes is the updated version. Maybe, just maybe, it is a legitimately stolen TV. But probably is an empty box and the TV is back home.
 
not a robber, but just as bad....

No,

It wasn't a robber. It sounded like one of those magazine-selling cults. I'm surprised they sent a guy. Most of the time, they send girls because of the sexual bias, most guys will open the door for a good looking girl but not for another guy. If you'll notice, a lot of other posters mentioned that they had salespersons try to sell them magazines in a college town. Cults do their best recruiting in college towns because they are young people trying to find their identity in the world away from home for the first time. Thy are lonely because they are away from home for the first time. A cult will offer them a pseudofamily and a new identity. They are always in some contest to go to Europe. It is a cult. Various cults such as the Moonies and the Children of God (& others, etc) will use young fairly attractive college age girls (& a small number of men, it seems) to sell magazine subscriptions. I had one put her foot in the crack of my door once. I was foolish enough to open the door because she was cute.... But she REFUSED to leave and REFUSED to take her foot away from the crack. She was willing to stand there all day unless I bought a damn magazine subscription. Finally, my dog saved the day. I told her that I just wanted to put my dog away. I was afraid that he might accidentally bite her. I smiled and told her that I'd most certainly buy a magazine subscription from a cutie like her, but just let me close the door to put my dog away and grab my checkbook.... Once she took her foot away and let me close the door, I told her that I lied and I will not buy squat from her and get lost. She then YELLED at me and told me that I was Satan's spawn and that I'm gonna go burn in hell. Wow.

Another time (yes, I got fooled twice becuase I am a SUCKER for cute girls!), the girl was super-cute so my roommate even LET HER INSIDE the apartment! It took us FOREVER to get her to leave. Finally, I showed her my wallet and it was empty. We told her that we were dead broke and handed her our last 2 dollars (all I had in my wallet) and that got her to leave. She stay for OVER AN HOUR!!! She only left because we convinced her that our bank accounts were empty and that any check we signed for magazine subscriptions were going to bounce.
 
I was at a car club meet a few months back and 2 guys in a SUV drove up giving some story about how they are home electronic installers and they got a 40" plasma TV from their supplier extra. They said they were just wanting to "give" it to someone since the house they were working on didnt have room for it. My BS meter went off immediately and im sure they got the impression that we werent interested.
Click to expand...

That's an old scam. Back in the day, it was empty stereo speaker boxes (filled with dirt or trash for weight). The pitch varies, usually "my boss loaded the van with 20, but the paperwork only says 15. If I take them back to the store he'll just keep them. So I need to sell the extras fast for cash." Sells them out of a van for cash, drive off. The buyer lugs them inside, opens them, and is screwed. You can't call the police I say "I thought I was buying stolen speakers and all I got was dirt."

I imagine plasma TV boxes is the updated version. Maybe, just maybe, it is a legitimately stolen TV. But probably is an empty box and the TV is back home.
Click to expand...

Had someone try that on me at a gas station. Was with a stereo. I knew right away it was hot. I was in downtown Tempe right across from Arizona Mills. I figured he probably just robbed one of the nearby stores and was trying to sell it. Didn't even see it. Just told him, "Nope. Can't do it." and walked to my car as quickly as I could, and reached for my phone. He saw me pull out my cellphone and booked.
 
Long ago CB Radios were sold as boxes.

The kids in Jersey city were surrounded and asked three simple questions.

Son, that radio there. (Cobra 189+ retail.. 200 or so) You selling for 30 dollars?

"Yes"

Son, where did you get it?

"Paw didnt want it no mo"

Son, open the box and show us the radio.

"No"

And a brief tussle later, two acme house bricks fall out of box. Justice is then adminstered.

It was not worth the blood pressure medication or the trouble but once in a while it's very good stress relief thumping the dumb dumbs.

When I had my place in Maryland in a complex, constantly knocking on the door for magazines and such. One week a roommate made availible a very good shepard that was good bonds and family member.

2 am knocks followed by growls you wont believe.

After a while no more and peace again.

Ultimately as a home owner on several acres of land, you see em coming once. They usually dont return when they see what arms you bear on the porch.
 
There's no way for us to tell if this guy was legit (however, I will note that if you ever buy a subscription this way, you'll pay about ten gazillion times the cost of ordering it from the publisher).

Trust your instincts. If you have a bad feeling about an encounter like this, either do not answer the door or ensure that you can adequately defend yourself if you do answer it. I have the benefit of owning an exceptionally large dog, who always accompanies me to the front door. He is the world's friendliest dog, but the folks at the door don't know that. The typical encounter goes something like this:

-Ring-a-ding
-Walk to the door, dog runs to the door, grab dog's collar
-Me: "Hello, can I help you?"
-Visitor: "Whoa" . . . gathering thoughts while nervously glancing at massive dog . . . "I'm here collecting for the Society to Provide Soccer Equipment for Underprivileged Children in Burn Units."
-Me: "No thanks . . . I give through United Way."
-Visitor, keeping a watchful eye on massive dog: "Okaaaay. Thanks a lot. Have a nice day."

Let's just keep this between you and me: whilst a massive beast, my 110-lb golden retriever is a therapy dog. The greatest threat he poses would be knocking you over while he leans against you in his never-ending quest to be petted. That's okay, because all the "visitors" see is this:

4pa2tzk.gif
 
the girl was super-cute so my roommate even LET HER INSIDE the apartment! It took us FOREVER to get her to leave.
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I start acting like a psychotic maniac, or pretend to have a seizure. That'd get her out of there pretty fast.
 
Did this guy want to rob me or am I just paranoid?

Some years back I was coming out of a client's office after dark and a seemingly nice kid approached and asked if I had a light. As I reached into my coat pocket for my lighter (I still smoked in those days), he produced a knife. Things got complicated and nasty at that point. I should have said no and increased the distance between us rather than allow him to close it. Mea culpa. The moral is that "careful" does not equal "paranoid".
 
I had a bunch of late teen to early twenties kids (two guys and one girl) approach me TWICE in one month to buy "surplus car audio equipment" from their unmarked white panel van. Once it was while I was pumping gas at a station near my house. The second time (two weeks later), the same kids in the same van tried to sell me their stolen goods by yelling across two lanes of traffic at me while we were stopped at a red light ten miles away from the station where they first approached me. I think they had tried to sell the stuff to so many people that they didn't recognize me from their first attempt.

Both times, I smelled the scam all over them and refused. The second time, two of them seemed really loopy. They were giggling uncontrollably and kinda swaying back and forth... like a rocking motion... with the side sliding door of the panel van open. I could see boxes inside, but not much else. Dumb or high, I figure.
 
One of the magazine guys hit me up last night. It was getting near dusk and I answered the door- I wanted to make it clear someone was home. I have the security door locked so he couldn't get in, had the girlfriend holding the phone in the next room and kept in mind this could be an "interview".

Immediately the guy goes in to a spiel about how he's trying to get away from gangs and drugs, working on getting life experience selling. Right there I am done, I am not buying anything from door-to-door salesmen. He starts asking some personal questions. I refuse to answer and ask him why he's asking me all of this. Keep an eye on the bushes and his movements. Looked to see if he was noting my alarm stickers in the front window.

He did have a paper that showed what magazines he was selling, and some notepaper that apparently had neighbors addresses and their "rating" of his salesmanship for "work credit".

I had to deflect some more questions to get him packing. I was courteious but firm. It's great when they try to make you feel like a jerk- you don't want overpriced magazines, but you won't buy some for inner city youth or our troops overseas?

After he left, I kept an eye out. About an hour later I went to pick something up at the store and noticed him cooling it under a streetlight a couple blocks away. I circled around the block and noticed him start walking down the street. I figured he got dumped by a van and was waiting for a ride- but it was odd that he didn't have his clipboard any longer.

It was an interesting experience...was he really selling (overpriced) magazines? Should I stop answering the door?

Edit: Found some interesting sites detailing these magazine sales schemes. I think I'll be investing in a large peephole so I can see if it's a salesperson and ignore them. (My door has windows on both sides I look through to see who's there- but then they see me, too.)
 
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