Peddlers offering everything from magazine subscriptions to burglary alarm systems appear to be ignoring our rainy weather, angry behind-the-door admonitions to leave the front doorstep, and police warnings in order to sell their wares.
In the process, angry homeowners weary of the approach and the insistent knocking and sales pitches are calling police.
We’ve cautioned about some of these groups in the past, and they have proven to be nothing more than organized bands of young people pumped up by ring leaders and dropped off in well-off communities. Several of these contacts have not ended well for people who opened their doors.
And it appears people have exhausted the limits of their patience and are turning to police for help. We’ll see what happens.
Have you been contacted today? What was the pitch and your experience?
They seem to come through every few months. I have seen vans picking them up and dropping them off. I have no doubt it is an organized and ongoing scam.
My in-laws are watching our house and they have turned away two sets of solicitors in a week.
The ADT guy is very very persistent. Does he have a permit???
Don’t open your door.
People must be giving them money. They wouldn’t be coming back otherwise.
We’re not home that often, and we rarely get solicitors (off the beaten path), but I agree with don’t open your door.
Ask for the names and phone numbers of their companies and then robo dial them.
We were stupid to get rid of those 60s and 70s intercom systems. So much easier to get rid of solicitors with those.
So invasive and now increasingly dangerous for all parties as people have connected the dots wrongly or no and presume these people are casing their homes for burglary. There have also been several criminal incidents involving magazine solicitors brought into this area for the purpose of sales to “well off” buyers. A woman has been murdered in fact. If police can’t do anything then I guess it is left to the individual homeowner and I think that is not going to end well.