blue van - drop off at end of street

Ok - I have seen this less this summer than previous summers but it happened again today. An unmarked blue van dropped off kids to troll a neighborhood door-to-door... short of having to answer my door and fight off unwanted solicitors - what can I do to stop this? Can I write down the license plate of the van and report it to someone - is it even worth it? It had a DC plate (only on the back) but it moved too quickly for me to write down the plate #. I dont mind supporting local boy scouts, marching bands or the fire department but when people from other states farm kids in, it makes me question their legitimacy... what can we do?

 

it's typically a huge scam where kids give a sob story to sell magazine subscriptions, get paid pennies while the "trainers" tey work for collect the lion's share of the money. drugs, blackmail, preying on troubled teens- it's an ugly, seamy biz acc. to this article

http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-07...ou-to-know-about-door-to-door-magazine-sales/

 

yep - got that last year and the guy was very rude to my husband which is why we didnt answer the door today. Last year, he wouldnt take no for an answer and then started to say stuff like 'well, you live in this big house and you can't give up a few bucks?'... then my husband laid into him about how he graduated from HS, went into the US Army for 15 years - then into OCS, then used his GI bill to work his way to a degree at night while working FT during the day - so he worked for it. He basically backed down after that but it was still a harassing situation that I would just as soon avoid in the future - which again, we did by not answering our door - but we dont want to feel captive in our own homes...

 

I had a new one a few weeks back -- A teenage girl knocked on the door and said, "Hi, I'm Marie daughter of Jan and Mike down the street and I'm raising money for my volleyball team..." I had never seen her before and when I asked her to repeat where she lived she gave a non-specific answer. Anyways, I thought it was a very clever and innovative approach to use the large neighborhood (where you don't know everyone) as a ruse to help out the "neighborhood kid".

 

If you experience this and they come to your door. Ask to see their solicitor's license issued by the county. If they don't have one, call the sheriff's office. They will come out and round them up. They've done so in the past.

 

Additionally, if you have a sign posted that there is no trespassing and they refuse to leave your property, you can also call the sheriff. In the past I have had someone refuse to leave my property. I took a picture of them on my cell phone, and called the sheriff. The person eventually left my property when he realized I actually did call the police, but did not leave the neighborhood. The officer tracked him down and put him down and put him in the squad car. The officer gave me the option to press charges.

 

The person that came to my door did have a county license with her.