weird person came to my door-should I inform local PD??

[Lisa L from MI]

I was at work today but DH works nights. He said about 1pm the door bell rang. As soon as Mabel started barking like crazy...the guy started walking away (he was parked at the end of our driveway)....but DH opened the door and asked if he could help him.

The guy then says to my DH (in broken English) "How much for the Mercury"?? DH has a 1990 Mercury Cougar that is pretty much a piece of crap car (to drive back and forth to work) and it was even smashed in the front quarter panel a couple weeks ago...so NOT AT ALL in even "decent" shape.....and also NOT for sale!!!!

DH kinda says "what are you talking about"? and the guy asked DH if he was interested in selling it??? DH says no and they guy leaves.

I just thought this to be really really weird. My friend in a different city close by just had her house robbed and it was actually a guy going door to door during the day to see if anyone answered or if they had a dog in the house.

I was just wondering if I should inform our local PD of this suspicious person. Of course, if it were me, I would have got the license plate # when he took off...but DH didn't....just a description of the vehicle.

 

[MAKmom]

Yes I would call & I would tell all my neighbors.

 

[of the seas]

Yes, I would call and I did call 2 weeks ago for the same thing!! I NEVER open my door to people I don't know. If my husband is here, he would get it but not me. The other week this guy came to my house in the afternoon. He had on a white jacket. He was banging on my side door, then banging on my front door. I looked through the window and didn't know him. So I didn't open the door. Later on about 8pm my husband had just left 10 minutes ago. Then all of the sudden, the same guy was pounding on my doors again!!! I got so scared and called the police. The police came by and said they found the guy snd he was a passing out coupons for a pizza place that was new!!! The officer told him he shouldn't go door to door at night. I felt I over-reacted, but you never know! If he was just passing out coupons, why didn't he just leave them? We also had a robbery in the area a month ago, so this put me on edge!

 

[kilee]

I'd call just to give the head's up. The neighboors too. That sounds alittle fishy.

 

[kimbac3]

That does sound odd. I would would call the cops too.

of the seas - I don't think you over reacted at all. They could have put the flyer in your mailbox or slipped it under your door or put it on your car windshield...not knocking on doors. Also they should have been wearing something with a company logo or driving the delivery vehicle.

I live way out in the boondocks so if someone were ramdomly knocking on my door that would be really odd. Fortunately, I have a Doberman and that keeps random knockers to a minimum.

Kimba

 

[Lisa L from MI]

I just called the PD with my concern. They had no other calls of a suspicious person knocking on doors either. They also told me when I told them it happened about 1pm that "oh, we don't patrol that area at that time".....our city is not that big at all!! I think it is only 9 square miles....now that makes me wonder how many patrol cars are out during the day....just one???

 

[kilee]

Our little town is about double the size of yours. We only ever have 1 cop on duty- w/ the exception of Friday and Saturday nights.

 

[barkley]

this happens in our little town all the time. the day laborers or the sub contractors notice a car that looks like it is damaged or unused in a driveway and approach the person to see if they are interested in selling. some do this as a means to find and inexpensive vehical for their own or another family member's use. some fix them up and re-sell them. they often get good deals from folks who have been planning to repair or get rid of cars for months or years but have'nt gotton around to it (they could'nt put anything in the mailboxes-they have no identifying house numbers were they are clustered, if someone has a dirty car piled with leaves it's unlikely they would notice a flyer under the windshield, and the doors in our development have weatherstripping such that you can't slide anything under them (plus in most cases they live with largly non english speaking family who could not take a message call for them).

it's routine around here and never a problem (we have problems with non permitted door to door sales and service solicitations).

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

My town is only 3 square miles, have multiple police on duty on all shifts and they can never get here in a timely manner.
That being said, calling the police to report something like that is never wrong. I'd have especially reported the coupon guy. We get menus and coupons stuck in our screen door all the time. Not once has anyone ever knocked/pounded on my door. That would make me suspicious!

Back to the OP, while I certainly don't blame you for calling the police, we have had people stop at our home to ask if we were selling a car that was parked on our property. It was a 10 year old Honda Civic with no signs posted at all. In a 3 month time period we must have had 6 people stop.

 

[foolishmortal]

this happens in our little town all the time. the day laborers or the sub contractors notice a car that looks like it is damaged or unused in a driveway and approach the person to see if they are interested in selling. some do this as a means to find and inexpensive vehical for their own or another family member's use. some fix them up and re-sell them. they often get good deals from folks who have been planning to repair or get rid of cars for months or years but have'nt gotton around to it (they could'nt put anything in the mailboxes-they have no identifying house numbers were they are clustered, if someone has a dirty car piled with leaves it's unlikely they would notice a flyer under the windshield, and the doors in our development have weatherstripping such that you can't slide anything under them (plus in most cases they live with largly non english speaking family who could not take a message call for them).

it's routine around here and never a problem (we have problems with non permitted door to door sales and service solicitations).

I was going to say almost the same thing!!

 

[Grendalynn]

Better safe than Sorry - That is all I have to say. You have done your civic duty to inform local law inforcment of an encounter that left you with a weird feeling - God forbid you hadn't called and that same strang man did something horrible.... Now a days you can never be too sure... Small town or city - there are a bunch of wackos out there.

 

[MsDisney23]

Glad to hear that you call the PD! I would have done the same thing!

 

[HaleyB]

It can not hurt to call, but as barkley said, it is not uncommon to have this happen. We sold a car this way last year. We were getting ready to list it when some guy knocked on the door and asked if we would sell it to him

He got himself a good deal, and I bet he fixed it up and sold it for a good profit. Kuddos to him, it was well beyond our ability to fix.

 

[mcnuss]

Our little town is about double the size of yours. We only ever have 1 cop on duty- w/ the exception of Friday and Saturday nights.

We have 25,000 residents and at any given time, have 4 cars patrolling. Most of what they respond to are car accidents. I have always contended that you could rob every bank in my town without any trouble at all if you staged 4 separate accidents at the 4 furthest points in town. The cops would never get there. Ok, I watch too many cop shows.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

Better safe than Sorry - That is all I have to say. You have done your civic duty to inform local law inforcment of an encounter that left you with a weird feeling - God forbid you hadn't called and that same strang man did something horrible.... Now a days you can never be too sure... Small town or city - there are a bunch of wackos out there.

Thanks! That is exactly what I thought....it would kill me if something would have happened that involved that person/vehicle......

 

[Aidensmom]

I would have called too. We live in a big city, so we seem to encounter strange people more often, LOL, and and we have called the police with suspicious persons reports on several ocassions.

 

[Crazy4mandms]

It is probably nothing, but I'm glad you called. It has been 8 years since we had our knock on the door and I will never forget it. The guy showed up at 7 am, I thought it was my hubby, opened the door, he pokes his head in looks around and runs away. I call the cops, they treat me like I"m an idiot, basically say the same thing you did "we patrol all the time". Blew me off. Well, don't mean to scare anyone, but that guy came back 2 week later and smashed his way through our front window yelling profanities saying he was going to kill us. My husband beat him up with a baseball bat....saved our lives, the man was mentally insane and said we were demons that God told him to extract from the house. PLEASE NEVER OPEN YOUR DOOR EVEN BRIEFLY!!! I hate to think what would have happened to me and my children if that guy would have decided to do something to us the first time he showed up at my door (and stupid me I opened it up!!). Again, I'm not trying to scare anyone unnecessarily, the chance of that happening to anyone is one a billion I figure, but just the fact that it COULD happen! ALWAYS, ALWAYS leave your doors locked EVEN WHEN YOU ARE HOME...ESPECIALLY when you are home!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

Sounds fishy. I'd call the police...not the emergency number, just their regular number.

 

[Jeanny]

no doubt ~ better to be safe than sorry. It could have been totally innocent, but there are such nutbags out there, you never know!! Some people make up stories, see if you're home, etc and can come back to rob you or worse!! Nope, your tax $$ are paying the police and a "smart" thief would probably case the area first, that includes knowing when the police patrol the area.

 

[nkjzmom]

I agree with better safe than sorry. Just this week a young man came around with a notebook with magazine pictures on the outside of it. I couldn't ignore him because the front door was open with the glass/screen door closed and locked. I had a friend over and the kids and their friends were coming in and out. I open the screen door and he goes through his story of selling magazines, blah, blah, blah, I kindly tell him I'm not interested but good luck. He asks if I would fill out a survey telling his employer he was kind and mannerly so I say sure. My couch back faces the door and he asks if he can use that to write my info down on and stupid me I hesitatingly say ok....I have beat myself up over that one...then he proceeds to the kitchen table and starts writing down my name and address and he's asking what I do and what my husband does...I tell him nevermind, I'm not interested, thank you. He gets up crumbles the paper up, shoves it into his notebook, and walks out. I watch to see if he stops at any other houses to sell his magazines and he doesn't!!! Just keeps walking down the street. So I called the police and within minutes they were patrolling the neighborhood. But now I am nervous he's cased out the place and will be back. I have been extra careful to keep everything locked up and to keep the dog in the house with me ALL the time.

I understand why some people do not report crimes...you begin to feel like you deserve it for doing something stupid in the first place.