by Timothy Rutt

Community safety maven Carolyn Seitz is sharing information from the local newsgroups about a couple of suspicious characters who are knocking on doors around dark.

First, in early October:

 A young man around 19 yrs of age knocked on my door.  I approached, did not open but asked how I could help him?  He said that his mother asked him to go around and meet some of his neighbors.  As I stared at this young man who is too old to be 'doing what his mother told him' really, I suggested he do that sort of thing during the daytime.  He looked around and shrugged his shoulders and said 'What does it matter?'  And I told him "well it matters to me, PAL!"  And with that he walked away leaving my gate open.  I did not open my door to go out and close my gate.  But I did call the Sheriff and gave them a description…this man was about 19 yrs old, about 5'8, caucasian male with blonde hair but dyed blonde hair.  You could see his dark roots!  For what this is all worth!

And another one reported just a few days ago:

Last evening just before dark, this same young man, along with a friend, knocked on my door.  Both were smiling broadly and thrust their hands out to shake mine. One had a spray bottle in hand which contained a small amount of liquid. When I asked what they wanted, the friend began to ask why I refused to shake hands. My antenna went up. The blond young man told me that they were selling the liquid in the spray bottle – which is guaranteed to clean anything.  I was then told that both are being paid to demonstrate the liquid on anything that I wanted cleaned.  When I refused, both began to banter about me "not trusting them."

My husband came to the door when he heard the ruckus. He got the same pitch.  When my husband refused, both men began to insist upon demonstrating the spray in an angry tone.  I then realized that this was the same young man described in the e-mail [above].  I came back to the door and told them both that we'd been warned about them via neighborhood watch. They looked shocked!  My husband told them both to leave or he would call the police. They quickly left, cursing my husband as they departed.  My husband followed them down the driveway as he phoned the sheriff.  My next door neighbor had also been approached by these two last evening for the second time!

Both are Caucasion about 19-22 years or age.  The blond one …has a tattoo on his neck.  The second man has light brown hair, stands about 5' 9" and has missing front teeth.  Both are very menacing.