Bill Westphal sent out the following note to the newsgroups Friday night:

There was a solicitor on our street tonight around 8:30 – 8:45 PM. He was allegedly trying to get subscriptions for the Star News. I called the Sheriff's Station to have some deputies come check him out but there was some other higher priority calls at the time.  I walked down the street (with Leila) and confronted him … . He had a wadded up stack of forms in his pocket and said that other neighbors were signing up.  He had one with a Loma Alta address scribbled on it.

I told him that people are kind of leery about solicitors especially at night.  I told him perhaps it might be better to come back during the day.  He thought that was probably a good idea. He wanted to know if someone called me and I just said that we were a tight knit neighborhood and we watch out for each other. He started asking a lot of questons about which house was mine and how long I lived there. Leila and I escorted him down to Loma Alta and off the street.  On the way down he was texting somebody on his cell phone.

Lynne and I intend to call the Star News tomorrow to check this out.  It could be legitimate or it could have been somebody scouting for potential houses to burglarize.  The fact that he texted somebody makes me suspicious.

Please be alert for instances like this. Do not be afraid to call the Sheriff's Station and have them come out and check out solicitors.  That's what they have asked us to do. If the solicitor is legitimate there won't be a problem.

Be alert.  Report suspicious activity to the Sheriff's Station at 626-798-1131.