Not related to our earlier report, so we’re running this one separately. Magazine sellers are apparently back at it – and one Lincoln Park-area resident says the story two of them told him tonight turned out to be bogus – though the fine print, when he looked very closely at the receipt, didn’t lie – Read on for his description of the two and the story they told:
One is a Caucasian, trim, late teens, and wearing University of Washington jacket and cap. The other is African American, trim, but wearing casual clothes with no identifying symbols. They introduced themselves as teammates on the UW baseball team, which won their season and are selling magazine subscriptions to be able to go to the playoffs in Hawaii. The Caucasian introduced himself, and showed photo ID, as Matt Tekach, 6’1″, 160 pounds, as the son of the woman who lives around the corner and walks her golden retriever down this block in the morning. Ironically, there is a woman I’ve seen walking a golden retriever on our block in the morning, but I don’t know her name, so his story rang true.
They are glib and earnest and charming, and are selling magazine subs for $44 per sub. When I pointed out that the magazines could be ordered for about $15/year, they said that the team gets 80% of the money as a donation and the rest goes to pay for the magazine, which could be donated to children’s hospital if I didn’t want to receive it. I offered just to give the $32 to the team itself, and he said “but I need the full amount to get the points for the team to win the trip to Hawaii.” He assured me that I’d be getting a receipt and that it was tax deductible.
I gave him cash, to avoid a magazine company having my checking account information, and he did give me a receipt. As I was in the middle of dinner, I put the receipt aside, not reading it til later.
After dinner, it hit me that April 28 is kind of early for the UW team to have finished its season, and checked the UW website. Sure enough, there’s another full month of games! Getting a queasy feeling, I scoured the list of players. There is no Matt Tekach on the team. I Googled “Matt Tekach,” and up came this link/story from as far back as 2005:
http://edumacation.com/UnitedFamilyCirculationNewsAndObserver20050927[editor’s note – the original version of that story is here]:
They’re still using the same name. and the same “my mom’s the one who walks the golden retriever” story! Only then did I look at the receipt, which says in red type that the company is “not in any way related to a non-profit or charitable organization, donation, sponsorship or scholastical program of any kind. In fact it is for a profit enterprise.”
The resident says that organization is Periodical and Publication Connection, Inc. Meantime, city rules for door-to-door solicitors can be read here.
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