We’ve received two tales of encounters with purported magazine-selling solicitors in north West Seattle over the past few hours – read on:
From Meg:
Half hour ago an African American young woman with the name “Antonio” tattooed on
her neck came by our house (in the 3300 block of 49th Ave SW). She was selling magazine subscriptions for a company called D & T Connections and wanted us to do her a personal favor and “give her a hand up” by getting a subscription. She had a lot of personal questions tried to get answered: (what are your names?, what were your first jobs?, what jobs do you do now?, etc.) She spoke rapidly, said she had 3 kids and was trying to get herself straightened out and take care of them properly. My husband showed up about halfway through her schpiel. She kept referencing our nearby neighbors by calling them “Mr. Mike” or “Mr. Steve” or “that guy with the fancy little red car” saying they were all supporting her by buying a bunch of subscriptions. Anyway, she kept flashing a clipboard with a bunch of rumpled papers attached to it, asking us to sign up too.She said she was a neighbor and lived nearby and when I asked where exactly did she live, she got flustered and said she didn’t remember what the street was but she thought the place she was staying was “Western Inn”. Huh? Then she said she really hadn’t lived in this area very long. I asked where she lived before here… she said Colorado. She said she is traveling “all over” with this D & T Connections company. Huh? I asked how her kids could go to school while traveling all over. She said they live in Houston with her mother. She got very flustered b/c the questions caught her off guard, I think. Anyway, I started to conclude that this indeed was a scam and I finally interrupted her by asking if she could leave some information with us so that we could review it more. She said “No, D & T has no printed info to leave with “customers.” I said, “Well, we can’t help you out then”. At that point her demeanor changed and she became hostile and yelled at me for wasting her time. She charged down the sidewalk, yelling at me in a loud voice.
And from Melissa:
Just thought I’d give another heads up about the magazine sellers.
We’re in North Admiral on Walnut Ave – just had a tall, handsome black kid come to the house, wearing a white oxford, blue tie and khaki pants, claiming to be selling magazines. He handed me a rumpled piece of paper and I handed it right back telling him we’re not interested and he suddenly turned rude, saying, “Yeah, NO ONE is interested in magazines.” He then just walked off. I called the cops just to let them know…
Our customary reminder – solicitors have to have a license and ID. Here are the city rules.
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