Out of the WSB inbox, a door-to-door alert from Rich, who did followup research (as did we) – read on:
I had a visitor at my door who said he was from “Providing Youth of Seattle”. His pitch was he was selling candy that would go to benefit the homeless. (5xxx block of 49th SW)
The State of Washington does have a business by that name registered in Auburn, they are in the “retail trade” under a Russian name. There is a website that is just a single home page. I called the number I found for the company and it was a wrong number. They are not registered in Seattle. I suspect it’s just a phony way to sell candy for $7 per pack.
I called the police non-emergency line. I think their answer was interesting — aside from this particular case, just in general how the police handle suspected phony door to door salespeople. They get a lot of these calls. He said that they put a description and enter the case into their computer. As a single call, it may or may not get checked out. If other neighbors call, then it has a good chance of getting checked out. Be sure to note a description of the individual and his/her clothing.
Since Rich got a name – which isn’t always the case with door-to-door reports that come in – we also checked it with the State of Washington registered-charities database. Nothing by that name – or even containing “Providing Youth” — is registered, but the state says you’re supposed to be if you’re soliciting for charity. Meantime, previous door-to-door alerts published on WSB are archived here, newest to oldest.
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