Door-to-door alert of sorts: Evening lease-seeker?
No way to tell if this was casing or legit, but a WSB’er wanted to get the word out about this Friday night encounter:
We live in townhomes on Fauntleroy Way SW near Morgan Junction. Around 8:45 PM, a white male approximately 5’8 140 lbs. with short brown hair wearing a black coat, white t-shirt, blue jeans and carrying a backpack knocked on the rear door of our unit. He said he was sorry to bother us but was wondering who he could talk to about leasing a unit in our development. These units are all owner-occupied and there are no real-estate signs advertising vacancy, etc. When we told him all units were owned he said he was sorry to bother us again and left on foot. We reported the suspicious activity to SPD and, after speaking with neighbors in the development, learned that they had seen him in the alley behind the units (near the off-street parking) and he had approached them and asked the same question.
What our tipster did is exactly what police ask you to do – particularly if the suspicious person or activity is happening NOW – call them (911 is preferred, SPD has said again recently; they can always refer you elsewhere if determining it’s not “happening now” or otherwise urgent).
Reader reports: Scooter stolen; suspicious visitor at the door
2 reports of note tonight – one definitely a crime, the second one, hard to tell:
SCOOTER STOLEN: Sonia reported this one on the WSB Facebook wall. She and her daughter were at Lincoln Park late today when someone made off with her daughter’s scooter: “It was a Barbie scooter. My daughter was playing on the logs and I was taking pictures of her. We were by the construction area (Colman Pool).” If you find one abandoned somewhere, contact police, and tell them you know whose it might be.
CENSUS WORKER? OR WOULD-BE BURGLAR? Tanya had a visitor at her door along Fauntleroy in the Morgan Junction area, asking about her neighbors:Read More
Door-to-door alert: Non-electronic ‘phishing’?
Sounds like common spam e-mail, but it turned up on Brittany’s door:
Just wanna give you guys heads up that this afternoon between 4 & 4:30 my boyfriend working outside came in to find a note around our door knob giving us IMPORTANT notice that our “Chase” account needed attention. The notice was in both Spanish and English. The person walking door to door made not effort to speak with him as he was in the yard working thus leaving us to believe this is not a true important notice along with the fact that this was a at home printed note with no chase logo anywhere.
Door-to-door alert: School says it’s NOT soliciting
Got a call today from an Arbor Heights resident – near 44th SW and SW 102nd – who wanted to get the word out about someone who came to her door around 5 pm Monday. She told us he claimed to be raising money for Chief Sealth International High School – but she checked with the school today, and it does NOT have anyone doing door-to-door selling. She also called the police, explaining that after she told the solicitor she wasn’t interested, she watched him for a while, and when he noticed her watching, he started running, catching up with a car that was driving up and down the block. (Sorry, no descriptive info, she mainly wanted everyone to know that any such Sealth soliciting claim was bogus.)
Door-to-door food drive coming up: ‘Trick or Can’
One day before Halloween, you might get a knock on the door from someone who’ll be looking for a food-drive donation, not a treat. Angel Laycock from the soccer club HPFC Eagles says that 3-5 pm this Sunday (October 30) they’ll be out on what they call “Trick or Can“:
Small groups of our club will be going around house to house to collect canned food and what we will do is send that canned food to three different food drives which include Highline Area Food Bank, White Center Food Bank, and West Seattle Food Bank. We will be in a couple different areas that include Normandy Park, Three Tree Point, North Admiral, and a few other local locations.
Participating players range in age from 10-17, Angel tells us, and he just wants to get the word out so that you’ll consider having a food donation available if you happen to get a visit. (And if nobody comes by, trust us, there are many other drives in the works to which you can contribute.)
Door-to-door alert: Alarmed by alarm pitch
Out of the WSB inbox, from Deanna in Arbor Heights (near 33rd/99th):
At about 8:45 Friday evening someone knocked on my door posing as an ADP sales agent. He said because of all the recent crimes in our neighborhood his manager wanted him to place signs on our lawns if we’d agree to a consultation. After I gave him the boot he moved on to my next door neighbor with a different story. We are guessing that he was casing our houses to determine who had alarms. My neighbor called the police to report it, I though perhaps the West Seattle Blog might alert some neighbors.
Here’s our archive of door-to-door alerts; some solicitors are legitimate, some not, but remember the city rules – if it’s a commercial solicitation, they’re supposed to have ID.
West Seattle door-to-door alert: Carpet cleaner?
From Kristin, who encountered this solicitor late this morning:
I just had a guy come to my door claiming to want to wash my carpets. When I said no thanks, he wanted to do my floors or upholstery – one room for free. He had no ID, and forgot to ask until after he was gone. He was on foot – no van anywhere in sight. I’m near Graham and 38th.
(He may have been perfectly legit, but we share these alerts just in case.)
2 neighborhood alerts: Metal ‘scavenger’; insistent ‘salesperson’
We’ve blurred the plate in that photo from Christopher, who says the man was “scavenging” metal items in the 4500 block of 40th SW [map]. Christopher says the copper lawn ornament and stainless-steel pail were returned after he suggested that might be a good idea; police have been called and provided with the plate number, which reportedly checked to a West Seattle address. Second, ws4ever posted in the WSB Forums about an alert in Arbor Heights/The Arroyos regarding a purported “P-I salesperson” (odd since there’s been no print P-I, just online, more than a year and a half) banging on doors. No description. Police reiterate – call them if/when you see someone suspicious.
For those following this project step by step: The land-use decisions for the West Seattle Trader Joe’s are indeed published today, as we
| 3 COMMENTS