Aggressive door to door hawker Post Reply

[this_is_cat]

I agree with Platypus.
This is not a registered scheme worthy of support, and there is no evidence it does anything to help former offenders reintegrate into society. Certainly the anecdotes on here about people being intimidated show that!

If you want to support a cause to help former offenders, can I recommend perhaps making a donation to the Langley House Trust charity, which receives lots of praise for its work with offenders:
http://www.langleyhousetrust.org/

[alias]

Yes, thank you.
I had no idea they are not bona fide. I am obviously a bit gullible. I will go through Langley House from now on.

[Platypus]

Yes, thank you.
I had no idea they are not bona fide. I am obviously a bit gullible. I will go through Langley House from now on.

You have nothing to apologise for. You are a kind person who wants to help others - the ones who should be apologising are the creatures who prey on the goodness of others. Every good thing in this society has happened because there are people out there like you.

Goodness is not something to be ashamed of.

[SteveMac]

Hi there. Just FYI.

My wife answered the door today to a guy who fits the description in the 1st post. She listened and politely declined and he then began ranting at her. I came to the door and told him the conversation was over. As he turned to leave he looked at our house number and said "Have a good Xmas number 5"

I took this as some sort of veiled threat and went after him in the car and stopped him. I asked him what he thought he was playing at. He was very apologetic and called me "Sir" perhaps due to the fact I'm a 17 stone Glaswegian police man. At one point he said "Don't worry I wouldn't do anything when your babies are in the house"
If I wasnt a police officer I would have... well, you can imagine.

I took his I.D and his name is Dale Butters and it had an address in Middlesborough. I left him in no doubt that he wasn't welcome at my door again. I got the feeling that there would be some form of reprisal.

If you see him coming my advice would be to not even open the door. 5'8 slim build, short brown hair, gap between his front teeth and a Geordie accent.

I've googled his name and he shows up on court records for threatening behaviour in Middlesborough.

Hope this helps someone one day.

Steve

[Birchtree]

I had a guy come to the door with a big dark duffle on his back in the middle of the afternoon, and when I said we didn't buy at the door, he became quite aggressive and said something about him going to fight for his country?

[misstemple]

I had a guy come to the door with a big dark duffle on his back in the middle of the afternoon, and when I said we didn't buy at the door, he became quite aggressive and said something about him going to fight for his country?

About a year ago, walking down a pavement in W12 at around 4pm, I happened to glance at one of 2 fellows doing the rounds. Their behaviour caught my eye due to the large black duffle/backpack, and their irritation that not every door they tried was answered! I soon had reason to call the police as I was followed and threatened by one of them. The description is identical to the one I gave the police. I have not seen these 2 in SW I am sure it is the same fellow/s. Really horrible experience, worse at your own front door.

[TFP]

Perfectly civil or not, I'm afraid they are not perfectly worthy of support. It's a known scam, and they prey on the goodwill and generosity of kind strangers. I've fallen for it myself before, when we lived in Islington - there is no shame in wanting to help people who seem to be trying to work their way out of a hole. But the more you buy from them, the more they will prey on others. If you google "door to door scam cleaning product" you'll find a lot of hits, some from police in various areas warning people it's a con. This is a more detailed explanation of what is actually going on:

http://www.safelocaltrades.com/consumer ... m-knockers

gah, I'd always assumed that these guys are genuine.

maybe half a dozen times ovre the years I've bought stuff from them even though it's hugely overpriced junk [e.g. very expensive scouring pads that are too fragile to do any scouring with].

this said I've only once had any unpleasantness from them.