Suspicious Person

[Chris Santee]

To all:
I received this e-mail:
I will be researching this now.

 I wanted to write to you to tell you about a person who is going through our community asking people where children live.  He stopped by my house yesterday, saying he was selling children's teaching aids, but started the conversation with "Do you have kids here?  I asked why, and he started talking about the teaching aids.  I said that I was not interested, and the guy seemed to be put off that I wouldn't "hear him out".  He then took a hand-made map of our area out of his pocket and asked me to help him by telling him which houses had kids.  I refused and sent him on his way.  Honestly, the guy could legitimately be selling stuff, but my intuition felt it to be very strange.  I actually called the local authorities, and they already had received several calls about him.
    I wanted to tell you about it because, from what I saw, his hand drawn map had much of our community on it.  The guy seemed nervous: he was in his early twenties, tall (around 6') with curly, blond hair.  He was driving a white sedan with out of state plates.  His nametag said Nathaniel.  I thought that I would tell you about it because you seem well connected.  Like I said, it could be nothing, but it was just too weird to not mention it.

[Chris Santee]

His name tag says: National something or other.
One person has seen him with a bag of books.
Real "schooling type" books.
Seemed legit to them.

[Chris Santee]

He was in Georgia last week.
No incidents there.

[Chris Santee]

Anyone with any info that does not want to post their name may call me at 849-2758.
I will keep your name out of it.

[Chris Santee]

He visited River Road bright and early.

[Loctavious]

When these type of folks come by your house, its absolutely good policy to be suspicious.  That's a bit of a sad statement on the present state of civilization, but that's another story.

He visited my house on Goose Pond 2 days ago at 8:15 at night.  I was in the yard and it was almost dark.  Now, this gentleman, who's no older than 24, did seem a bit suspicious in his line of questioning, but more over i sensed he was a bit nervous and hadn't worked out his sales pitch.  I politely declined to visit with him because we were busy and said he COULD try back another time.  My wife scolded me as she says it's a waste of his time when you let them think they can come back, but i didn't want to be rude - especially seeing this guy was trying hard and had a legitmate sounding cause.
     Yesterday, i called the town clerk, which should be everyone's next step in this situation, to ask if they knew anything.  When folks want to go door to door, it's good policy to set it up with the town and thus get some credibility.  The clerk said that they were aware of the gentleman, confirmed his name and his purpose and said he should be wearing an id necklace ( which he was but anyone can forfeit anything these days).

      Thus this gentleman is legitmately talking to parents of children about educational textbook selections and formats.  He had a list of about 5-7 Locals that sounded familiar but i didn't know.  I must stress that in this age of anonymous defamation of character through the internet, that folks really take care to know exactly what's going on before making judgement calls or alarming others.  This guy is trying to do something good and has legitmate reason AND PERMISSION to do it, thus if we alarm folks about him without knowing the facts, we're the ones doing a disservice.  I'll admit though, until i talked to the town clerk, i thought my house had been marked to rob for sure.
       Now, ask me if i want folks coming to my house unsolicited whether they're legitmately doing something authorized or not?  And i'll tell you flat out - no!

[slpott]

Thank you very much for notifying everyone. It made it a lot easier for me when he did come to know what was up. Suspicious or not it is nice to know. Glad things worked out the way they did but not always can you confirm these things before something bad happens. I totally appreciate the warning. It is people like you that make a difference in this town.Shelly