Be on the look out for weird people coming to your door. There was a story on I think in the Truxton Circle Dispatch (of which I can’t bring up because the archive is screwy) about a woman knocking on the door of a female resident at night asking about the house next door in a somewhat confused manner. Which in itself is nothing to write about but the knocking woman was also peering through the window of the female resident. Window peeping is off limits.
Then a few days later on the Mount Vernon Square discussion list a resident wrote:
Please be aware of a suspicious person in the neighborhood who may come to your door and ask for Metro directions or money. Today, an individual, white male, thin build, approximately 35 years old, approx 5’6″-5’8″, light hair, mustache, wearing a light shirt and dark jacket, came to my door about 4:00pm asking for directions to the Metro. I know this guy- as I almost arrested him about two months ago after he became belligerent when I wouldn’t give him Metro money in exchange for his “work tools”. At that time, he was extremely belligerent and was crossing the line to attempted assault when I identified myself as law enforcement. Had I not, I’m sure it would have escalated into a physical altercation. His quick change of demeanor made me suspect he was under the influence of narcotics. He claimed to work on one of the construction projects on 6th. Funny that in two months of “working” in the neighborhood, he doesn’t know where Metro is. He just caught me off guard actually coming to my door today at the same time I was expecting someone else. Lesson to all of us to be careful – especially around he
holidays…..
I think I ran into contractor/need help with the metro guy several months ago on 5th St when he asked me for money for the metro. I see he’s making house calls. That is troubling.
He got us too!
I’ve seen that dude half a dozen times. He suckered me into a conversation the first time. Every time since then when he walks up I say, “hey, let me guess. you’re an electrician working on a project on T St and you need money to catch the metro to go up to the Ft Totten stop. oh, and you’ll leave your ID/tools/whatever with me.” usually he just apologizes and walks off rather ashamed. i love doing that to him though, priceless.
jg
He got my wife, my neighbor and a few others on Marion St.
I know that guy! He peed on the sidewalk in front of my house once last summer.
He got us too, but BL got him right back pretty well. Saw him walking past the window one afternoon and went out and scared the living sh*t out of him. Basically started yelling at the guy about the money (at which point I went running out to see what was happening). He claimed he didn’t have any. BL told him to turn out his pockets, which remarkably he did, and she took his metro card that had about $10 worth of credit on it (about what he got from us).
Needless to say he hasn’t been seen in the neighborhood since then. And who can blame him. You don’t want to piss that short, pregnant woman off.
He came by our house on Friday. My roommate opened the door and I heard his spiel and I was just like gosh B, just close the door and don’t give him anything. But that didn’t happen. I gave my 2.65 ticket to him and shut the door, but my roommate told him to wait and gave him some money. Good Grief. I expect to see him again and hopefully he hasn’t told any of his friends.
Yes! He came up to us on 1st street a few months ago and the same treatment jg gave him! Good stuff! He does not approach us any longer, needless to say. I actually saw him just yesterday walking up Bates.
Good grief! This guy gets around (Mt. Vernon, Truxton, Eckington and Logan).
Yes, the little pregnant woman of Bloomingdale, don’t mess with her!
it’s really funny now that everyone seems to be catching on to his game. he’s a pretty smooth talker, much more articulate than the normal crackheads begging for change in the area.
he seemed harmless before, but if he’s the same guy as reported in mt vernon that got semi-violent, it might be time to get him to move on and get out of our ‘hood.
jg
The Mt. Vernon Sq. guy who posted suggested:
“If someone fitting this description comes to your door, don’t open it. He may be checking out your place for a future robbery. I would recommend a call to 311 to report him. Same thing if he approaches you on the street. If he in any way gets aggressive or belligerent immediately call 911. When the police come, please have
them contact me at w 202-***-**** or my cell ***-***-****. They need
to know from a fellow law enforcement officer that he has a history of this behavior.”
I don’t like to post phone numbers but they are posted over on the Mt. Vernon listserv.
This is very interesting. About two months ago, while I was visiting friends on Quincy Pl., a next door neighbor came over, shaken up about a very similar incident. They guy showed up at her front door and asked for money. Since she had the door cracked open (to talk to him), she felt very vulnerable and just gave him a small amount of money just get him to quickly leave. Then she walked over to my friends’ house, somewhat shaken up after thinking about what could have happened if he had gotten violent.
It’s a reminder to be very careful, even wile in your house.
–DK
I thought I would throw this out here, before posting it on MPD 5 listserve. Per a discussion w/ K this morning, the hot scam right now is folks following the mail or UPS trucks around, picking their holiday presents out from under YOUR “tree”.
On a similar string of weird people knocking on your door…two weeks ago, we came home from happy hour to 4 police cars parked haphazardly in front our house. One had a spot light on the front door and a woman surrounded by 3 cops in the middle of all (and a film crew?). Apparently, she was our neighbor??? …at least that was what she was telling the cops when they asked her why she was knocking on our door. She was saying something about knowing people who used to live there. The cops seemed very familiar with her and when I asked if there was anything we needed to be concerned about, they said no. (Okay, then turn the spotlight off of my house!). We never knew what that was all about, but it’s not the first time strangers have inquired about who “used to live” in our house. Were we a crackhouse? Maybe? That seems to be the attention we’re attracting. Next thing you know, our neighbor was robbed a week later on his front step. We had no idea that it was happening and we were right inside when all the squad cars showed up. I felt terrible about that and try to pay more attention to who’s hanging around the corners.
This is a very common and old scam. (I think this guy has been reading up.) At least it was in New York. The most frequent iteration is my mother/wife etc. is very sick and I need money for a cab/subway to get to the hospital. The person would wait by the door and try and sneak into the apartment building and then pretend to be a neighbor.
So tonight, at approximately 2:30 am, the same man came to my door (yes I live in the “crackhead house” on the corner of 5th and R).I talked to him through our mailslot and refused to open the door. Thank you all so much for making me aware of his scam. I scared him off right away but was glad I knew what I needed to do.
He got us on Sunday around noon up on the 1400 block of W Street. Guess he’s moving further north and he used the same lines that everyone describes in their comments.