Strange occurance 10 PM last night, DeKalb Ave.

anonymous

I'd call the cops but they'd say "what's your emergency" and since there really WASN'T one, I figure I'd just tell all of you to be on the lookout.

Last night I was relaxing watching a little TV at about 10:15 PM and I hear a very vigourous knocking at my front door. I look thru the glass and see a medium build 40-ish clean shaven african american man wearing a red jacket with white piping (probably intended to look kind of like a uniform) and holding a clipboard with a sheaf of well worn paper on it.

He steps back and asks "999?" (I altered the street number for this explanation) and I say "yes it is". He says "You call for the exterminator". I say "No". He repeats "999?" and I say "Ya, but I didn't call any exterminator, and even if I did I wouldn't be letting you into my house after 10 o'clock". He appears to study the clipboard and then walks down the stoop. I watch him thru the window and he stands there, staring at my ground floor for a minute or two. At this point, I open the door and say "Look, I don't know what you're up to - why are you staring at my house?" He says "Downstairs?" And I say "It's my house. Nobody called for an extrerminator and if you don't get out of here, I am calling the cops".

He then gets into what looks like an eighties Datsun fastback with a green and white plate (might be an old New Hampshire plate. Not NYS) and drives off. His plate# KCK 4205. The car was noisy, carefully waxed dark green or black or a combo.

This was a very wierd one. It looked at first glance like one of those fundraising scams (the clipboard, etc) but the out of state plate and the exterminator angle was creative and bizarre. We've been robbed so many times over the years that perhaps I am overly paranoid, but I wondered if he wasn't looking to see who was at home at what times.

Anybody call about rats last night?

carmen

dude call the cops with that license plate number. that is beyond sketchy. No legit businessperson would ever be out at 10pm making housecalls and I would imagine the most innocent thing this guy could have been doing was trying to get in to case out the place. thats BEST case scenario.

drkman

I concur that you should report it. Too many scams have happened in situations like these. People getting into your house claiming they are one thing and it not being true.

Something similar happened to my mother when my parents purchased a house in Bed-Stuy. These guys came over claiming they were from the Environmental Protection Agency and that the house had a lot of lead paint in it. They attempted to get her to sign a contract so that they could do the work and appeared to be very concerned. They even brought over someone that they claimed was a lawyer that was looking out for my parent's best interests. When my mother mentioned it to me, the first thing I did was call EPA, explained the situation and asked if they knew anything about this. They said they had no clue what I was talking about and I told my mother if they knock on the door again, tell them that you wanted to wait for your son to get there or to that you were going to call the cops. She did and they never returned.

That was just one of the scams that people are utilizing to get into your house to either con you out of money or case your place so that they can set you up to be robbed. Please be careful and don't fall for these scams.

Thankfully you did not let this man.

leffertsgirl

that is completely bizarre and i am creeped out just reading it. call the cops.

rainbowpromises

Hoax City from Guest. Too many fantastic and glorious details.

anonymous

Hi. I am the original poster and I am not hoaxing anybody. I am someone who enjoys writing and I am pretty observant.

This is honestly true. I didn't call the police yet but thru the day I realized I am more and more creeped out by this. I've been looking for the car.

anonymous

to the original poster:

if you remembered all the details as you say you did, including the license plate, and you were so creeped out about this you would have already reported this to the cops. any normal human being would have already reported this. what are you waiting for? it is because i suspect this never happened. nice fantasy tale mr/ms writer.

anonymous

Sigh. As a longtime resident here, I know when I call the police about something like this 1) they send over a couple detectives 2) they waste an hour or so 3) they never do anything.

PLUS the added bonus of this: The guy didn't break any law. He just knocked on my door at 10:15 at night. That's why I posted here (as I explained in my original post) rather than calling 911.

It WASN'T an emergency. It was just wierd as all getout and I decided that message boards would be the most effective way to let people know to keep alert to this guy.

I've been around the block a few times, and understand the utiity of the police in certain instances. This wasn't one of them - all they'd do is tell me I could file a report but that's it.

shishkab

Original poster wrote:
I've been around the block a few times, and understand the utiity of the police in certain instances. This wasn't one of them - all they'd do is tell me I could file a report but that's it.

perhaps. but if by chance it's happened more than once with different people in the same nabe then the police will start to see a pattern as long as people like you report it, and step up the presence. if you choose not to tell and this creep keeps doing what he's doing to other folks, it's just going to take the police that much longer to take it seriously, and in the meantime he may find the victim he's looking for. so what's the harm in reporting? you told your story looking for advice, a number of people responded encouraging you to report it, there's your answer.

good luck to you.