Door to door sales:
As summer approaches there are a number of companies who specialize in hiring “at risk” youth and young adults, college students or similar to perform door to door sales. The companies they claim to be representing are not their direct employers. For example, if they’re selling pest control services for Terminix they don’t work for Terminix and nobody at Terminix will have any idea who they are. These people work for a door to door sales company who Terminix (and others) contract to do direct sales for them. They make money by taking a commission from any sales they generate to pay the kids and themselves. Their MO is they bring in kids from out of state on an “internship program” put them up in a hotel, give them a sales package and a speech, assign them a few subdivisions per day to walk, drop them off in that area and arrange to pick them up 8 hours later. That way the salesman doesn’t have a car or any means of leaving other than calling their manager for a ride who will then browbeat them into continuing to do sales. They are fully aware that there are neighborhoods and cities that prohibit door to door sales and they don’t care. In their minds the reward is greater than the risk and inconveniencing the majority people of the city is worth making a few sales. It’s a cruel business model. When the police get called, and they always do, LMPD is usually overwhelmed with high priority runs and cannot respond to unauthorized salesmen complaints.
What to do about it:
If L4 is patrolling the area call us. We will tell them with the authority of the city to cease door to door sales as there is a city ordinance prohibiting it. If they do not comply we will make their time more frustrating and inconvenient in the city than it’s worth and they’ll move on to another area. But that’s only 4 hours per week and the chances that we are there are not high.
Don’t answer the door. Polite customs from days gone by make people feel obligated to answer a knock or doorbell ring from even someone they don’t know. If you look out the window and don’t recognize who the visitor is, simply don’t answer the door. They’ll usually be holding a clipboard or wear some kind of laminated credential made to give you false confidence that they are “legitimate”. If you look at them and then ignore them, they’ll know right away that there won’t be a sale there and move on to another house. Also feel free to tell them to go away if you aren’t averse to light social confrontation but know they’ll be persistent if you make contact with them. They will also lie and say they are only there at the recommendation of their good customer down the street Jill….what’s her name? Its all BS.
Install a Ring doorbell camera to monitor the front porch and give automated responses to unwanted visitors. You can see on your mobile device who is at your door either by motion detection or doorbell activation. You can assign an automated message to ask them to leave without ever speaking to them.
This one is for the bolder and more humerous…Pass an ordinance requiring a city business license to perform door to door sales and allow all commissioners to issue them. Make the cost $10,000 and advise the salesmen that since they’ve already begun sales without it, if they don’t pay the license fee the city will sue their company and them individually for the $10k. Then start to ask their name and address and write it down. See how long they stand on the porch.
This issue is one that plagues neighborhoods across the country and is far from unique to Brownsboro Village. I hope I have given you a better understanding of the bigger picture. If we could be there more often to help you deal with them we would be. We have started doing patrols during late afternoon to dusk during this time of year to maximize our visibility. Residents are home and can see us, those out selling things are likely to see us, people looking for opportunities for crime can see us, kids chasing lightning bugs can see us. They don’t know when we come and how often we are there so it gives the city big bang for the buck.
Cars idling in the street at 4 am:
Its normal for people to feel more concerned about security after they’ve been victimized. Cars idling in the street at 4 am can be un-nerving but isn’t cause in and of itself for alarm. I suspect that many of your residents work a night or early morning schedule. UPS, Ford and other big employers start shifts at around 5 am and it is not unusual for people to be warming their cars up or getting out at 4 am in East Louisville. However there is a problem with car break-ins in our city and many others. Here is how it usually works:
Thieves, usually juveniles recruited by west end gangs, will pile into a car (usually stolen) and drive from the west end to more affluent areas where people have a false sense of security, homes are close together and have nice cars parked in the driveway. Once they reach a target city or subdivision, the kids will get out on foot while the driver slowly follows them as they go driveway to driveway pulling on car door handles to find one that has been left unlocked. When they find one, they will first see if the car will start and steal it if it does. Sometimes people leave their keys or key fob in the car out of convenience so all they have to do is press a start button. The car is stolen and used as another transport vehicle by the thieves. For those that don’t start the thief will rifle through the car quickly looking for medicine, wallets, guns and other valuables left in the car. You’d be shocked to learn how many cars are left unlocked with these items in them every single night. One summer morning I took 19 car break in reports in just one neighborhood when I was policing. There were multiple neighborhoods hit in the same night. All of them could have been prevented if the owners had simply locked their car doors as there was not a single broken window or forced car door.
Sometimes people leave their keys on a front hall table where the RFID signal can be read by a simple antenna and receiver used by the thieves. The signal from the key fob is amplified and causes the car to think the key is inside the car. Now it can be started and stolen. This is less common but possible.
The thieves are NOT scared of police. They will run, jump into their transport car and flee. They know LMPD will NOT pursue them as they are not allowed to. Also if they are caught they know nothing serious will happen to them because they are juveniles. Lastly, if a homeowner does confront them mid crime they will not hesitate to start shooting. They should be considered armed and typically have guns that they’ve stolen out of people’s cars.
What to do about it:
Lock your cars. The target is UNLOCKED CARS. People seldom fail to lock their front door before going to bed. Make it a habit to ensure that your car is also locked at the same time.
Do not leave keys or other valuables in your car. Cars are not secure. If you must leave things in your car (ie out doing your shopping) place packages out of sight in a locked trunk or rear hatch covered up. If the prize is not evident its less likely to cause someone to break in.
Do not leave your garage door opener in an unlocked car. Doing so is basically giving a thief a key to your house. He may not come in when you are home but wait until you’re at work. Most home burglaries happen during the daytime when people are out going about their business, not at night as depicted on TV.
Store car keys away from home entry doors or in a metal container that blocks the fob’s RFID signal.
Install motion lights around your home. Lights and cameras will not deter the car break-ins as they historically don’t seem to care but if they move beyond the driveway to the sides or rear of the house (very uncommon and unlikely) a motion light will give you an indication that someone or something has been back there.
