Then my attention is caught by a person dressed in black striding quite fast to a neighbor's house. The person knocks at the door, door opens, and then my attention is riveted because the person in black is bobbing up and down. Arms outstretched, as if singing. Was my neighbor getting some sort of singing telegram, was it her birthday? Nah, doesn't look like that, what is going on? The bobbing and bowing and even kneeling continues.
So it is time to monitor the situation audio wise, I open a door and briefly listen in. Doesn't sound like an emergency, sounds more like a bizarre manic sales pitch. I go on about my business and occasionally look to see how the event is progressing, feeling protective of my neighbor.
Eventually the wild woman in black gets into the......yep you guessed it.........white van.
More white van back and forth. People all dressed in black in and out. The wild woman in black is out again and continuing her very fast tour of this neighborhood.
Uh oh. She is heading our way. Surely the No Solicitation sign will stop her. Nope, she is at the door.
My guy answers the door and her voice is loud, paced quite manic and fast. I hover out of sight. The wild woman in black insists that she's not here to sell anything and surely we want a free carpet cleaning, that it will help her take her daughter to San Francisco etc. etc. etc. She is pitching aggressively, and really, honestly, she sounds like she is on some sort of heavy stimulant.
Our answer is No, which she doesn't listen to, eventually the door has to be closed. Off she goes.
So that happened last night and this morning I'm still wondering who all that sales crew was. Where did they come from? Did anyone call local police and ask that the crew be checked out? Did the crew make any sales at all? Is the crew being exploited? What was that woman on?
A Federal Trade Commission Regulation gives you the right to a three-business-day “cooling off period” on door-to-door sales of more than $25
Ever notice many stories involving weird or criminal events in quiet neighborhoods frequently include the presence of a white van? The white van has become the icon of bad weirdness.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, this happened to me and my mom last summer! My mom told the lady no and that we had no carpets. The lady got all worked up and said she needed to make a local call to her boss in Elma and she asked to come in to our house. My mom told her she could not come in, but she brought the phone out for her to use. After the lady made a phone call and left, my mom was worried because the whole thing was strange. We looked to see what number she dialed, and it was a landline number to Seattle.
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