Chapter 28/Strangers at your door

I am looking at a police photo of a 29-year-old man who rips-off homeowners with driveway paving scams.

This conman knocks on your door, claims to have asphalt left over from a big job and can pave your driveway at a bargain price. Shortly after you pay thousands of dollars, you find dandelions growing through your new driveway.

But what is more worrisome to me is that I just found out this 29-year-old man, who has been going door-to-door in Wisconsin, is a violent registered sex offender and has done time for rape and weapons offenses.

Strangers going door-to-door are trouble. In recent years I've learned that many of them have arrest warrants out for them. Even those young looking door-to-door magazine sellers.

I spent a day with a door-to-door magazine crew in Appleton, Wisconsin. All of the crewmembers were 18 and over, but most of them looked like they were in junior high and high school. Young looking adults are recruited because homeowners will have sympathy for them and think they are from the neighborhood.

Tagging along with the crew leader, a petite woman of 21, I found that when knocking on doors, she could transform herself into an appealing grade school student who baby talked. She pulled the transformation right in front of our news camera. And she lied on camera, telling consumers she lived in the neighborhood.

Another crewmember, a young man who appeared to be 15, seemed full of self-confidence and had a friendly gift of gab. But the day after we were with him, he was arrested for threatening to burn down the house of an elderly man who refused to buy magazines from him.

Young people running from the law frequently join up with these crews. When strangers show up at your door, call the police to check them out.

Traveling magazine crews are constantly recruiting new workers when they come to Wisconsin. While it may sound like a lot of fun to travel around the country with other young people, my advice is don't! You may be teaming up with people who can get you in serious trouble.

What's more, these crews work long hours for low pay and must endure harsh personal treatment and physical hardships. As the Wisconsin Department of Justice says, "the crews are often poorly fed, inadequately housed and transported dangerously."

In 1999, seven young magazine sellers were killed and five others severely injured in a van crash near Janesville, Wisconsin. The unlicensed driver was trying to switch places with a legal driver when police chased him for going 80-miles an hour.

I recently interviewed a 20-year-old woman recruited in Madison. She said the manager provided the crew with marijuana and beer and sexually assaulted her.

Last year, a drunken crewmember drowned in the Apple River in Somerset, Wisconsin, and another crewmember was arrested after veering into the oncoming lane and killing another driver.

You can help stop these door-to-door crews by not buying what they are selling, no matter how cute and personable the salesperson is.