MORE UNSOLICITED SOLICITORS

Some of you may have noticed three police cars out in front of our house today (Saturday, Jan 24). At approximately 11:30 A.M. a young Hispanic teen came to our door.  Like an idiot, I opened the door without first finding out who was there (got a real talking to later by Rob, speaking as both my boyfriend and attorney!)  The kid was dressed in gang type attire; long plaid shorts, LA baseball cap, oversized clothes, etc and told me that he was selling subscriptions to the Pasadena Star Telegram. He also said he was a student at Monrovia High School and that he was participating in the “BSO” program and that he would get school credits for doing this. He didn’t have any brochures or anything, just sign up forms. I asked for his business license, and he said that he didn’t have it, but I was welcome to speak to his manager, whom he said was in the area checking up on the other sales people.  I explained to him that he (and his manager) may be detained and possibly even arrested as our neighborhood watch was extremely vigilant and intolerant of solicitors. 

The young man gave me his name and offered to leave his phone number with me, and said that he would have his manager come back and show me all of the documentation. (However, when I asked him, he did not know his manager’s last name, but still insisted that this was an approved activity of the Monrovia High School).  I closed the door and was about to call the police, when his manager arrived a few minutes later and again I opened the door (I know, stupid!).  The manager confirmed the young man’s story. Interestingly enough, the manager did not seem very familiar with the young man’s name either! The “manager” showed me a completely water soaked print out of a civil code from a website that stated that he was not required to have a license since they were soliciting on the weekends and before dark.  At this point, I told him that I wanted to check with the Monrovia Police dept to legitimize this, and he agreed, Again, I went inside, closed the door and called the MPD. 

I explained the situation to the dispatcher, while amazingly enough, the two men waited on my front porch.  Before I was even off of the phone, three squad cars had pulled up and were in the process of interviewing the solicitors. At this point, I called Rob for back up and he came right home. 

Sergeant Coleman from MPD explained to the men that they were absolutely REQUIRED to have a business license from their company and additionally, they each were REQUIRED to have an individual personal license with a photo ID that they were REQUIRED to wear around their necks in order to solicit in the town of Monrovia. In the course of the interview, it turns out that the “Monrovia student” didn’t even live in Monrovia, but rather resides in Baldwin Park, and apparently is on suspension of some type. His “manager” supposedly works for a company called “Infinity Marketing” in Rancho Cucamonga, and claims he was unaware that he needed any kind of permits.  The police informed the two men that they would be arrested and their van confiscated if they continued to do this activity in Monrovia. 

Sargeant Coleman stayed a few extra minutes with us and explained that there are a number of companies out there who are dropping off carloads of these people, and that they do not tell the individual solicitors of the permit requirements, nor do they stand behind them when they are detained.  These companies do not want to pay the licensing fees, and therefore they just abandon the perps when they are busted. 

BOTTOM LINE:  DO NOT open your door to strangers, and DO NOT do business with solicitors who do not have a MONROVIA business license PLUS individual photo ID permits from the CITY of MONROVIA.  BOTH of these things are requirements, and they should be able to display them BOTH to you. Also, if you see this activity, Sargent Coleman said to CALL THE MPD immediately.  I am so glad that I did, and I can’t say enough wonderful things about their response time and handling of this matter. 

Julie Goldstein

Julie - thanks for sharing and giving us the detailed information.  The interesting part is that we have them claiming to be an MHS student which follows with some other scams, including one we were alerted on via an MUSD robo-dial message.  Scammers are out there.  Be alert and call MPD when you have a question about their legitimacy.  fraz