Solicitors cause concern

[admin]

From Police Chief Watson:

In the past 90 days we have had numerous door to door vendors dropped off by vans in our neighborhoods. On the positive side, the vendors have been well coached about being courteous towards residents and law enforcement and all have willingly departed when informed about Town of Double Oak solicitation ordinances (you have to apply for and obtain a permit from the town).

What is disturbing is that the majority of the vendors DO NOT carry identification with them, provide false names to the responding officers, often have criminal histories, and are invariably from out of state. I am not conclusively stating that all door to door magazine and cleaning solution sales people are criminals. What I am pointing out is that door-to-door sales is a very convenient way to obtain checking account or credit card information from unsuspecting homeowners. It is very difficult for the police to indentify, track and prosecute persons from out of state, with no identification, who are long gone by the time your checking account or identification is stolen.

We are currently investigating a check forgery complaint in which the suspects obtained the victims banking information and then created false checks to purchase items via the Internet. I can't stress enough that guarding your financial instruments is very important to your family's financial well-being.

[JKTex]

FM also have a solicitation ordnance and to date, I've not found 1 single person to be in compliance, and the ones that claim they are, have no clue about the permit, or claim their company has the permit and have no clue that they would have been issued personal ID badges.

I say run them off, all of them, especially those vans full of young "inner city" kids hauled in from all over the country supposedly selling magazines.

Know the local laws, push the issue and call the Police if they aren't in compliance. If they're legit, it won't be a problem.