FYI to Wallingford residents regarding some potentially suspicious activity

Over on the Wallingford CT Community Forum on Facebook one of the regulars of the group posted the following:

”Last night around 730, a girl about 19 years old knocked at my door. She said she was a college student looking for a room to rent for the summer. I found this odd because, well for several reasons. There was a car parked in front of my neighbors house and there were at least 2 other girls going door to door. I live on the east side of town. Did anyone else have these kids come through their neighborhood? I actually phoned this in to the police because it just seemed suspicious. I honestly wasn't really listening to her because the whole time I was looking around observing. Who goes door to door anymore...for their own safety? And this morning I remembered her first question to me, "Are you the Mom of the house?" She also said they look for "empty nesters" as they usually would have a room to rent. Could be totally innocent, or could be someone scouting for either the elderly or possible single mothers, homes with children...Better to be safe than sorry! Just thought I would raise the awareness level to the community and actually hope that someone else has some positive information that these girls are truly just college kids looking for a place to stay. Thanks”

”There were 3 girls that I saw. The girl at my door was white, blonde, about 5'5ish, tiny. She had a white legal sized envelope with her. The other girl appeared to be of Asian decent, the third was across the street, White, that girl had dark hair. The car was an off white sedan, blue and white Ny plate. She also told me she was not lost when I first answered the door in addition to asking me if I was the mom of the house. i honestly didn't feel right about this. I actually felt like I was going to get jumped because of everything you hear on the news. We have a playscape in our yard and i know last week on the news homes that appeared to have children were being targeted in Vernon I think, which is why I was so suspicious. The only reason I answered was because I thought she may have been a friend of my teenage daughter.”

As was noted by a number of others that were contributing to the follow up comments, this is very unusual behavior.

This occurred in the Rock Hill / Moses Y School area but it is likely to not be limited to just that area of town or even just to town.

They did not say which college they were from.
They did not say where they were from.

The car was identified as an “off white, four door sedan with a New York Sate plate, a blue and white one, not the yellow one.”

The poster called the police to report the incident but in the “if you see something, say something” adage I wanted to try to push the message out far and wide.

It might be a totally innocent situation but I am always skeptical when something is out of the ordinary like this. Why they wouldn’t just use local college resources or local newspapers to find a place to stay for the summer set me off right away.

So here it is – if your doorbell rings please be aware of this.

It might be totally harmless but I am highly suspicious.

Be on the lookout.

 

UPDATE - As an added note; since the original posting of this another group member indicated the following:

”Someone started to come into my yard last weekend, but my German Shepherd was barking, so she stopped half way down the driveway. Her first question to me was the same "Are you the Mom of the house?" She asked me if it was a good time as she looked at my dog Gunney and I said no. She was a tall black young woman and looked like she could have been college age. I also live on the East Side of town.”

I am now further convinced there is some type of canvassing going on.

 

UPDATE 6:30PM 5/19 – One of the most active members of a couple of the groups engaged someone coming to the door; with his permission I am posting the following.

 

Folks – let’s keep pushing this far and wide and convince them the Wallingford is not the prime town to prey on.

If we can catch them better and if someone is able to engage the police we should but likely since a crime has not occurred they wouldn't be charged (and rightly so - innocent until proven guilty).

They took off when challenged so something is shady regardless so let's keep the pressure up.

 

UPDATE 9:30PM 5/19 – Another group member from the Wallingford CT Community Forum group reported the following for those of you wondering if the police were taking action:

“A young Asian girl showed up at our door step this evening looking for a room to rent. She stated that she was doing an internship in town this summer. While she was talking the Wallingford Police pulled up to the stop sign in front of my house. He stopped and within minutes 2 more police cruisers pulled up. Not sure of the outcome, but they talked to her for a considerable amount of time.”

 

FINAL UPDATE – I think the news story as outlined by WFSB 3 wraps this all up nicely; at this point there was no wrong doing found and there is nothing further to review. Having said that it is like Wallingford police were outlined as saying at the end of the 01:42 clip “if you see something suspicious give them (Wallingford Police) a call.

 

OK – I thought I had the final update posted but there is more to the story and the plot thickens; Southwestern Advantage is the mystery company behind the college girls sales efforts

http://mywallingford.blogspot​.com/2013/05/southwestern-adv​antage-is-mystery.html