The doorbell rang
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Was having a mid-afternoon snack in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. I looked to see who it was and saw a youngish guy standing on the driveway. Usually if we're not expecting anyone we don't bother to answer, but we have new neighbors across the street and I've never met the husband,, so I thought it might be him.
I should mention we have a No Solicitors sign on the storm door...
I open the door and the guy says he's in the neighborhood cleaning gutters and windows. He pointed to the runoff on the outside of the gutter and says they can get that all off. Says he's working for someone a couple of blocks away and actually names them. That person really exists. He says they've been really busy but have some downtime and can fit us in. A great deal, he says.
I thank him politely and decline the services. And then I gently point out that we have "No Solicitors" sign on the door. He says "I don't smoke". Thinking he didn't hear me correctly, I repeat it. No reaction. He continues his pitch despite my refusal. I explain that the sign means that we don't want people coming to the door selling products or services.
His response : "I thought it had to do with smoking."
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Interesting. I used the emojis from my keyboard. Should be a dark haired woman smacking her forehead, and the same dark haired woman doing a shoulder shrug.
Nice try, though.
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I just posted in the Suggestions thread that maybe there's an emoji set we can install that has bigger emojis. The existing ones are teensy.
I'll see if Ax knows if it's easy to implement. Doing it is beyond my pay grade right now.
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He might not have been able to read. A staggering percentage of the population can't read at anything approaching the level of actual literacy.
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A fair point, but given how things played out, I'm not certain it explains our interaction.
He didn't see the sign when he rang the doorbell. When I came to the door, I slid down the window on the upper half of the storm door to talk to him. He was standing out in the middle of a two car driveway and wouldn't have been able to read it from that distance. One possibility is that "no soliciting" is kind of an arcane expression and unfamiliar to someone his age.
Or it was a distraction ruse, something that happens in our area quite often. One guy comes to the door and engages the homeowner, especially seniors (I think I qualify), usually trying to get them to the back of the house and away from the front door. An accomplice gets in the house and steals property. He continued his spiel even after I explained what the phrase meant and I was the one who terminated the conversation. He was persistent and nervous at the same time. Something was off.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@wtg said in The doorbell rang:
Or it was a distraction ruse, something that happens in our area quite often. One guy comes to the door and engages the homeowner, especially seniors (I think I qualify), usually trying to get them to the back of the house and away from the front door. An accomplice gets in the house and steals property.
I’ve heard about this happening more in this area as well.
Once we move, I wonder if we’ll be more vulnerable to that kind of thing, mostly bc it’s a nicer house. Our rental house is pretty nice on the inside (mostly) but the outside is so drab and in need of various tweaks and repairs , I can’t imagine it would be much of a draw for that kind of crime.
