Door to door solicitation during the day can be thieves scoping!

Last Friday June 13th at around 13h30 a large young man in his late 20s or early 30s was observed walking through the halls of each floor and knocking on the doors soliciting business for Videotron. He had an ID card hanging around his neck which identified him as an "apparent" Videotron employee. Anyone can make an ID card with just about anything on it. When confronted by one of the tenants he became angry and promptly left the building. Although the owner of the building was on the premises and advised of the situation, he apparently was not interested, which does not surprise me.

Soliciting for sales at 13h30 on a weekday when most people are at work and not home, is ridiculous and should ring alarm bells for anyone witnessing this. Most legitimate door to door salespeople prefer to solicit during supper time because they know most people are home. Someone who goes door-to-door during the day when everyone works is either stupid or a thief scoping for his next victim.

Criminals intentionally do this at times when people are not home to see if anyone answers. They will do this more than once and when working in teams, use several different people to avoid suspicion. They will examine the types of locks on the doors, see if there is a second lock, and try the door handle to see if the door was left unlocked. They will listen for animals or try and figure out if an elderly person or woman lives there by examining any decoration or the shoes left in front of the apartment door.

A peep hole reverser is also used by thieves to view inside the apartment from within the hall. This device changes the angle of the peep hole lens to allow the thief to look into the apartment. It lets thieves see if anyone is inside or what kind of belongings are inside the apartment. You should put tape over the peep hole from the inside which you remove only when you need to look through it.

Then after a while of "scoping" targets, they make their move and rob a place.

If you do not already have a second lock, it is important that you install one. And if someone knocks at your door to solicit you for anything, do not open the door, but instead tell the person to go away and promptly call the administration and ask that he/she be removed from the building.