LAPD Ramming Home Their Warnings About Door To Door Salesmen

Not even a month has gone by since the last strong warning about these door to door salesmen and LAPD has already issued another stern warning to area residents.  Note that in the notification they refer to “West Hills south of Ventura Blvd” – however, since no such place exists, I’m assuming they really mean Woodland Hills.

They write via Nixle:

Monday February 8, 2010 19:13 PM PST

Recent increase in burglaries in West Hills and south of Ventura Boulevard may be related to door to door salesmen.

LAPD Topanga Area has recently seen an increase in residential burglaries south of Ventura Blvd.  At the same time, we have had numerous community complaints of aggressive door-to-door salespeople.

A common modus operandi for residential burglars is that they knock on the door of a house.  If someone is home, they move on.  If there is no one home, they go into the back yard, break into the house through a back door or window, enter, and steal at their leisure.  The burglars are often seen by neighbors, often as they are removing property.  The neighbors often think that there is something strange going on, but do not report it to the police.  Later, when the police canvass the neighborhood for witnesses, a neighbor is located who can give a good description of the suspects.

Last month, a Winnetka woman was viciously attacked inside her own home by a door-to-door salesman when she opened her door to him.  Even though he was located and arrested by LAPD Topanga officers later that same day, both the police and the community were shocked by the crime.  The assailant was discovered to be associated with a magazine sales “crew,” consisting of mostly out-of-state “salespeople” put up at a local motel and sent out every day to various neighborhoods to sell subscriptions.  The assailant had an extensive criminal history and officers learned that there is little or no screening process for these people.

What can YOU do to protect yourself and your family?

If someone comes to your door and you don’t know them, DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR.  You should yell through the door and tell them to leave.  That way they know someone is at home and will probably just leave.  If they don’t leave, call the police, they may be dangerous.  If you can see the person through a window, write down a description of him/her and a description of any vehicle associated with the person(s) and put it in a safe place, just in case later the police come to your door and ask about persons knocking on your door.  If the person(s) appears suspicious (looking around, entering a neighbor’s back yard, etc.), immediately call your local police station and report the incident, preferably while the suspect(s) is still in the neighborhood.

What are your local police doing to protect you?

We have sent officers out to the motels where these sales groups typically stay to identify the salespeople.  We are stepping up patrols in the affected neighborhoods and overall, we are getting the word out about how people can protect themselves.  Please pass this information on to your neighbors, family and friends.

Be safe.

You should also read this excerpt from Topanga Station’s February newsletter:

The next time you see SLO Cunningham, make sure you give him extra kudos for a recent outstanding arrest that perhaps you may have read about in the L.A. Times. For those of you who are not aware, on December 17, 2009, Officer Cunningham arrested a door to door salesman who had robbed and attempted to rape a woman.

In the past, there had been several burglaries which Cunningham being in-tune with his area SLO that he is, knew of. While patrolling his area, Officer Cunningham conducted a pedestrian stop on two males who identified themselves as “Door-to-Door Magazine Solicitors.” The next day (12/17/09) he responded to a “Hot Prowl, Attempt Attack, and Robbery Home Invasion.” Based on his prior contact with the salesmen he conducted a follow-up investigation. Thanks to Cunningham’s great investigative skills, a male suspect was taken into custody. With two witness field show ups and a victim’s field show-up, all were positive the suspect was the one who carried out the attack.

The suspect was arrested for home invasion robbery and attempt rape. His bail was set at $5.6 million dollar bail for burglary, home invasion robbery, attempt rape and kidnapping, to name a few. Officer Cunningham, thank you for taking this BAD person off our streets!!

Download the entire newsletter from LAPD’s site by following this link.

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