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Suspicious characters lurking Lakewood Streets

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:58 pm
by Ivor Karabatkovic
Dear neighbors,

My parents had an encounter with a older man, wearing glasses and in his 50-60's claiming to be from a roofing company about a week ago.

I was in the house alone and didn't see the individual circling the house, from the driveway to the back yard to the front yard. But now as I recall the events, I remember someone ringing my front doorbell and at the same time hearing my parents pull into the driveway and thinking to myself that it's kind of odd for those to occur at the same time.

Anyway, this is what happened.

My parents pulled into our driveway to see this man walking around. It was about 6:30 in the evening, pitch black night. He claimed to have visited the house the day before and then again and saw that our roof was leaking. He proceeded to explain that he left a flyer at our front door and that he was from a roofing company.

He then asked my mom if he could come inside to show my parents where our roof is leaking. Our house is 50 years young, it's a new roof, and it's not leaking.. plus how could you tell at night with no snow or signs of leaking? My mom said that the roof was fine and asked the guy to leave. The man then started asking what occupations my parents have and again asked to be let inside. Then, he noticed that my mom wasn't pleased and gave her a flyer and walked away. My dad being the genius that he is, threw the flyer away.

The thing is, there was no flyer at our front door like he claimed. He's in his 60's and who works for a roofing company at that age? He asked to be let inside at least twice, and he kept asking my parents about what kind of money they make.

The point of this is to see if anyone else has encountered this individual. I've called the non-emergency police line and explained the situation to the dispatch but didn't file a report. I guess I was hoping that she would say "oh that's weird, we have other reports of this as well" so that I could contribute in catching this guy if he's up to anything bad.

Judging by my posts, I can get pretty defensive. Now when the safety of my family, myself and my home is in question, you decide how defensive I can get.

If this guy is up to no good, I hope this post alerts my fellow Lakewoodites of what happened to us and he's caught. If he's just looking for a job and means no harm, hey at least he'll learn not to ask to come inside to people's homes again.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 12:12 am
by Ivor Karabatkovic
Oh and I'd like to add why I didn't file a report with the LPD.

When I called (about 40 minutes ago) it was.... 11:40pm and I didn't want to yank a squad car off of the streets. I was advised by the dispatch person just to call the next time we see this individual in the neighborhood. There's not much we can do unless we see this guy again, I think.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:43 am
by Dee Krupp
Wow. Thanks for the heads up. That is weird. I haven't encountered this person, but I am going to e-mail your post to my block watch captain so she can distribute to my neighbors.

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:12 am
by Stephen Eisel
Ivor, thanks for the 4-1-1..

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:49 am
by Jeff Endress
Probably not in the same category as Ivor's sighting, but there's a couple going door to door from the "Columbia Road Baptist Church".....

I suggested that they do their door to door soliciting in Westlake....

Jeff

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:07 pm
by Ivor Karabatkovic
Dee,

thanks for doing that.

Stephen,

maybe you can put your squirrel trap to good use! Does it come in bigger sizes?

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:16 pm
by Stephen Eisel
Human Trap Cage

http://www.tradekey.com/product_view/id/23749.htm


We can use a $5 bill for bait...


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