And it’s old school. Door-to-door style. Eureka resident Jude Cole called us up today to report that bogus magazine sales-people have descended upon Humboldt County.
Cole wasn’t immediately suspicious at the appearance of a couple of young people at her doorstep, even though they “looked like cast members of Glee — with the whitest teeth, the cleanest skin … just not typical.”
As these failed TV extras were about to leave (after they’d convinced Cole to pony up for a magazine subscription) they started acting strangely. One got a call on his cell phone and, gesturing to a parked white brown van on the corner, said their security was waiting, Cole recalled.
Suspicious, Cole, who described herself as “65, but a pit bull,” hopped into her classic BMW, pulled up alongside the van and wrote down the license plate number and a description of the driver.
Later, she examined her invoice and looked up the company online, and it indeed appeared to be fakey-fake. So she notified the Eureka Police Department and was told that the EPD has been trying to crack such magazine scammers for three years running, Cole said. A call to the sergeant handling the case was not immediately returned.
So, be on the lookout for attractive periodical shysters with good dental hygiene, possibly in the vicinity of a white van. That is all.
This article appears in Hitting it Home.
I also had them at my door and I saw the same white van. The van is a larger passenger type van and I saw the kid hop out of it.
Cole made it sound like our local kids couldn’t have the cleanest skin nor the whitest teeth. It could easily have been a couple of our local kids who have been recruited by the white van driving monster. The next time I’m out selling magazines with my kids who do in fact have white teeth and clean skin, I’ll make sure I don’t drive my white van!