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bikerbill wrote:In 10 years living in this house, the only people who have come to my door are politicians (sadly, they are not listed as game animals), neighbors and trick-or-treaters. Oh yeah, and some relatives ... I've found that if you keep quiet and don't answer the door, the relatives will go away ... but I always have my trusty NAA Pug in my pocket, just in case ...

More likely classified as vermin...

Jumping Frog wrote:

Keith B wrote:Why would you even open the door? That is a major tactical error.

Unless you can spray down from the top of the castle walls, along with the flaming oil, I completely agree with you!

Perhaps they have the "Peep-hole Bear-spray Attachment"

Gyrogearhead wrote:

ArmyMama wrote:I live in a so-so neighborhood. I've had waaaaay too many "magazine salesmen" come to my door through the years. I do have 4 dogs, and when the doorbell rings, all heck breaks loose in my house! Of course, if you came in, they would love you to death, but the person on the other side of the door doesn't know that.

Some years ago, we had a repo man come to our door at 12:30am. He rang the doorbell and started beating on the door. My husband went to the door. He demanded to be let in. He was there to repo someone's car. We had two cars in the driveway, both paid for, neither one running, and neither the type of car he was looking for. He was screaming and yelling at my husband, who was yelling back at him through the window. He tried to push our door in. We had a 3 y.o., 5 y.o. and a 6 y.o. asleep, and I didn't want them awakened. The repo man would not go away. Normally, I would have gotten up and taken the 12 gauge pump to the door and pumped it so they guy could hear it, but I had shattered my leg and could only walk with a walker. Couldn't manage a walker and the 12 gauge, so I called the police, which were just 1/2 mile away. They sent 3 squad cars. The assured the repo man that we were not the people he was looking for. My husband told him to PLEASE take both cars in the driveway, as neither of them ran. The police said he was not breaking any laws (doing all this at 12:30am?) I told them he was breaking my laws if he woke my kids up. He got off our porch and sat in his truck in front of our house ALL NIGHT LONG. The police said there was nothing they could do as he was breaking no laws. This guy has us scared to death. He finally left at 4:30am. This freaked us out! I have NO TOLERANCE for unknown people coming to my door after this. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and church people are fine, everyone else had best stay off my front porch!

For what it's worth:

Awhile back I bought a reasonably high powered green laser pointer ($$$) and have had very good success with it in discouraging un-invited people who want to be in my yard at night (one of the hazards of living near a juvinile detenssion center). From inside of the house, well out of sight I can hold the green dot quite steady on a chest, shoulder or other body part. This is apparently so disconserting to the interloper that they seem to want to leave "faster than a speeding bullet" when I turn on the laser.

Gerry

The problem with green lasers is that the beam is so bright that it can easily be tracked back to the source. Unlike red lasers that just show up as a dot, green lasers are an arrow back to the pointer. If you are just scaring children and small animals it is not a problem. But if it is somebody that might shoot back, you might have a problem.

ffemt300 wrote:I put a "No Soliciting" sign on my screen door a while back and come to think of it the solicitors have stopped.....must be working...

It does tend to work for the legitimate DtD salesmen. It doesn't do much for the illegitimate (?? ) ones.

This just gets better and better...
IBTL

And he could have shot you, and walked in before you could have even formed a fist.

WildBill wrote:

Jim Beaux wrote:As the story goes, in the 1950's a fast talking door to door salesman knocked on my grandfather's door & started rattling off his spiel.

He said, "Mr. X, Im not here to sell you anything, but I am here to give you this book absolutely free".

My grandfather reached over, took the book & as he thumbed through the pages asked, "for free?", and the salesman said, "absolutely"! My grandfather said "thanks" & in a flash slammed the door! The enraged salesman screamed & howled while beating on the door for a long time before finally giving up.

During this time my grandmother frantically rushed into the living room terrified as she thought someone was being assaulted. She then admonished grandpa and insisted that he give the book back, but grandpa said he was now too afraid to open the door...

Once, I did this at the World's Fair. A Hari Krishna approached me and my friend, his hand out, offering us free incense. I grabbed it from his hand, said Thank You! and kept walking. He followed us for a couple of minutes asking for a "donation", but he finally gave up.

Incense? The last time I was approached at an airport, they were "giving away" some book. Got suckered. I was very young.

Excaliber wrote:

drjoker wrote:Sheesh, guys, times are tough. Be a good "X" (insert your religion here, yes even atheism is a "religion") and buy some stuff from door to door salespersons. A lot of them are unemployed and just trying to make ends meet. Some are helping out a church or youth group. My fave are girl scout cookies. Second are the chocolate bars sold by inner city high school kids. I hate peanut brittle. If I see peanut brittle, I'll just give 'em a couple of bucks but ask them to please not give me any peanut brittle.

If you don't like opening your door to strangers, that's fine. get a motion detector so you get advance notice of strangers at your door. Then, exit out the back/side door and flank 'em outside the house.

Or just get a door chain so you could answer the door without the risk of them forcing their way inside.

As always, keep your gun on you in your pocket. A little .380 or smaller caliber gun will fit nicely in your boxer shorts pckets so when you throw on that robe to answer the door, you're armed.

P.S. When I was a idiot teen, I went from door to door selling... knives. Not the brightest thing to do! What's even more amazing is, after showing my briefcase full of knives, a few ladies actually let me in and bought some knives from me (never had a male customer). I couldn't find a summer job, so I had the bright idea that I could sell knives door to door.

A door chain and a mouse gun??!!

(Sigh)

In New York folks quit using the door chains a few decades ago because they found they kept ripping them out themselves when they forgot the chain was on when they opened the door. Needless to say, nobody on the outside had any trouble getting past them out either.

There's a hint about their effectiveness in the fact that you don't see them on hotel or motel doors anymore except occasionally in establishments where room rentals are by the hour.

Preparing for a less than arms length encounter with a potential home invader by sticking a mousegun in one's pocket as the Plan B for the ripped out chain and voluntarily opened door isn't my idea of prepared.

YMMV - but history says it won't.

Meeting them outside the house doesn't sound too smart, either.

magillapd wrote:

Where would a person get one of those?

Well, I have two similar stories to relate regarding DtD sales. Keep in mind that I have no interest in buying or participating in any form of DtD sales, and to discourage the salesmen, refuse even actions that might be considered "just being polite". Why should I be polite to what I consider to be "walking spam"?

The first occurred several years ago. I was out in my front yard talking with my landscaper, when a young man walked over from my neighbors, and tried to start up a pitch. One of the first things he did was to offer to shake hands. As I am not, and have no interest in being his friend, I ignored the offer. His reaction was, "What, don't you like black people?" My thought was, "Really? That's your sales technique? Insult me?" Anyway I ordered him off my property and he went on his way. Never did find out what he was selling, nor did I care.

Now, flash forward maybe 5 or 6 years. I'm inside this time, with a "No Soliciting" sign right above the doorbell, and a dog that goes freaking nuts when the bell is rung. The bell rings, the dog goes nuts, I have to chase down the dog before opening the door or she'll run outside. (I can see there is a middle-aged man waiting thru the door window.) Apparently taking a clue from all the commotion and my irritated expression, his first words were that "Mrs. Somebody-or-other" promised that I wouldn't "bite his head off". This created some confusion as I didn't recognize the name, but turned out to be the neighbor he just came from. Anyway, I asked him (rather gruffly) what he wanted, and he started talking about going around talking to my neighbors, and stuck out his hand to shake. Again, I ignore the offer, and guess what his response was... "What, you have something against black people?" He had just enough time to say, "I'm kiddi..." before the door slammed in his face.

A followup to this last guy. He went from my house to my OTHER neighbor's house, and when the 4'6" 90-lb little old lady answered, said he'd been walking the neighborhood all day, and could use her bathroom. She wisely declined, but he could have squashed her like a bug if he'd wanted.

By the way, the above story not withstanding, I have found that the "No Soliciting" signs actually do accomplish some good. I believe they do hold some legal force -- kind of a solicitors version of 30.06. I have seen people approach, see the sign, then turn around and go to the next house. Most likely the only people that would obey the sign are those that are harmless anyway, but it does prevent some interruptions.

Oh, and incase someone should wonder, I would have (and will continue) to refuse to shake hands with any solicitors, regardless of their race. I also don't answer questions like "How are you", "Nice Day isn't it", and other "Get 'em to agree or say 'yes' " type questions. My response to those is usually "What do you want?" I do this for phone solicitors, too.