Police chief warns about door-to-door scams
Homeowners beware! Door-to-door solicitors can be more than annoying. In Maumelle, the police chief says scam artists have ripped-off several homeowners. He says as the weather gets nicer, you're at a higher risk. Police have made seven arrests, but more criminals are out there knocking on doors."It's really scary because you don't know what they're capable of. If they can scam you easy as that, you don't know what they're up to," says Jennifer Wares. Wares has called Maumelle home for three years, and it didn't take long for criminals going door-to-door to rip her off. "I paid a guy one-hundred dollars for a magazine subscription. Never got it. And when I called the 1-800 number he gave me, it was a disconnected number," she explains.Just in the past month alone, Maumelle police arrested seven people for selling magazines without permits. Each posted a hundred dollar bond. "We have people walking in our neighborhoods, and we don't know anything about them, and we don't know who they are," says Maumelle Police Chief Sam Williams.So to find out, Maumelle requires solicitors to apply for permits every year before going door-to-door. "They notice a door to a house is unlocked and apparently nobody's home, how easy would it be to go in there and see if there's anything small or portable that they could take with them? I'm not saying they all do that, please understand that, but I am saying the possibility is there," says Williams.Individuals pay fifty dollars and companies pay five-hundred so the city can do background checks. In this recent case, several solicitors had arrest records. "It's not uncommon at all for them to have been in trouble in other cities in other states, and in trouble meaning things like theft and burglaries and drug convictions," adds Williams.If someone's walking around your neighborhood selling stuff, ask to see their permit. If they don't have one, call police and report them.Wares never got her money back, and now has this advice for everyone out there. "If I don't recognize their face, I don't open the door."
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