Yesterday (Monday) afternoon, our doorbell rang and I answered it. There were two young women, around 20 years old (guessing), One of then started talking rather quickly, then the other woman repeated some of it more slowly. The gist seemed to be that the second woman’s sister had been “found dead” up the block, and they wanted to find out if I had seen her and/or anyone with her. They had copies of a flyer with a young woman’s photo and some other stuff that I don’t remember, I was focusing on the photo, trying to be helpful. I did not recognize her at all. I failed to ask how long ago the woman had been found, which would have helped me trigger any memory I might have had (although I don’t think there was anything to trigger).
One thing that struck me weird during this short conversation was that the second woman, the one who was the sister of the supposed dead woman, had no affect at all that jibed with someone whose sister had recently died. The second thing that struck me later was that canvassing the neighborhood is surely usually done by police, who would also be asking for things like video surveillance of the street that any of the homes might have had. Finally, I searched local news for anything about a dead body anywhere in our area and there was nothing at all either nearby or recent.
My conclusion is that these girls wanted to find out about this girl and who she was with, but not because she was dead. Maybe she is missing, or maybe one of them suspects she has been with someone else’s boyfriend, or something along those lines. I don’t think it was a prank or a scam, because they got nothing out of me except consolation for the woman’s supposed loss, and didn’t try for anything except what I might have known. Another possibility that occurs to me is that it was some kind of experiment for a college psychology class.
No other accents of any kind, they sounded completely local.
That’s true. I opened my security gate so I could get a closer look at the photo, but she put her hand out to get it back. As if the copies had been expensive and they only had a few.
You would think so, but maybe not, it’s a very long block and there is a bend in our street well before it reaches the next corner, so if there had been police and an ambulance around that corner, we wouldn’t have seen them, or even necessarily heard them. One of them used the words “up the block” (I think) but I suppose it could have meant anyplace up to or even around that next corner.
Anyway, you don’t have to convince me that it’s fishy, I’m just trying to figure out what they were after, if it was in fact as weird as it seems.
Would it make sense to call the non-emergency line of your local police department to report the strange occurrence, and ask if you should be concerned/take any precautions? I have no idea whether that’s a good idea; the cops in my small community would be happy to take the report and possibly offer some observations, but in a larger city where there might be a lot of serious crime to worry about, maybe such a report would be considered a waste of time, I dunno.
I don’t think so. Here in San Francisco we have what are called zero lot lines, which means the houses touch each other on either side. The only other outside entrance accessible is the garage, which is right there in view when I’m standing at the front door, and makes a fair racket when it’s opening or closing.
I suppose they might have been checking to see if anyone was home, but it was the middle of the afternoon and they would have to have been pretty bold to attempt a burglary at that time of day.
Nevertheless, I am thinking that having a talk with our precinct might be a good idea, but I think I will do it in person tomorrow. I think I probably engender more respect from my appearance than from my voice on the phone. And they might already be familiar with whatever is going on.
WAG: to find out who has doorbell cameras, and who doesn’t. Perhaps someone is paying them for this info. (I see a couple others are also thinking along the same lines.)
^^^^ This is my thought also — it seems like a weirdly elaborate and attention-getting way to go about it, but in the end the actionable information is “who has a camera on the porch and who doesn’t.” This is useful knowledge for package thieves.
I’m mildly skeptical that this is the explanation, because again it seems like they’re drawing a lot of attention when this type of operator prefers to work quickly without being noticed. But I can’t think of anything else.
EDIT: Re-reading the OP, I withdraw my supposition. The camera hypothesis was brought up in replies but the original story doesn’t seem to have anything specific about the women actually seeking such video evidence, other than a tangential comment about that being something police would ask for. I’m back to being suspicious but baffled.
Different people respond differently. Stoic, calm, silent, excitable, ripping out hair, keening, what is the right way to react when your sister is found dead?
We’ve all heard lots of stories about the police not bothering to investigate things. Whether because of overwork, victim blaming, racism, or that the answer is obvious (but unwelcome by the family). Even if the police are investigating, the urge to do something can be strong. It may be nothing more than what they said. They’re just asking if anybody saw anything, because the other option is to do nothing and grieve.
It certainly could be some sort of scam, but unless this is the opening move of an in-person pig butchering, it’s hard to see what exactly they wanted. “Thank you for your time, even though you didn’t see anything, maybe you’d like to make a small donation to the family?”
It also could just be a door knock to see if anyone is at home, but then the speech can be much less dramatic. memorable, and most importantly, fast. You’d be very unlikely to post about someone knocking on the door to sell you pest control or something.
And there’s no reason to knock to find out if someone has a doorbell camera. They’re pretty obvious. Other cameras maybe not so much.
I mentioned this in another thread recently. Daytime burglars are mostly less dangerous. They are counting on no one being home. They head directly to the bedroom to grab jewelry and cash. Anything valuable that can fit in their pockets. They are out in a couple minutes. They are easily scared off. Night time burglars generally don’t care if someone is home and are prepared to deal with someone if they are confronted.
Understood, but I just wanted to say that the only way into a house with zero lot lines, like ours, is through the front, less than 8 feet from the sidewalk. There is no access to the back, and no side doors or windows, and very limited means to disguise what you’re doing. I think that makes a difference to the equation.