About two weeks ago, some guy knocked on Friend’s door, claiming to be a “health inspector”. WTF is a “health inspector”? Friend didn’t let him in, but noted that all the guy had with him was a blank legal pad.
Ten minutes later (we were on the phone at the time), someone rang my buzzer. Same story. I informed him that our landlady had said nothing about an inspection. I took note of what he looked like: he fit Friend’s description, except he hadn’t mentioned the laminated ID clipped to the shirt pocket. I resisted the temptation to take a closer look, reasoning that anyone can fake an ID tag, and there was no need to get within his grasp.
Mr. Rilch was rather pissed at me for opening the apartment door, despite the fact that I hadn’t opened the gate. He said the guy sounded like he was “clearly a rapist”, and pointed out that someone could have already been inside the gate to grab me after I was lured out by the note-pad guy. :smack:
The apartment next to ours was recently vacated, and today it’s being renovated. Which means the gate was propped open all day. Comforting. A couple hours ago, someone tapped on the door with a pen. I looked through the spyhole: I couldn’t see much, but I saw another legal pad. I didn’t respond at all, but I did look out the front window to see this person (not the same guy, but same kind of tag) going back down the steps. He didn’t appear to see me.
I called the non-emergency police line and described the situation. They said they’d give this info to officers in the area. I know that’s how it works: they can’t put out an APB for “some guy”, but they will be on the alert for bogus “health inspectors”.
I hope they catch these clowns before something really bad happens. Mr. Rilch said if it happens when he’s home, he’ll question the “inspector” about what he’s supposedly doing while I call 911, and hopefully keep him there until the cops arrive. But I can’t take that risk on my own. Better to just avoid contact altogether.
If anyone deals with this guy again, (I’m sure you all already know) try to get his business card and name. Never heard of a “health inspector” popping in on residents.
Well, that’s what Mr. Rilch wants to do, Violet. I hope he gets a chance, but I don’t want to do it myself. I don’t want to make myself more vulnerable. I’ve already responded once, even if it was just to dismiss the first guy, and I don’t want to be remembered: “Well, that one talked to me!” The best way to deal with potential wrongdoers is to ignore them and get away, or ignore them and wait for them to leave. In this case, the guy might have concluded that no one was even home.
Being the intrepid and astute gentleman that I am [sub]as well as the trained antiterrorist/force protection guru at work[/sub], I would have politely asked for some identification. As you mentioned before, it was probably a fake of some sort, but there’s always information you can take a gander at, which might be useful later (i.e. how good of a fake was it?)
Hell, next time he stops by, send him my way. I’ll see just how healthy he is.
Tripler
How healthy can one be with a boot up their ass?
Geezus, that’s scary. Yes, you definitely did the right thing. Maybe you should put up some notices in your building about this guy. It would help people become more aware, I think.
While it is very suspicious (and it’s always right to exercise caution and protect yourself in such circumstances), I must disagree that health inspectors only go to restaurants. I’ve been in my apartment nearly 9 years and have only had it happen once, but I did, in fact, have someone from the county health department show up to do an inspection. He found several violations on the part of the building owners – in my apartment there seemed to be a teeny (not even visible to me) access into my kitchen behind a drawer in the cabinets near the baseboards where some type of small rodent had apparently gotten in at least once because droppings were found on the floor behind and under that drawer. Outside, there was access to the crawl space under the building where possum, skunks, etc., could get in. I don’t know what else, if anything, they found, but the owner was cited and they had to come out and remedy the problems immediately.
So again, while it’s entirely possible these guys are pulling some kind of scam, it’s equally possible that they’re on the up and up. Check with the building owner or management company, and if they don’t know anything about it, check with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.
From a job posting at the LA County Dept. of Health Services website:
Zebra and Frank: No, but I asked the property manager, and she knew nothing about it.
Shayna, thanks for the info. But there’s nothing to check up on. When someone’s going to do an official inspection (and it has happened a couple times), the property manager gives us 24 hours notice. If I didn’t hear about it from her, or the main office, then it’s not legit. Period.
The Wrong Girl: Yes, we’ve already mentioned it to other residents and to the property manager.
Missy2U: Ouch! And Tripler, that’s why I don’t even want to trifle with this guy about business cards. I already mentioned that Mr. Rilch ripped me a new one for opening the apartment door, even though I didn’t open the outside door. I simply don’t want any contact with this person. It might even be part of his plan: on request for a business card, reach in pocket and produce pepper spray. I’m following the same advice given to Honey in this thread: don’t confront, just retreat and let the professionals take care of it.
When I was going to college, one day I heard a knock on my door. I went to answer it and it was some guy claiming to be a repairman for the company I was renting my apartment from. He wanted to use the telephone. I, being the kind of person who likes to walk around and talk at the same time, went and got him my cordless and let him borrow it, in the hallway. He didn’t even make a pretense of making a call, just turned the thing on, then turned it back off again. Prolly didn’t help that my boyfriend of the time was standing glaring at him over my shoulder (apparently he was getting bad vibes or something).
Turns out later that this guy had gone to several apartments of that company, and some nice souls had let him in to use their phones and later found valuables that had been near the phone missing.
I’d still call the Department of Health even though you are sure it wan’t legit. I would hope that if the DoH knew someone was going around doing a ‘knock knock, department of health…can I rape and kill you?’ they might get upset and call the cops (lean on the police) or even issue a press release to the local media.
