Mrs. J. relates this one to me, from this afternoon.
She was Home Alone when the doorbell rang, followed by vigorous knocking. Against her better judgment (thinking it might be the plumbing inspector (don’t ask)) she opened the door to see two middle-aged men, one holding a leather folder containing a thick sheaf of papers. He said:
“We heard that someone in this house speaks Chinese.”
:eek::smack::eek:
Mrs. J. asked where they got that idea. The response was to the effect that our address was associated with a Chinese speaker (the word “volunteer” was mumbled).
With some difficulty Mrs. J. got rid of them.
There are numerous possibilities, including the following:
Someone stole our identity to open a bogus soy sauce distributorship.
Trump has started a secret volunteer program to root out illegal Chinese aliens.
Neighbors are experiencing peculiar unexplained symptoms and decided that the People’s Republic is operating a sonic blaster from our roof, disguised as a satellite dish.
Headhunters are getting desperate to find qualified interpreters.
Why difficulty? They insisted on speaking to the Chinese speaker even after she told them there was no such person? Why persist? And they never introduced themselves or their purpose? That does seem odd.
It sounds too poorly executed (stupid) to be an outright scam. It sounds like, as others said, they were looking for a place to rob. Likely by checking to see if anyone is home and then if they are, using a line that’s almost sure to a door slammed in their face (because they don’t want to waste their time if someone ends up being interested). Hopefully less likely, wanting to get in the house so one can steal stuff while the other keeps you distracted.
I’m sure if they had showed up at my house, I would have stopped them mid sentence, say ‘no thanks’ and closed the door. In fact, I’ve stopped even opening the door, I’ve just started yelling through the window ‘not interested’ and waved sales people away. But having thought about it more, it sounds like the police should probably be told about it. Either so they’re aware of it or because they already know that it’s happening and would want another data point to help them find the people.
Unless you’re going somewhere with that, I can’t imagine it would make a difference since their opening line was that they believe there’s a Chinese speaker living there. They’re suggesting that they have some kind of knowledge that, unless they bought some bad leads, is entirely falsified.
It’s the first question I thought of as well, though I would think the OP would have mentioned it if they were Asian. I was thinking that they might be relgious types going door-to-door and they had an incorrect lead on someone who spoke Chinese at that house. I get Jehovah’s or whoever the hell it is that goes door-to-door looking for Spanish speakers all the time here.
As to the OP, dunno what’s going on there. I don’t think they’re casing the joint, though, as the line makes absolutely no sense and who the heck would come up with that as a line to throw out if someone answers the door? I assume they actually thought someone Chinese lived there (maybe a neighbor said something–I’ve had the “religious salesman” ask me which of my neighbors speak Spanish) for whatever reason and were looking for a Chinese speaker.
Might have been Publishers Clearinghouse. How big was the leather folder thingy? Were there any balloons?
Knock knock- who’s there?
We’re looking for a Ms.Kim, we have a large check.
Slinging door open-I am Ms.Kim.
Beard, blowing in the wind.
Checking to see if someone was home seems very unlikely. Once someone answered the door, getting out of there ASAP without anyone having a chance to get a long look at them is a priority. Hanging around at all after their question was answered is a no-no.
Casing? Still lots of problems. Can you really see much from a front door? And if you get robbed a couple weeks later, then you have a description of the suspects to give to the cops. Based on MO you might even be shown some pics for ID purposes.
It does sound like a con. Someone looking for someone not too bright that really wants to help them out. Get in. Start talking up about some Chinese cashiers checks, maybe you could take them off their hands by forking over some cash?, etc.
We have a couple of excellent photos of the pair, if needed later on (if someone was casing the joint, they shouldn’t have failed to notice they were on Candid Security Camera).
Typically our visitors (if not delivery people) tend to be high school band fundraisers, Jehovah’s Witnesses or political workers. Weirdness of the Chinese-speaker-seeker variety is very unusual.
Oh, we have to see the photos. We can try to enhance! and see the contents of the folder. Also, facial recognition.
Actually, I would like to see the photos if you’re willing to share them. I have no idea what the guys were up to, but seeing pictures of them can’t hurt.
I’m still going on the theory that they were looking for Chinese speaking volunteers for something.
I have had a slightly similar situation that was (kind of) legitimate, or at least not particularly sinister. I answered the door and the two people there were surprised that I was not Korean; they were Korean JW’s (truly) who thought there was someone living at my address who needed their religious advice. Maybe there had been a Korean family living in this house at one time, I don’t know.
But your description sounds much less like that, and much more like casing the joint, as has already been suggested.
Maybe there had been a Korean family living in this house at one time, I don’t know.