Am I paranoid or is this...odd?

Ron

Ron

Dum Spiro Spero
Moderator
Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Location
Sharon, SC
I was cleaning up the explosion from 20+ family members having dinner at my house this AM when I get a knock on the door from a seaming young Eastern European young man who speaks plain but accented English.

He is holding a cheap digi camera and a rolling wheel measuring tool. He has a cheap badge around his neck with the name Slav Kishka of Reliable Reports. He is driving a beige colored colored mid 90s camry. And wearing an OD green "fake military" jacket with a fur collar and fake patches.

He explains that the insurance company sent him to take photos of the outside of our house and file a report for "national underwriting"

He hands me a business card that points to a seemingly legit website, has the same name as the badge, etc.

The company phone number says the company is closed today, he says he is trying to get some extra work in even though he is paid for the day so he can got to Boston for a week and get paid. (boston marathon bomber instantly enters my mind for some reason)...

We did recently change insurance companies (like a month or two back) so it is feasible I suppose.
Anyway, I ultiamtely advised him he would need to leave my premises and do so in a quick manner to preserve his safety, and that I would follow up with the insurance company on Monday. He was polite, enough, and complied...but now I am unsure if I was a jack ass to a young dude trying to do a legitimate job or if I ran away someone trying to case my neighborhood for a break in.

What say ye, NC4x4?
 
naw man don't worry, you did the exact thing i would have, If you don't protect you and yours who will??
 
Would have done the same thing... People are away for the holidays, burglars love it, its too damn suspicious to me.
 
Bingo... I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that he was casing your place. I'd employ the redneck burglar defense system.... a VERY large empty dog dish, a VERY large broken dog chain and a note taped to your door saying "Beware - our 150 lb. Rottweiler broke loose the other day. If you see him DO NOT APPROACH HIM. We are waiting for the rabies test to come back."
 
A guy from our homeowners ins. co. came by the house earlier this year to "inspect" the property on w weekday unannounced. I saw him standing in the driveway taking notes and came out to see what was up. He said he was "updating" the propertys value/condition and I escorted him around the property. He noticed some moss growing on the shingles of an uninsulated/heated shed on a slab in the backyard and recomended I re-roof it. I showed him a pallet of shingles on the shedporch, under a tarp that were for fixing the roof "when it get's warmer " and told him i did'nt think the shed was insured. He said it was and the $ amount insured suprised me. They sent a letter 2 weeks later w a deadline to fix the roof within a month 1/2. I felt like they wanted to inspect the property while nobody was home and told him to please contact us before coming by again as we have protective dogs that do'nt like strangers. My wife was concerned they were going to raise our rate but the shed was fixed and we e-mailed pics of the repairs and never heard anymore about it.
 
we recently changed insurance companies, our actual agent came out to take the pix ( oddly enough haven't heard anything back since, but I would have expected one of his minions to come out before he did ), left a cute little "welcome" packet and that was that.
 
My wife used work in an insurance company here in Nam and they had a list of houses that needed to be inspected. It was easy money for my while I was in the Military. We were not supposed to announce our selves though. No badge / ID either. We just took them from the road. I did get approached a few times and had to explain what I was going but I always had paper work from the company. We usually would do it after a claim was filed / Paid to make sure the work was done . Mostly just roofs though. You will most likely find out it was legit if you call your home owners insurance company. Still call though just to make sure. It happened to my place and I called to make sure even though I knew the person out there.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
 
yep.... I woulda told him to get to steppin too.... Extra work done my ass, more like knock and smash... If no one had answered I bet your door woulda got kicked in. Everything else was for show for when someone does answer...
 
We recently built a house. The insurance agent called me to schedule an appointment to view the house. She needed to get inside though too in order to take pictures.
 
no appointment, nobody to call and confirm, no logical reason, no dice! If it was me and I could get my head in gear fast enough, I'd have stalled him long enough for the wife to call the popo and keep him "detained" til they arrived. Then some real Splainin better take place. I absolutely hate salesmen, "witnesses", or anybody who claims to invite themselves over for some sort of business. My personal property and my family are private unless otherwise invited.

So I have a question. Do you have to really post No Trespassing or Private Property to legitimately prosecute someone uninvited??
 
Insurance people will usually visually inspect your house (from the road) and always unannounced. I would caution on the usage of dogs as a scare tactic. I had a tenant do that to one guy she saw nosing around the street. I got a cancellation letter a few weeks later. I had to switch to a higher risk carrier with a steeper rate, naturally.
 
While the local office may be closed ... I very seriously doubt any insurance company is completely closed for business at any time.
I would have requested a phone number to use for immediate verification, or called the cops myself while he watched. And I would have taken pictures of him.

Trespassing ... yep gotta be posted unless verbally informed.

Matt
 
he could have been legit....... still.... it's hard to be trusting in these days and times
 
Turns out it was legit.
Sorry I scared the kid.
 
oh well, that's the nature of his job. You probably weren't the first and won't be the last 'dick' he's encountered. I would've been as skeptical as you were, too much to lose by letting your guard down.
 
it's the day after a holiday, most everyone has the day off, you don't expect someone to come poking around your place.

Last year, day after Thanksgiving, I was helping a friend load some stuff into his truck and we saw a guy walking across the back side of my lot, carrying a surveyors pole. Eh, really ? not something you'd just let pass even on a regular day.
We questioned the guy, turns out the property owner of the land behind us was (allegedly) setting boundary lines so he could bush hog the field, till it and plant grass, then fence the perimeter to feed and maintain a herd of cattle.

works for me. though nothing has happened yet
 
I would have approached him wearing a hot pink Speedo, oiled from top to bottom, drinking a red drink with fruit and an umbrella in it, and asked him if he would like to come in.
 
levellinebrad said:
I would have approached him wearing a hot pink Speedo, oiled from top to bottom, drinking a red drink with fruit and an umbrella in it, and asked him if he would like to come in.
Click to expand...
Is that how you seduced Paul???
 
I didn't have to work that hard. With Paul, all you have to do is say "come here bitch" and he's yours.
 
levellinebrad said:
I would have approached him wearing a hot pink Speedo, oiled from top to bottom, drinking a red drink with fruit and an umbrella in it, and asked him if he would like to come in.
Click to expand...
So basically, treat it like any other Friday afternoon?

Sent while I should have been doing something constructive...
 
Ron said:
Turns out it was legit.
Sorry I scared the kid.
Click to expand...

lolz.
oops.

I was thinking. Lets be honest. All other things being the same, if it had been a blonde-haired white kid w/ a good old SC accent, would your response have been the same?
 
levellinebrad said:
I would have approached him wearing a hot pink Speedo, oiled from top to bottom, drinking a red drink with fruit and an umbrella in it, and asked him if he would like to come in.
Click to expand...

thinking about Ron doing this... I threw up a little
 
RatLabGuy said:
lolz.
oops.

I was thinking. Lets be honest. All other things being the same, if it had been a blonde-haired white kid w/ a good old SC accent, would your response have been the same?
Click to expand...


You know I talked about this last night.
I am not necessarily proud to say this BUT his appearance/ethnicity and manner in which he carried himself certainly contributed to my response.
 
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