"Suspicious" Solicitor Reported in Area; What You Should Know

Update, 2:39 p.m.

Chief Richard Hart said the individual's permit has now been revoked due to numerous complaints that just came in.

Original post, 2:32 p.m.

Have you been approached at your home by someone to sell you education books for children and then want to know about your children?

A Yorkville Patch reader did and said the entire exchange made her very uncomfortable. She posted about it on site, describing the individual as having blond hair, light build, with a thick accent.

READ: Soliciting in Yorkville: Applying for a Permit and Soliciting Restrictions

"When he came to our house, I told him I never buy anything from my front door and I encouraged him to leave info and his name, but he wouldn't," wrote Cheryl. "He presented me with his sales permit from the city and mentioned other moms and kids, by name, that he met prior to coming to my door. He was extremely persistent. I  had to be very firm to get him to leave."

She said the same thing happened a few years before and left her and her neighbors feeling very uneasy.

"It was suspected that they were casing and gathering info about families, specifically with children," said Cheryl.

Other readers chimed in on the Facebook post, many with similar stories.

"Those people have been in our neighborhood before. It was very, very creepy!" wrote Kathy T.

"We had two guys come to our door and they claimed to be "European." The one guy, was blonde, wore a pink polo had an accent (honestly it did not sound real), and he was very aggressive and would not take no for an answer. I literally had to shut the door on him and firmly told him to leave. I called the police on both occasions," said poster Kristie B. 

A user on the Oswego Patch Facebook posted that they believe this seller is an international student participating in the Southwestern Advantage sales and leadership program.

"If this is the case, he is living with a local host family and spending the summer in your community running his business to offset the cost of his own higher education in Europe," said the post. "Approximately 2,500 students like him from over 300 campuses worldwide sell our educational products to nearly 200,000 families each year through our summer sales program."

Yorkville Police Chief Richard Hart said they are aware of this solicitor that that he does have a permit.

He added that the individual selling books was warned last Thursday that "if we received any further complaints that we would revoke his permit."

Oswego Police Chief Dwight Baird said residents should let solicitors know they are not interested and close the door. 

"We encourage any residents who have any issues with solicitors to notify us immediately," said Hart.