Traveling criminals

ALACHUA COUNTY – The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is reminding the public that this is the time of year that Florida’s moderate climate brings lots of visitors to the state.  Not all are just here to enjoy that climate, though.  Now is the time that authorities begin to see groups or families of organized criminals soliciting door-to-door.  These groups tend to target the elderly population with roof repairs, asphalt sealing or repair and tree trimming services.

These criminals tend to use high-pressure sales techniques and travel from town to town.  Oftentimes they show up at the victim’s door claiming to have materials that were left over from a previous job and offering discount work.  Once they make a deal they try to confuse the victim to extort more money or when finished claim to have done more work and need more money.  The jobs done are usually useless, substandard or they create more of a problem than previously existed.  These groups tend to be hard for law enforcement to identify and move from the area quickly.

Here are some tips to watch out for.

•  Solicitors going door-to-door
•  Unsolicited offers of home repair
•  High pressure sales tactics
•  Clean, new vehicles with out-of-state license plates
•  Area codes from outside the area and toll free numbers
•  Left over materials claims
•  Requests for payments in cash

If you suspect or experience this activity call the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office at 352-955-1818 immediately.