MAURY CO., Tenn. -
Maury County authorities have a warning tonight for residents: be cautious of anyone selling magazines door to door.
Deputies told Nashville's News 2 Investigates the department has recently received a number of calls reporting aggressive salesmen in Maury County neighborhoods.
Thursday afternoon, deputies stopped a van with Texas plates.
Investigators said there were as many as five people inside, from all over the country, and they all claim to be working for a company that employs them to go door to door to sell magazine subscriptions.
Sergeant David Wray was on that traffic stop.
Sgt. Wray said, "They told me they were selling magazines. The man I spoke with said they are homeless people. He said, ‘Wouldn't you rather them selling books than selling drugs?' It was very shady the way they were going house to house."
Wray said one man didn't have any identification nor did he know his social security number.
All he had was a laminated card with handwritten information that could not be immediately authenticated.
Wray said the man had committed no crime, so he couldn't hold him. Wray added it is not illegal not to have identification on your person.
Deputies also told Nashville's News 2 Investigates that one resident had a bit of a scare during one sales encounter.
"The lady comes to the door," Wray said, "and this guy is selling magazines, and he insisted he needed to get into the house, and she said, ‘No,' and she sent him away, and he said it was cold. Well, he may have wanted to get warm or maybe he wanted to do other things, we don't know."
Lt. Andy Jackson said he ran the criminal histories of several of the sales people and discovered they had a variety of criminal charges.
"They have charges ranging from solicitation of prostitution to weapons to thefts," he said. "These are not the type of people, quite frankly, we want walking around in our neighborhoods."
Unlike many jurisdictions - like Columbia, Franklin, and Williamson County - Maury County doesn't require a permit to sell door to door.
Detectives said that is why the van full of salesmen is here.
According to Kathleen Calligan at the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee, the company that hires the people to sell door to door puts an ad in the paper, then drops the salesmen off in neighborhoods around the country.
Calligan said this company has an "F" rating with more than 200 complaints.
Maury County detectives said they have already been in touch with the county attorney about changing the door to door solicitation policy in the county.
In the meantime, Calligan said if someone knocks on your door, trying to sell you something, respond with caution.
