Magazine solicitors target student victims on TCC Campuses
by Carlos Raigosa, editor-in-chief

     Young single males are invading TCC’s parking lots hunting for two things: women and money, Lt. Lee Golden, NE Campus police, said.
     NE, SE and South campuses have faced an influx of magazine salesmen who aim their pitch at “young, gullible” women, Golden said.
     “We try to discourage women from paying attention to these people because they use deceptive tactics that cause more harm than good,” he said.
     Once they are identified, those suspected of soliciting on campus are issued a criminal trespassing warning. If they are caught again, they face the possibility of arrest, Golden said.
     District policy outlines that “individual salespersons or solicitors will not be permitted to contact students on campus, except in connection with sales through the College bookstore. On-campus solicitation or sales by employees or students on behalf of any group or organization, profit or nonprofit, is prohibited.”
     Companies from the Northeast region of the country recruit males, who are lured by the idea of traveling and adventure, Lt. Lennie Oringderff, NW Campus police, said.
     She said that NW Campus has not faced any problems since last semester, when they apprehended an individual selling subscriptions.
     “We arrested a person who was persistent in selling his product, which contradicted campus policy,” she said. “After questioning, he told us he was from Maryland.”
     These companies are numerous and they operate with so many different people that it is virtually impossible to stop them from operating, Golden said.
     “We had a case in which a woman was essentially forced to hand over a check to keep a young man out of her face,” he said. “We didn’t know about this until she got home and called us.”
     Police officials say that most of the time when these actions are occurring, they cannot tell because an unwanted approach is not always clearly evident.
     “Most of the time when we see two people, a boy and a girl, talking we don’t think much of it,” Golden said. “The main thing I want to stress is that students shouldn’t fall for these schemes.”
     Most of the time these companies are legitimate, but in some occurrences, they are nothing but a money-generating ploy to rob students by setting up fake businesses.
     “After we call them, the phone numbers supplied to students by the representatives of these companies are not legit,” Oringderff said.
     On SE Campus, Lt. Eddie Thompson said SE Campus is the best for patrolling against these types of violations.
     “We don’t have the problem that the other campuses face because we have a single building, and we don’t have all the acreage like the other campuses,” he said. “But we still have van loads of these people being dropped off to sell subscriptions.”