This morning at 8:30, I heard loud knocking at the front door and went to answer. There was a man in his fifties and a young girl (probably 6 or 7). She was the one who was knocking. When I opened the door the man said “Good morning” and told his name was X. He pointed to the girl and said, “This is my friend.” The girl just looked at me. Long story short, the guy wanted to know if I ever thought about the purpose of life. Then he asked if he could read something from the Bible. I said thanks but no thanks, and he left a flyer. He was a Jehovah Witness (at least JW.org was on the flyer).
I have had Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door in the past, but this just seemed a little weird because of the young girl. I thought about it for a long time and wondered if she was there voluntarily and wondered why her parents weren’t with her–she never said anything. After letting my mind think the worst, I decided to call the non-emergency number for local police dept. The dispatcher took it seriously and asked for a description of the guy, the little girl, and of their car. He said he’d sent a patrol car out.
I told my husband about it later and his comment was that I read too many crime novels. I really felt that something was strange about the situation and decided to trust my instinct. Did I judge too quickly?
In these times, a guy who doesn’t clarify who this little girl is with him (my friend???) is either completely oblivious, or suspicious. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have this checked out.
As soon as you said “and this is my friend” a red flag went up for me. Other red flags include the time of the morning - especially this time of year.
Sometimes your call is for community awareness. Doesn’t mean the police will run and flag the guy down - that is for them to decide. I think a call was the right thing for you to do.
Seven is very, very young to be put in that situation.
I have a friendly acquaintance who is JW and I’ve emailed this to her to see if this is something they do (door knock with children other than their own.)
Maybe I’m more trusting, but I don’t find this particularly nefarious. He could well have been babysitting her and putting in an hour of proselytizing before taking her to a fun activity.
On the other hand, I would not have been please to have someone knocking loudly on my door before 9 on a Saturday morning. In any case, my community has an anti-soliciting bylaw so such activity wouldn’t be officially allowed, although in my experience most people ignore that and simply say “Sorry, not interested.”
ETA another thought…I think Jehovah’s Witnesses are supposed to door knock in pairs. I think it has to do with Jesus sending the apostles out in pairs. This may have been an attempt to remain within the letter of the rules if he couldn’t find an adult partner to go with him. Probably not the most fun activity for a small child, but then again I didn’t find going to church particularly fun and I did that with regularity all through my childhood.
In questionable situations, I tend to ask, “what’s the downside?”. In this case, using a resource (police–although I doubt they’re going to wait on a 911 type call and respond to this first) and potentially offending the man (assuming the police find him and question him). Those are very minor and that’s what the non-emergency line for the police is for. In our community, the police messaging is “See something, say something” and, in this case, that’s what you did…as would I.
In my village all solicitors need to display a village issued solicitation badge conspicuously on the outside of their garment. We have limits on the approved hours for solicitation. The penalty ranges from loss of the solicitation badge to a fine. Religious proselytizing is included but political activities are not.
OP you did the right thing and I would want my neighbors to do the same.
Our JW’s are usually a pair of older women - and thankfully never early in the morning!
As for the OP - yeah, referring to the child as “my friend” seems weird. I think it’s possible that he takes a child with him because people don’t open up doors to single men.