Ran across some potentially bad guys

[Toadstone]

I thought I'd share this little story about what happened to me yesterday:

I was walking up to Target in Pasadena after I got off work yesterday (so at about 3:35 pm), and as I'm crossing the parking lot to the building, I see this pickup truck drive diagonally across the handicap parking spots and stops in my path. The windows were down and 3 young white guys were inside, and the driver starts talking to me. I put my hands on my hips so that it wouldn't be too much of a reach to get to my Kimber PepperBlaster that is on my belt.

The driver says, "Hey, we work in a warehouse and we got a shipment of speakers, and they gave us too many of them. Our boss said to go sell them to get rid of them." He told me how much they were selling them for, but I wasn't paying attention, because as I looked at the bed full of speaker boxes, it was dawning on me that they were obviously criminals trying to unload some stolen speakers. The exact same thing happened in the Barnes & Noble parking lot before, in fact. That time there were a bunch of guys in an SUV, but they were also trying to sell me some speakers, and in fact had the same story.

So I say, "No thanks," and start walking off.
The driver says, "They're worth $2000 each."
Again, I said "No thanks," and walked away. The guy in the back seat of the truck (it was a crew cab), said, "Come on, it's a good deal! You can walk away from a deal like this? I wish I had your job!"
By that time, my "job" was memorizing everything I could about these guys, including their license plate number, as they were driving off.

I went inside Target, and as I have seen parking lot security driving around before, my first thought was to go to the customer service desk and ask to speak to their security. Then I thought, "Wait, they won't be able to do anything. I'm calling the police."

So I call the Pasadena Police non-emergency number, which is programmed into my phone. The dispatcher connected me to an officer who took the description of the vehicle and the passengers from me, and the plate number.

About 15 minutes later, as I was leaving Target, I hesitated in the foyer on the way out, and looked around for the pickup (I was beyond paranoid at that point). I didn't see the truck, so I walked outside. There were two police cars cruising around through the parking lot, but the truck was (of course) long gone. I think those guys probably didn't stick around long after they saw me looking at their license plate.

I thought about waving one of the patrol cars down to talk to the police, but didn't. They would either find them or they wouldn't. At that point I got in my car and went home. Whew! Aside from getting pretty pushy about pushing the speakers on me, they didn't get aggressive. I'm glad I'm taking my CHL course next weekend - I think I would have been a little more comfortable if I knew I had a handgun on me.

[gemini]

This is a old scam. Guys in vans have been doing this same scam/story for years.
They'll even pull up at a stop light and try to sell them.

[mctowalot]

You have encountered the legendary "speaker men"
This is a scam that has been going on nationwide (world?) wide since the early '80s.
Google them and enjoy!
PS - I fell for it in the early 80's. (Give me a break I was just a kid then)
My pair of "studio monitor 9000s" had seperate knobs for the tweeters and bass.
I remember hooking them up my superbad home stereo system (remember those?) and noticing that the control knobs didn't seem to change the sound at all so I removed the cover.
The knobs were not even attached to anything, no wires, nothing. They were just cheap radioshack reostats.
A few years later I was the first kid on the block to have a booming stereo in my truck. I hooked up an amp and my "studio monitor 9000s" in my brand new Chevy Blazer.
I can still remember popping in a cassette tape from this new band - The BeastieBoys!

Oh man I am so old!

[WildBill]

This is a old scam. Guys in vans have been doing this same scam/story for years.
They'll even pull up at a stop light and try to sell them.

I fell for this once, back in the 70s. At least mine were real speakers. A couple years later I sold them for more than I paid for them.

Oh man I am so old!

Where is the crying icon?

[Excaliber]

This is a old scam. Guys in vans have been doing this same scam/story for years.
They'll even pull up at a stop light and try to sell them.

I fell for this once, back in the 70s. At least mine were real speakers. A couple years later I sold them for more than I paid for them.

Oh man I am so old!

Where is the crying icon?

Not by accosting people in parking lots I hope......

[mctowalot]

Oddly I'm not really sad about it wildbill.
The fact that I'm still around is what shocks me!

PS. Wiki has a great article - and it turns out it's a world wide scam.

PPS. After my gray matter had churned a bit (ouch) I remember a friend of mine was a "white van speaker guy" for a short time. He quit after someone called the cops on his crew for selling "stolen speakers"

[cubbyjg]

Which Target in Pasadena did this happen at? I was born and raised in Pasadena, but i have since moved to another area but i still have family there that i would like to give them a heads up.

[G26ster]

I'm holding on to a few Diamond Sylus units, so once they've got this quadraphonic sound thing ironed out I'll be good to go

[texas1234]

That has happened to me numerous times, as a matter of fact happened in the Bass Pro parking lot about 4 months ago.

[threoh8]

So I call the Pasadena Police non-emergency number, which is programmed into my phone.

Having the non-emergency number of local law enforcement on you phone is a very good idea - one I adopted not long after getting my first cell phone. Your local PD (multiple PD's if you cross jurisdictions often during the day) and Sheriff's office numbers would be a good start.

There are a lot of things that aren't quite emergency level, but that the police should know about.

[PUCKER]

Ran across that scam years ago and I recalled the old phrase "if it sounds too good to be true..."

[Leroy]

I can't beleive that this ancient scam is still "news" to anyone.

[Toadstone]

This was at the Target at the intersection of Beltway 8 and Fairmont Parkway.

[mctowalot]

Having read the "white van speaker men" wiki and learning about their "potential customer profile" brings back more memories. It seems I fit the bill well, as I can remember encountering the "speakermen" fairly regularly (after my initial "studio monitor 9000s" purchase). They would pull up next to me in traffic and role down their windows. I would just blurt out, "dude! I don't need any speakers!" One never-give-up salesman responded by putting his foot up on the dash and said "well then how about some sneakers?"

This reminds me of an episode of "The Jeffersons" where George buys a television new in the box from some shady guys selling items from the trunk of their Caddy. When he gets home and opens the box it's sans television and full of bricks. I was told this was also a "real" scam from back in the day.
A few years ago I had a customer who, while waiting for the towtruck (me) at a gas station had purchased a poratable dvd player from some scamsters. When he opened the box it was one of those hollowed out "nonfunctioning display" models like you would see on display at radioshack.
I suppose P.T. Barnam was right - there's a sucker born every minute!

[03Lightningrocks]

My buddy fell for this a few years back as we came out of a resteraunt. I tried to tell the clowns to go away but he said hold on... I want to see these speakers. He bought them for cash money and when he got them hooked up, they started smoking after about three minutes... LOL. How he thought someone could sell him 2000 dollar speakers for 100 bucks each is beyond me. I made fun of him for a couple years about that one.