The un-invited hawking their wares

[Sam_Fear]

If somebody you don't know comes wandering in your garage trying to sell you their used car, car parts, or service (like pin-striping) how does it sit with you?

My garage is 6 feet off the alley, so I get a lot of passerby's.

I politely shut them down and tell 'em to move on. But I quickly loose my patience if they don't move on.
(I have had a couple guys offer me old stuff for free or for scrap prices, that hasn't bothered me - they just hate to throw good stuff away, and I know the feeling.)

[...a recent post started me thinkin']

 

[BigIrish]

I can honestly say I've never even heard of someone wandering into another man's garage trying to sell stuff. That takes guts!

I would not like it one bit. I don't mind neighbors stopping by to chat, but c'mon!

 

[Bonehead]

Sombody un invited shows up in my garage, I am on high alert. I had a friend with a hot rod shop, who had two guys come talk to him about building a street rod for them. They wanted to see the shop. The next weekend, sombody cut a hole in the garage door in the back, exactly where the pad lock on the inside was and snipped the lock.
They were casing the place. They backed an enclosed trailer in his shop, and loaded every tool he owned into the trailer along with a project car with all it's parts. The remains of the project car was found in the desert, stripped. And the guy went from Snap-on to Craftsman tools in the course of a weekend.

 

[Sam_Fear]

As I edited my post above, my garage is only 6 feet off the alley, so I get a lot of people going past.

 

[CR55]

Be cautious Sam! The world is full of unscrupulous people unfortunately!
Pit bulls, Rottweillers and Dobermens usually solve those problems.

 

[Toad]

Damn good way to get shot in my neck of the woods!

Toad

 

[Tripper]

Our city code requires you to be 9' off the road so I will have a sliding gate in front of my garage doors that keeps peeps off my property. Plus my friend is *always* within reach!!!

BoB

 

[gassersgarage]

I live in a neighborhood where only people that live there go. Plus, the neighborhood cops arrest anyone that doesn't belong. You should see the line of new bookings that come into court from the local P.D.. Everyone one of them looks like a scumbag. We love our cops.

 

[Willowbilly3]

When I lived in the city I had an old F100 for sale in the local classifieds. I had a carload of real seedy looking types come over and look at it, made me real nervous and wife #1 said no more. Sell your projects from the shop after this.
I knew of a guy who had his tools stolen. The thieves broke into the garage. The shop wrecker was backed in and they threw the winch line around the toolbox and drove the wrecker through the door, never found any of it.

 

[donsrods]

We get VERY nervous when someone comes around our shop, and have a firm rule that no one comes in. We have to keep our garage door open because of the heat down here, and our shop is in the same complex as a Ballet Studio, so when the Dads are there waiting to pick up their kids from class they like to wander around. We've had a few walk up to the door and start peering in, and as much as we hate to do it, we are curt with them so they don't stick around.

No one likes to be that way, but as mentioned, people who act friendly can be casing your stuff. We used to have a guy in a car who would pull up late at night and ask if you wanted to buy some tools. I walked out and wrote down his plate number and called the Sheriff. He hasn't been back since.

Don