Recently, seems we’ve seen a number of home break-ins. In response to a story yesterday, a Lake Highlands area resident sent me this tip about an apparent scam in which perpetrators leave a “sorry we missed you”-type note on doors. Their main objective, however, it to get an up-close look at your house:

About two months ago we started getting fliers for ‘Compass’ delivery service saying they had tried to deliver a package.  For example, “1st attempt: Sorry we missed you.” They were professional-looking fliers, but different to the ones UPS/FedEx use. Not the stick-on types.

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On the second “delivery attempt” I was in the house when I saw the guy come to the door and I got up and went to the door. He didn’t knock, nor did he have a package. I went out and shouted at him, he pointed at the flier, jumped in his car and sped off. I phoned the police and let them know about this. I researched this company online and it looks like this is a scam to try and find out whether you have an alarm system or not.

This was reported by someone in the Austin area, I found many other references to the same scam on Google at the time.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120210075309AAjgwVe.

If you get one of these things at the door, it’s a good idea to contact police, as well as your neighborhood crime watch leaders.