Several Altadena residents have reported via local neighborhood email groups that a young man is going door-to-door in Altadena and behaving erratically.

Sheriff's Department volunteer Carolyn Seitz received the following message from one resident who encountered the man Wednesday evening:

This is an update to the  neighborhood watch e-mail shown below regarding the young man who was knocking on neighborhood doors in early October.
 
Last evening just before dark, this same young man, along with a friend, knocked on my door.  Both were smiling broadly and thrust their hands out to shake mine. One had a spray bottle in hand which contained a small amount of liquid. When I asked what they wanted, the friend began to ask why I refused to shake hands. My antenna went up. The blond young man told me that they were selling the liquid in the spray bottle - which is guaranteed to clean anything.  I was then told that both are being paid to demonstrate the liquid on anything that I wanted cleaned.  When I refused, both began to banter about me "not trusting them."
 
My husband came to the door when he heard the ruckus. He got the same pitch.  When my husband refused, both men began to insist upon demonstrating the spray in an angry tone.  I then realized that this was the same young man described in the e-mail shown below.  I came back to the door and told them both that we'd been warned about them via neighborhood watch. They looked shocked!  My husband told them both to leave or he would call the police. They quickly left, cursing my husband as they departed.  My husband followed them down the driveway as he phoned the sheriff.  My next door neighbor had also been approached by these two last evening for the second time!
 
Both are Caucasion about 19-22 years or age.  The blond one (described in the notice below) has a tatoo on his neck.  The second man has light brown hair, stands about 5' 9" and has missing front teeth.  Both are very menacing.
 
I don't think that these two will return to these parts again now that know they're being observed and reported via neighborhood watch.  This is truly the beauty and benefit of a good neighborhood watch that works!
 
Please pass this along as you see fit.

This post referred to an earlier issue that another residents wrote about on October 3:

Just passing on what happened to me this past Thursday evening around 8:30 pm.  A young man around 19 yrs of age knocked on my door.  I approached, did not open but asked how I could help him?  He said that his mother asked him to go around and meet some of his neighbors.  As I stared at this young man who is too old to be 'doing what his mother told him' really, I suggested he do that sort of thing during the daytime.  He looked around and shrugged his shoulders and said 'What does it matter?'  And I told him "well it matters to me, PAL!"  And with that he walked away leaving my gate open.  I did not open my door to go out and close my gate.  But I did call the Sheriff and gave them a description.  Please be careful everyone.  I did not see him knock anyone else's door.  I also immediately ran to my back door to make sure it was closed as you know they say they may try to distract.  In case, this man was about 19 yrs old, about 5'8, caucasian male with blonde hair but dyed blonde hair.  You could see his dark roots!  For what this is all worth!

And finally, in response to the first message, on Friday one other resident replied via email:

We had one (blond one) of the described youths at our door 2 days ago. Per my wife's version of the story, he knocked on the door about 6p. Said he lived "up the street" and he was going around collecting money for a trip to Rome, Italy (?). My wife didn't see a 2nd person. We're on Maiden Lane, just north of Altadena Dr.

Keep an eye out!!!

Updated: Following the publication of this article, an Altadena Patch reader emailed us to say they also were visited by one of the men:

Just saw your Altadena Patch post about the two gentlemen knocking on people's doors. They knocked on our door earlier this week (We are on Maiden Lane near Mendocino) we didn't answer the door but watched them as they walked away and for some reason they only knocked in our door and then walked down the street.