Lisa Lorance’s neighborhood near South 294th Street and Military Road South is pretty quiet, made up of working class folks and seniors. But back in May, Lorance experienced something strange. A man, claiming to be a representative of cable and Internet company Comcast/Xfinity, struck up a conversation with Lorance’s elderly mother through a bedroom window.
“I didn’t see him come up to the door or anything. I just heard the end of the conversation,” Lorance said. “He had no ID badge.”
Her mother’s bedroom window is facing the outside of the carport, “and she’s got one of her cars parked there,” she said.
“He was trying to tell her about some kind of cable service. He wouldn’t really leave,” Lorance said. “And then he offered to buy her car, which is really inappropriate, I thought.”
Lorance said the man was dressed casually, without any kind of brand identifier that most company salesmen have. The man was attempting to solicit her mother through her mother’s bedroom window, and the interaction took place after 8 p.m., she said.
After the incident, Lorance said she contacted Comcast/Xfinity directly. The company confirmed her fears.
“I made a call to Comcast to let them know about this, and they said he should have been wearing ID, so we really don’t know if he was with Comcast or not,” she said.
After the unusual interaction, Lorance said fears of the man “casing” her home, and home invasion, ran through her mind.
“I didn’t know if he was casing us, or if he was seeing who lived here or not,” she said. “I found the whole thing really frightening.”
Another aspect of the encounter that Lorance found disturbing was that the man focused on her mother, who’s in her 80s.
“She was not thinking fast on her feet because a lot of people who are older are from a different generation when things were different from the way they are now,” she said. “I think it’s up to us to watch out for that.”
After her experience, Lorance just wants all Federal Way residents to be aware and alert.
“Follow your gut. If they don’t have ID, if they’re too slick, just shut the door,” she said. “We would like to think everybody always has the best intentions, but we know that’s not the case. It’s better to be proactive, and not reactive, because after the fact is not always good.”
