Originally Posted By: Cardiobuck
Assuming your screen name is a reference to the Mondavi-Rothschild collaboration, I like it better than your rationale.
So if home he doesn't break in, but if not home he does? Or by being home he extrapolates that they won't be home at night so he knows he can safely return? Or they will also be home tomorrow so he'll leave that one alone? Randomly knocking on doors tells one almost nothing about a potential targets' patterns for a future time. It does, however, succeed in making oneself very visible in a given neighborhood.
My screen name refers to the penguin from the "Bloom County" cartoon from many years back.
As for my rationale, why do people have a hard time believing that people who break into homes for a living don't do recon first? The guy may not break in that day, but if he visits a place at different times of the day during the week and no one answers, chances are pretty good the house is empty during working hours on a weekday. If I was going to break into someone's house, that's a nice bit of info to know. And truth be told, how many neighbors are around during the day and, if so, are are paying attention to someone in the neighborhood? Between the trance induced by smart phones and the unwillingness to be labled as not being PC for noticing someone that isn't usually in the neighborhood, chances are pretty good that even *if* someone sees a perp, they're not going to actually remember anything about him.
If someone answers, you "darn" well better have a cover story that would give a somewhat feasible explanation for why you're ringing some stranger's doorbell.
In some cases, maybe the person at the door is the decoy to get some unsuspecting smuck to let them in the house and while distracting the homeowner, accomplices sneak in and clean out valuables. It *does* happen. I don't know how things are in Mayberry, but there's a reason that police departments, utility companies, and so forth keep reminding people to make sure that someone at the door claiming to represent a company has ID proving that they do.
Maybe the person at the door in the OP's post was legit, but I believe in Reagan's credo of "Trust, but verify." If that offends, sorry. I tend to go with my gut feelings, and so far, that hasn't let me down.
