A Curious Question v. What would you have done?

[Mister Gold]

I would probably at least communicate with them instead of ignore them.  If it turned out it really was someone who needed help, and I found out later that they took a turn for the worse, I would feel awful.

Yeah, that's what I would probably do too. I find that making conversation with people that I run into seems to cheer them up/brighten up their day most of the time, so if a stranger came to my door and asked for help, I'd start by talking with them and try to decide whether to let them in based on how that goes.

[Tick]

I guess my feeling is almost everyone has a cell phone so its pretty easy to make a phone call for help. I personally would not walk up to an unlit house in the dark and ring the bell. That's just me. I have a phone. I have AAA.
In all likelihood he was not looking for help, he was soliciting some kind of service.
At the end of the day as Podar said, its not a requirement to answer your door. I chose not to.

[hefdaddy42]

I guess my feeling is almost everyone has a cell phone so its pretty easy to make a phone call for help. I personally would not walk up to an unlit house in the dark and ring the bell. That's just me. I have a phone. I have AAA.

What if you had spotty service, or your phone was dead?  Or something had happened to your phone?

[Mister Gold]

I guess my feeling is almost everyone has a cell phone so its pretty easy to make a phone call for help. I personally would not walk up to an unlit house in the dark and ring the bell. That's just me. I have a phone. I have AAA.

What if you had spotty service, or your phone was dead?  Or something had happened to your phone?

Yeah. For example, I ran into trouble a few years back when I had appendicitis on Valentine's Day. My mom and I figured something might be wrong, since I had woken up in pain, so she told me to call her by 9 or 10 am after my first class if the pain continued. But when it came time for me to call her, I discovered that my phone had died already, even though I had spent the whole night charging it.

It took several hours for me to find someone who would let me borrow their phone and by then, I had to wait until 5 pm for my mom to come and get me. It ended up being a close call, since my appendix was apparently really close to erupting when I had surgery that night. I only made it in time because someone ended up lending me their phone.

[Anguyen92]

I don't have to worry about answering the door, because my dog is going to be barking so loudly that whoever is at the door is not going to want to stick around for long.  Even if I did open the door, my dog will still bark at unannounced visitors and thus cause some unneeded headaches that is not worthwhile.  It's for the best, honestly.

[rumborak]

I guess my feeling is almost everyone has a cell phone so its pretty easy to make a phone call for help. I personally would not walk up to an unlit house in the dark and ring the bell. That's just me. I have a phone. I have AAA.

I had to once ring the doorbells of most of the houses on my street (most of whose inhabitants I don't know) because UPS had misdelivered a package. I guess your house would have been the "why the f**k doesn't he answer; the lights are on." house.

[Tick]

I guess my feeling is almost everyone has a cell phone so its pretty easy to make a phone call for help. I personally would not walk up to an unlit house in the dark and ring the bell. That's just me. I have a phone. I have AAA.

I had to once ring the doorbells of most of the houses on my street (most of whose inhabitants I don't know) because UPS had misdelivered a package. I guess your house would have been the "why the f**k doesn't he answer; the lights are on." house.

I guess so, and I don't give a fuck. It will work out without me answering my front door. Not my problem. Leave a note and I'll get back to ya.

[bout to crash]

I will quote myself, since you didn't respond to it before and you mentioned the phone thing again

The problem with this assumption is that cell phones die all the time, or people forget them, or whatever. I've locked my keys in my car twice. Both times, I also locked my phone in there. Both times, I had to borrow someone else's phone to call State Farm roadside assistance. Luckily it was daytime and in one case I was at the store so I just used theirs, but if I had been in a residential neighborhood I would've had to count on someone's kindness/willingness to open the door.

And like hef said, if you don't have reception that's another issue as well.

[KevShmev]

I blame A Clockwork Orange for this whole thing.

[Tick]

I also feel like mentioning to all those who want to paint me as a guy who has no desire to help a person in need of help that I don’t live in a cabin in the woods where a poor soul in need would have to walk miles to the nearest house. A 5 minute walk down the street brings you to convenience stores, fast food, supermarkets, etc…
All the help you need!

[hefdaddy42]

I also feel like mentioning to all those who want to paint me as a guy who has no desire to help a person in need of help that I don’t live in a cabin in the woods where a poor soul in need would have to walk miles to the nearest house. A 5 minute walk down the street brings you to convenience stores, fast food, supermarkets, etc…
All the help you need!

OK.

[Tick]

Dats srite!

[Phoenix87x]

So its 7:30pm and pitch black out and faint knock comes on the door. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is this thread 

Well, my neighbor who is a good friend, will occasionally come over to return something or whatever, so I thought it was him and opened the door.

There stands a super creepy looking dude who called himself "brian". Said he was working to unite people in effort to save creek water or some shit. He's got a clipboard he wants me to look at "his goals" and I'm like no thanks, shut the door and turn off the light fairly abruptly.

WTF people. Pitch black out and coming to my front door with this stuff. Geez

[bout to crash]

I thought of this thread the other night! There was a friendly knock at my door and I assumed it was my neighbor across the hall who I talk to a lot (we live in a secure building so you rarely get knocks without a buzz from downstairs first). I was in my underwear, so I yelled "Hold on a sec!" and grabbed my robe. Well, turns out it wasn't my neighbor, it was some dude. I had already spoken so he knew I was home, so I opened the door a little. He was trying to get me to talk about who I was voting for and sign a pledge. I told him I'd rather not discuss it and had filled out most of my ballot already so there was no need to sign a pledge. He then revealed he had a neighborhood quota to reach. I told him sorry, but I did not feel comfortable signing it. He looked surprised but thanked me and went on his way. I'm tired of being overly nice to people. It was at least 8PM, he somehow got into my secure building, and I was in my goddamn underwear. Bastard.

[hefdaddy42]

What an asshole.

[jingle.boy]

I thought of this thread the other night! There was a friendly knock at my door and I assumed it was my neighbor across the hall who I talk to a lot (we live in a secure building so you rarely get knocks without a buzz from downstairs first). I was in my underwear, so I yelled "Hold on a sec!" and grabbed my robe. Well, turns out it wasn't my neighbor, it was some dude. I had already spoken so he knew I was home, so I opened the door a little. He was trying to get me to talk about who I was voting for and sign a pledge. I told him I'd rather not discuss it and had filled out most of my ballot already so there was no need to sign a pledge. He then revealed he had a neighborhood quota to reach. I told him sorry, but I did not feel comfortable signing it. He looked surprised but thanked me and went on his way. I'm tired of being overly nice to people. It was at least 8PM, he somehow got into my secure building, and I was in my goddamn underwear. Bastard.

Sounds like the start of a pron movie.

[Tick]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100 times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

[Tick]

I thought of this thread the other night! There was a friendly knock at my door and I assumed it was my neighbor across the hall who I talk to a lot (we live in a secure building so you rarely get knocks without a buzz from downstairs first). I was in my underwear, so I yelled "Hold on a sec!" and grabbed my robe. Well, turns out it wasn't my neighbor, it was some dude. I had already spoken so he knew I was home, so I opened the door a little. He was trying to get me to talk about who I was voting for and sign a pledge. I told him I'd rather not discuss it and had filled out most of my ballot already so there was no need to sign a pledge. He then revealed he had a neighborhood quota to reach. I told him sorry, but I did not feel comfortable signing it. He looked surprised but thanked me and went on his way. I'm tired of being overly nice to people. It was at least 8PM, he somehow got into my secure building, and I was in my goddamn underwear. Bastard.

Sounds like the start of a pron movie.

bow chicka bow wow!

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100^{[citation needed]} times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

[eric42434224]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100^{[citation needed]} times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

Maybe put a light on the porch?

[Tick]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100^{[citation needed]} times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

Maybe put a light on the porch?

I have one but I'm not putting on so I can just ignore the person standing in dark.  Just want him to keep moving on.

[eric42434224]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100^{[citation needed]} times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

Maybe put a light on the porch?

I have one but I'm not putting on so I can just ignore the person standing in dark.  Just want him to keep moving on.

You can ignore a person with the porch light on just as easily as when it is off.  Keeping it on is safer as it allows you to actually see who is on the porch, as well as let them know they can be seen too.

[Tick]

Thanks to those who helped confirm why I don't answer for door for strangers ringing my bell and standing in the pitch back of my porch. 99 out of a 100^{[citation needed]} times its some asshole not worth answering the door for.

Maybe put a light on the porch?

I have one but I'm not putting on so I can just ignore the person standing in dark.  Just want him to keep moving on.

You can ignore a person with the porch light on just as easily as when it is off.  Keeping it on is safer as it allows you to actually see who is on the porch, as well as let them know they can be seen too.

I guess my point is, the light was already off when he rang so I'm not at that point going to flip it on so the dude thinks I'm answering the door.

"Here ya go dude, here's some light for ya while ya stand there for nothing cause I ain't answering. Enjoy your light, then get the fuck out."

[MoraWintersoul]

"Here ya go dude, here's some light for ya while ya stand there for nothing cause I ain't answering. Enjoy your light, then get the fuck out."

I don't know, I'd do that if I had a porch and a light

[Tick]

"Here ya go dude, here's some light for ya while ya stand there for nothing cause I ain't answering. Enjoy your light, then get the fuck out."

I don't know, I'd do that if I had a porch and a light

It would be delightfully evil!

[Orbert]

Okay, since other people are sharing stories now, here's a weird one.

We'd just moved into our new house a few months earlier.  The doorbell rings at 10:00 at night.  I glance at my wife, tell her to grab the phone and be ready to dial 911.

It's my neighbor, the weird dude who lives next door.  We'd met right we moved in.  Not scary or anything, but he's obviously foreign-born, speaks English but heavily accented, and just has a different way about him.  It's night time and cold (first snow of the year) so I open the front door but leave the storm door closed.  He yells through it "Excuse me!  Do you have seventy-five dollars?"

I'm thinking "what the fuck...?"  But this is my neighbor, literally lives 50 feet from me, and if he's knocking on my door 10:00 at night asking for money, maybe he's in some kind of trouble or there's some kind of emergency.

I check my wallet.  As usual, pretty much nothing.    "Sorry man, no I don't."

"Well, in that case, you better move your car.  It's snowing.  If the plows come and you're on the street, you'll get a $75 ticket."  He turns and starts walking away.

I take a second to process all this, then push the door open and yell "Thanks!" at him.  He waves, and he wanders back over to his house.  Interesting way to educate your neighbors, but it worked.  I got my shoes and coat on and moved the car onto the driveway.

[JayOctavarium]

Haha

Now that guy's a cool dude.

[MetalJunkie]

Several years ago, I lived in one of the most dangerous areas of Oklahoma City (yes, OKC has dangerous areas). The rougher part was the back of the complex. I lived up front, next to the major street, but I still kept to myself and made sure not to start shit with anyone, even accidentally.

Parking was sparse because some of the tenants would live five or six to an apartment for cheaper rent. Because of this, some people were often forced to park alongside the wooden fence that surrounded the complex. Said fence had a very obvious "no parking, violators will be towed" sign.

One night, probably around 10 or 11, the tow truck was making his rounds. Sure enough, someone was parked next to the fence, so their car was in the process of being hooked up to the truck. One of the tenants thought he would be a Good Samaritan, so he started knocking on random doors, trying to find the owner so he could warn them. He knocked on the wrong door and was promptly shot in the face.

[Orbert]

Damn!

[Bolsters]

'murica

(someone was going to say it, might as well get it out of the way)

[MetalJunkie]

Ghetto

Fix'd

[Tick]

Okay, since other people are sharing stories now, here's a weird one.

We'd just moved into our new house a few months earlier.  The doorbell rings at 10:00 at night.  I glance at my wife, tell her to grab the phone and be ready to dial 911.

It's my neighbor, the weird dude who lives next door.  We'd met right we moved in.  Not scary or anything, but he's obviously foreign-born, speaks English but heavily accented, and just has a different way about him.  It's night time and cold (first snow of the year) so I open the front door but leave the storm door closed.  He yells through it "Excuse me!  Do you have seventy-five dollars?"

I'm thinking "what the fuck...?"  But this is my neighbor, literally lives 50 feet from me, and if he's knocking on my door 10:00 at night asking for money, maybe he's in some kind of trouble or there's some kind of emergency.

I check my wallet.  As usual, pretty much nothing.    "Sorry man, no I don't."

"Well, in that case, you better move your car.  It's snowing.  If the plows come and you're on the street, you'll get a $75 ticket."  He turns and starts walking away.

I take a second to process all this, then push the door open and yell "Thanks!" at him.  He waves, and he wanders back over to his house.  Interesting way to educate your neighbors, but it worked.  I got my shoes and coat on and moved the car onto the driveway.

That's bizarre.

[Phoenix87x]

Well, its about 7:30pm, pitch black out and pouring rain out and some creepy ass dude just rang my doorbell claiming that my windows were leaky and wanted to know if I was interested in getting them replaced.

WTF

In retrospect, I should have just not answered the door. I dumbly assumed it was my neighbor though.

[Anguyen92]

Here's an interesting perspective.  If there was not a lot of people wanting you to offer some sort of service, every time you hear a doorbell ring, would you be more inclined to answer the door?  I always think that there's always someone wanting to lend their "services" every time they ring the doorbell so I just keep ignoring it and let my dog bark loudly until they get scared and leave.

[Tick]

My wife works for a security company so we now have one of those doorbells that you can talk to the person from anywhere you are. Just got installed this week so I don't know how to use it yet. We get all the latest security gadgets for free.