‘Twas the morn before Christmas, when all through the house, a long-haired stranger was skulking about.
He entered the front door without a care, in hopes of finding no resident there.
But when he walked on in, tool bag in hand, the homeowner shouted, ‘What’re you doin’ here, man?’
He knew in a moment it wasn’t Saint Nick.
That Vancouver homeowner, who asked to not be identified, said he was making breakfast at about 9:15 a.m. Friday when a slightly-built man with long brown hair walked into his living room. The man was carrying a canvas tool bag but didn’t look like a service worker; he was dressed in a camouflage jacket and wearing a baseball cap turned around backwards, the resident said.
When the man spotted the homeowner, he “started asking if this was the Petersons’ residence,” the resident said.
The resident said no, and the man hurried out of the house and drove away in his pickup. The home is located along East Evergreen Boulevard off of a private driveway serving four homes and is about 1/8 of a mile from the Highway 14 exit for Evergreen Boulevard.
The resident walked outside and realized his bicycle had been removed from a bicycle rack in his car port and left on the ground. He then spotted the man walking through his neighbor’s backyard gate.
The resident stopped the man and questioned him again. This time, the stranger said he was a Vaseline salesman — but couldn’t produce a business card. Then he changed his story and said he was looking for a missing cell phone.
“It was just a weird experience,” the resident said.
The resident jotted down the license plate number of the man’s truck and called police, who came to the residence and took a report. The man was driving an older blue dodge pickup with Montana license plates.
“This was definitely somebody scoping out places to thieve something,” the resident said.
The resident went up and down the private driveway to make sure the man had left the area and didn’t move on to another neighbor’s home.
While the stranger didn’t appear to steal anything, the Vancouver resident said he wants people to be aware of a potential Christmas grinch in the area.
Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.
