OK. You’re the one that got the letters, so only you can quantify the level of “creepy factor.” But you said he did include a self-addressed envelope. Personally I’d invest a stamp and send him back a reply that said I wasn’t interested. But that’s me.
Different situation. I this case, the guy is accosting you in person. And it seems you’ve come to the conclusion that the guy sending the letters is loud and disheveled. Maybe he’s just very socially retarded. He might be a quiet, personally very well groomed fella. No way to tell from letters, though I’ll admit the odds are probably against that.
Mark P.'s suggestion to try to get to know him a bit better could be a double edged sword. On one hand you might make friends with someone who would just like to talk. On the other hand, given that he has already been sending several letters a day on some days, he could become a bother. I certainly wouldn’t phone him (call display will give him your number) or give him your phone number in a return letter, but I don’t see too much risk in returning a friendly letter explaining that you do not wish to buy anything from him, and maybe asking about his hobby related interests.
We had a mentally challenged young man in my old model train club. He was there before I joined. Most of the club members paid very little attention to him. One night I invited him to join us for coffee after the meeting. I agreed to drive him to the coffee shop and home afterwards, which was no big deal. He was very happy to join us.
The club was very reluctant to let him use the locomotives which it owned, so I gave him an older DCC Bachmann Spectrum H16-44 (IIRC) with sound. Talk about a happy camper!! He never caused us any issues and his behaviour was exemplary.
My point here was that if a wild-eyed street person who acted and sounded mentally unstable accosted you on the street asking for money or whatever, you probably wouldn’t stop and have a conversation with the person hoping you might make a new best friend. You’d walk away as quickly as possible and hope he didn’t follow you. It’s the same vibe here, I don’t get any sense he is looking for friends or whatever. It’s kinda hard to tell exactly what he wants to be honest. But my hunch is that responding - even to say I wasn’t interested - would be more likely to keep the letters coming than just ignoring them.
BTW I haven’t gotten a letter for about a week, which could mean he gave up on me - or could mean he is on (or at least reads) the MR forums and saw this thread. I have posted pics of my layout to the ‘my photos’ page here so that could have been where he saw my layout.
A fellow model railroader has received many letters from Mr. Larson also. Recently his entry to Model Railroader Trackside photos was published. Of course published photos include name and city. From there it’s easy to get the complete home mailing address. Including the likely location of the layout.
My guess is something like that happened to me, perhaps a couple of my pics being in the Walthers catalogue. If you have name and city, I imagine it’s not hard to find someone via the NMRA listings or other ways.
BTW haven’t gotten anything for several weeks now.
Might have been more effective if you’d sent him a layout picture – cemented to a brick painted up like a boxcar – along with all the envelopes with the forever stamp as the only postage. [:)] Suspect that would fix much of the further correspondence.
You have the right to refuse items received ‘postage due’ if you haven’t specifically accepted it, as with COD.
To be honest, this reminds me a bit of someone – I suspect some of you will remenber exactly – who had an enormous collection of railroad books and magazines, which he listed on a 1990s Web site that never got updated. You were supposed to choose the items you wanted, and list them on paper along with a check and send it along. This isn’t a sign of mental illness per se, just an older enthusiast who still lives in the era of newsletters and flyers.
The problem is the frequency of the ‘cold-call’ communications… and the cost-blind idea of sending stuff that is the snail-mail equivalent of multipage junk faxes.
I see a distressing possibility that Kalmbach has a marketing hand in this somewhere. I hope I am thoroughly wrong.
Many years ago I received a parking ticket in Jackson Hole Wyoming. The area was not marked as no parking and a lot of other cars were parked in the same area and ticketed. Felt this was a sort of cash cow for Jackson Hole. The ticket was $5 but it was also a pre-addressed envelope that said postage to be paid by addressee. I put $5 worth of pennies in a box, topped it off with very clingy packing peanuts, used lots of tape to attach the label to the box, and mailed it. The mail clerk said it would cost Jackson over $8 for postage.
OK not sure if this will work, but this is a typical couple of pages from what I get - it’s not from a hobby retailer, or somebody looking for a pen-pal. It’s just page after page like this, with one page saying to call him after 7PM…
Trust your instincts. Don’t respond if you’re unsure. Sometimes not everything is quite what it seems.
Let me give an example. Packages are delivered to my building by mistake. I would collect the errant packages and take them to the rightful owners who were sometimes a mile away as a nice gesture. Well it turns out one of those homes turned out to be a very dangerous situation. No longer a problem since the house is torn down. But then I started taking the packages back to the Amazon store. They told me NEVER attempt to deliver or respond to people you don’t know.
I don’t like the suggestion of responding to the letter as the OP seems to have made it clear the contact is unwanted.
I was very interested to find this thread. This guy started sending letters to me about 2 weeks ago. I’ve received 5 in the past 2 weeks. The creepy thing for me is that he somehow tracked down my work address and is sending them to my place of employment. I need to find a way to make this stop. Many have suggested call him, but them he has my phone number. I don’t need him calling me in addition to the letters. I may write him back, but I have no confidence that will make it stop. I don’t want to do anything to encouorage him.
I’m getting the same stuff in Canada. From search I think he is 60+ years old. Had his phone # but left message. This has gone on for 3 months. He spending a lot on postage. $3.00 every time
Just talked to him and told him not to send anymore and if it happens again the authorities will be notified re harassment. I don’t know what else to do.
My first job after residency, I met with the group’s insurance agent and got a very good disability policy. Fast forward 10 or 15 years later this guy calls me up and wants to meet with me.
He showed up with his wife, who drove him and he made his pitch. When I started asking him questions, it was clear he no longer knew anything about insurance. His wife looked embarrassed and apologetic. He was clearly senile but thought he still needed to sell insurance.
I think you would be wasting your time if you called him.
As a former USPS employee, I’d strongly suggest taking the letters to your post office first and talk to someone there so they know what’s going on. Going forward, they may be able to return the letters without them ever being delivered to you, or at least your carrier will know why every so often a letter is left in the box saying you’ve moved or ‘return to sender’ etc. I’m just concerned if you start sticking letters back in your mailbox saying that the addressee (you) has moved and left no forwarding address, the post office might decide to hold all your mail since you apparently are no longer living there.
I’ve also worked for many years for our state tax department responding to calls and correspondence from people ranging from mild confusion to violent anger. I’d say it would be best not to try to contact Phil, by phone or by mail. In his letters, he says many times over to call him; if you call him, you are in engaging him in a voluntary conversation as he requested. In his mind that could be interpreted / remembered later as meaning that you want him to keep contacting you - even if the actual words you say to him say the exact opposite.
FWIW if you do nothing at all, as I chose, it does seem like he eventually just quits on his own. After getting several a week for a while, I haven’t gotten one from him for some time now.
