Capital Meats Attempting to sell meat out of the back of a van Cleveland Tennessee

I had just stepped out my front door for a minute, when I noticed a van parked near the side of my apartment building, and a young man shouted to me saying that he had a shipment of meat to get rid of; it was supposedly for another buyer whose credit card was rejected, so now they're stuck with this load and need to sell it cheap before heading back to the warehouse.

He was a very polite young man, and an EXTREMELY smooth talker. I had pity on him because it was very cold outside that day; we stepped into my apartment to talk about it. Huge mistake.

He didn't just step in to describe his wares; his partner starting bringing in box after box of meat. At one point during the spiel, he even opened up my freezer door without asking and set meat inside ("See, you have plenty of room for this.") Clearly, I'm one of those people who has trouble saying NO to things.

But I certainly said NO to the price. I'm sure, with the massive quantities and variety of meats being sold (not that I could tell what the _quality_ was), it was a fantastic deal. But it's still hundreds of dollars that I don't have. Yes, that was my method for getting rid of him . . . I just didn't have enough money.

Pushy guy: "Don't you have a checking account? Don't you have a credit card? It's a whole lot cheaper this way than buying it at the store." He showed me the "regular" prices from a pamphlet, and said if I took his discounted price now, he'd give me the same discount every time he comes back. (I thought he said he was getting rid of an unpaid delivery, a special case? Hmmph.)

At least I said NO in the end. I made sure they took all their meat back. (I was really hoping the would NOT leave me a "free sample." I'm just not eating meat thrown at me from the back of a van!) But I said if he's serious, I'd take the pamphlet, look it over with my wife, and maybe by something in the future.

He wouldn't let me keep the pamphlet; apparently they have a limited number of them!

Unlike some other reports, this was not a plain white van. It was multi-colored, with actual pictures of meat on the side. It had writing on the side, although I can't recall if it actually said "Capital Meats;" I just didn't happen to pay attention to that. But I did notice one very important thing. They insisted they were with Capital Meats based just down the road in Cleveland, TN, but the van had a Virginia license plate.

Of course, I can't say for certain that they were ACTUALLY with Capital Meats. They may very well have been pure con artists with no connection to any true Capital Meats company (note that I found more than one with that name on the internet). I also note that no valuables have gone missing from my home.

I called the police shortly after. They said if they saw the van, they would pull it over and ask to see a sales permit.

Rassilon6
Madisonville, Tennessee
U.S.A.