Thread: Census workers going door to door checking addresses?

Some 50ish, harmless looking bespectacled fella knocked on my door today. He said he was with the census and he was only checking addresses not personal information. My street number isn't on anything so I told him the number. He asked if there were any more houses on this road, I said no this is the end of our road. He said thank you, sat in his subcompact car with Oregon plates for a minute doing paper work and left.

It just seemed a bit odd since the census was in 2010 and nobody found me then. Heck if he wanted to know everything about me or this property they could just ask the data mining company Google.

Anybody else see this.

They were just checking to see if you were at home - who knows maybe you will get a big letter from the IRS or someone else
Every government employee should be wearing ID - Never give any information to anyone without ID

Did you get the license plate number or can you identify the car

Did you ask for identification?

I'd say you're too late to be paranoid.
If it is something nefarious, chances are he wanted to identify the owner of the home, get a peek through the front door, have a glance around the property, and verify the home's seclusion.

Sounds like you gave it up easier than a drunken prom date.

He got my address. I didn't answer the door, I slid open a window and talked to him.

Sounds fishy to me. I'm one of those people who answered the Census knocker with nothing more than a number (two in this case). Then I had to explain what enumeration meant. lol. Needless to say I got three more visits. All had I.D. and the third one told me she gave up on getting any more information from me and told me she pulled everything she had from the tax roles and I never saw the Census folks again.

Its funny, one time I was going out on a prom date and picking up the nice young lady I was taking at her folks house. When I arrived there, a Census guy was at her parents drilling her father for info, since he did not respond to the 2000 Census notice. The gentlemen getting the info was pretty adamant about getting what he came for and my date's father was adamant about not giving it out to him. He finally told the guy to leave because I was there and he needed to take pictures of his daughter and I before we left.

It sounds like you got a nice guy, but always ask for ID!!! The Census guy mentioned above had an ID pinned to his shirt in plain sight.

I agree with svxr8dr. I worked for the Census 2010 in San Jose, CA before moving up here. I helped run the activities outside and first and foremost, the census employees were supposed to identify themselves and show their id badges. Besides, they checked address with hand held computers prior to the census ever happening. I worked on those too. However, whomever told svxr8dr about the tax roles was wrong.

The census bureau does have a couple ongoing projects between the 10 year census. However, nothing like that. Something like the American National Survey. It is a huge questionair.

Anyway, bigfoot, this whole thing smells a tad fishy.

Let's see if ONE other person on this forum has a visit from such a person.

Sounds fishy to me. My wife was a door-to-door Census counter in 2000, I'll ask her when I get home if it sounds like something they were trained to do.

Sounds very fishy.

In all reality - I would communicate with neighbors and have everyone keep their eyes open.
Probably would not hurt to tell Police - More FYI than anything else.

Maybe contact the census beauro and see if they sent any people out to your house. If they didn't send anyone I'd report it to the police and be ready for the worst. This would definately set my radar off.

oops wrong thread.

They sent out a guy to verify the adress across the steet from me, The old house was a shack and tore down, the new house has a new #. The guy was a flunky sent out to verify the adress. I guess when the census happens it's a good temporary job. Beats delivering phonebooks!

Hey there american gun owner - just double checking so we know where to send the troops....

Years ago, when living in an apartment, I was approached by a Census guy. Had a little nametag badge, etc. He was legit I am sure. Asked basic questions, etc.

The only person, place, thing, I could think of that would want a house number is like a GPS data gathering person, or perhaps Google Maps, etc. Then again, they wouldn't identify themselves as government workers.

Census workers must wear i.d. It was in an email I received when they did the 2010 census.

My wife only did the door-to-door during-the-census stuff. She says it doesn't sound like anything she was ever asked to do.

Doesn't mean it ISN'T a census guy, but definitely sounds fishy.

Totally off-topic.... I didn't fill out our 2010 census packet, and got a few letters demanding that I do so, but nobody ever came knocking.

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On topic - I'm obviously not nearly so paranoid as everyone here. One thing I've observed about the physics of human interaction is that just because you can't think of "any other reason," doesn't mean there aren't 50,000 "other reasons" that make a lot more sense than malicious intent or conspiracy.

IF you're really itchy about it, call the census bureau. But if it's as you describe, and your spidey sense never piqued, I'd move on with life.

Set up some cams. You might get a visit in the middle of the night or while you're gone.