houstonpress.com — In the eight months the Press investigated door-to-door magazine sales across the country, the industry has seen at least three murders, one rape, two attempted rapes, one stabbing, one attempted murder, one vehicle fatality and one attempted abduction of a 13-year-old girl.
Jul 18, 2008 View in Crawl 4
nascenttJul 20, 2008
I think its those pdfs you can download from torrent trackers once a month.
opaquemurdockJul 20, 2008
I did this for a short while a long time ago... interesting to hear that it hasn't changed much. I fit the profile, I was very young (maybe 18, could have been younger), poor as dirt, had no real prospects and needed a way to support myself. So I answered an ad in the paper met them in a hotel room and was told to come back that night with my bags packed. They drove us in a big flashy car to another city in the dead of night and dumped us off with a bunch of other kids some of which I knew must have been much younger than me. It was only then that I found out what exactly I would be doing from the other kids. The descriptions in the ad and in the interview had made the job sound completely different. I felt like I had been shanghaied.It was a party atmosphere with the crew, (even back then they were called a crew, like a gang of thieves) all the girls were "active" sometimes with the managers... sometimes they would even seem to have extra money after getting dropped off in a neighborhood and even though I was a stupid kid... I could see what was going on. It was exactly what you would expect if you took 20-25 15-20 year olds from bad backgrounds and put them up in motels 4 to a room loosely supervised by 2-3 disinterested young adults promoted from that same group. The fact that I was smart enough to keep it in my pants for those few months was most likely a pretty healthy move.Many of the kids on the crew had warrants out for their arrest. The managers were supposed to get us the proper paperwork in each city to solicit door to door... but they never bothered and if someone complained about us and you got picked up then it was you that got the citation. Of course none of the kids ever had any real money... we were given a per deim which barely covered food and party supplies the rest of your income was commission back then and few kids on the crew did very well in that regard. Plus, the kids that WERE good at it had been picked up so many times and needed to be bailed out of jail by the managers for outstanding warrants, that they ended up owing the company huge amounts of money and were locked into service. Kind of a "company store" indentured servitude situation.I finally left. One day I was out with a guy that had become a friend and he saw the cops coming and told me to give my book to him. I protested and he grabbed it and put it with his before they got close. I was still pretty new and had not really dealt with the cops much so I agreed to let him handle it. He told them that I was in training still and that all the sales were his... Basically he took the hit for me so I wouldn't get arrested too. s**t, I can't remember his name... that sucks.Well, that did it, my buddy went to jail because they didn't get him a permit. So in the morning meeting I stood up and quit. They yelled at me like it was boot camp. They cursed, and screamed and told me I was nothing. They told me I owed them money, they told me I better have good walking shoes for getting home. (I was over 1200 miles from the closest thing I had to a home) The "big boss" was red with anger and told me to "get the f**k out!" and I shamefully waked out to the sound of some of the girls cryingThen in the next room his assistant very politely asked me "what city did you join us in?" I told her. She cheerfully said "oh thats right, here let me call the bus station real quick." "OK, here I have a price on the ticket, dave will drive you down and get the ticket for you here is your last commission in cash and a little extra for meals. Thanks for working with us!"It was all a very rude and interesting lesson in the brutality of how "business" can work. I still see a bit of the "mag crew" in every job I have had since.
opaquemurdockJul 20, 2008
Scroll down a bit if your interested in how it happened to me many years ago. Its pretty easy to get caught up in and pretty tough to get out of.
tristan0is0bordJul 21, 2008
The damn thing is a novel and a half by today's standards.
Closed AccountJul 21, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://houstonpress.com/photoGallery/?gallery=846730&position=1">http://houstonpress.com/photoGallery/?gallery=8467 ...</a>Haha, nice smoking "frankincense" out of a bright blue glass spoon there, dude!
Closed AccountJul 23, 2008
The Bart wasnt that bad. The bad part was waiting for the bus back to South Lake Tahoe in the Oakland bus station. Seriously though, the people waiting all had my back. Looking back its kinda sureal but at the time i went from thinking i was a badass to scared 19 year old that just wanted to go home.
ninjabeatsJul 26, 2008
Since they realized that Jesus was actually from South Carolina. He looks the part, anyway.
mattiegdDec 23, 2008
Good reason to buy digital magazines. The guy who delivered my groceries the other day raped my cat.