VENTURA : Complaints Prompt Charity to Pull Solicitor

A Los Angeles-based charity has agreed to stop using a door-to-door solicitor after Ventura residents complained that he employed “aggressive tactics” to get money, a city official said.

Residents who contacted authorities said the volunteer solicitor for “United States Mission” used “strong-arm physical intrusions” and “verbal haranguing” to get people to donate, police said.

“Some people apparently felt physically threatened by this person,” Ventura City Atty. Peter Bulens said.

Bulens said the charity was contacted Friday, and workers there promised that the solicitor would no longer be doing door-to-door work.

The mission, which provides meals, activities and emergency housing for senior citizens and the disadvantaged in Los Angeles, has a license to solicit donations in Ventura from June 1 to Aug. 1 this year, officials said.

A volunteer who answered the mission’s phone but declined to give his name on Friday said the 30-year-old organization did not condone the behavior of the solicitor. The volunteer would not be working door-to-door again, the man said.