Ogden Woman Warns of Imposters Posing as Missionaries

OGDEN, Utah – An Ogden woman has a warning about a pair of young men posing as missionaries.  She says they tried to get into her home, and she’s not the only one.

Rachael Bush says it happened in the middle of the day Monday, at her home near 3^rd Street and Harrison Boulevard.

“I had this really uneasy feeling about it,” said Bush. “It was scary.  It was very, very scary. My children were home with me.”

Bush says someone came up to her front door and tried to open it.

“I was sitting in my room reading a news article and I heard someone try to open my front door and then they knocked really loud,” she said. “I opened the door and I noticed missionaries on my front porch.”

Bush said two young men, in their late teens or early twenties, were standing there.  She said they looked just like missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, even down to their name tags.

“They were dressed in slacks, a white shirt.  They were wearing ties.  They were wearing dress jackets and they had name badges that were visible with their names on them,” said Bush.

But the thing is, she says they didn’t talk about the church.  Instead, they asked her personal questions and questions about her neighborhood.

“I was really nervous the whole time,” Bush said.

After they left, Bush called the police and filed a report.  She also called the local mission president’s office and when she started describing the missionaries, that’s when she knew the men were imposters.

“I said, ‘one of them was a redhead and he had a little goatee,’ and she said, ‘no, let me stop you right there. Facial hair is not allowed on missionaries.’ And I said, ‘it’s not?’ And she said, ‘no, not even a little tiny bit.’”

Bush shared her experience with her neighbors and on social media.  At least five people on her street said the same thing happened to them.

“They tried to open their door and then they knocked,” said Bush.

Now, her message is to the community at large.

“Watch out for people posing as missionaries because they are criminals who are trying to break into people’s houses,” she said.