In the town where I live, it became customary some years ago for the pioneers to do the actual door-to-door work during the week, and their not-at-home records would provide the “territory” for the rank-and-file publishers on the weekends. Also, car groups of publishers would get an early start by driving around to the apartment complexes in their territory and leaving older issues of the magazines in the laundry rooms, a practice some called “stealth witnessing.” Many so-call “publishers” do nothing but “stealth witnessing” and wouldn’t know how to actually talk to someone if they had to.
While I was still active, the managers of several apartment complexes began complaining because the “free reading material” left in their laundry rooms frequently became litter which had to be picked up and disposed of by their employees. Of course, not knowing that they should call the local Kingdom Hall to register their complaints, they would simply complain to the various JWs they would encounter from time to time, not realizing that would have no practical effect. The wife of a non-JW friend of mine works in the office of a local apartment complex where the complex manager is irate over her inability to get JWs to stop leaving the unwanted Watchtower “litter-ature.” I suggested they post a sign in the laundry rooms stating, “DO NOT LEAVE WATCHTOWER LITERATURE ON THESE PREMISES!” Has this been an issue in other areas?