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One of the traveling magazine salesman charged with killing an Albuquerque couple last week was wanted on four misdemeanor warrants in California. The other was on probation in North Carolina.

But despite decades of efforts across the country to crack down on door-to-door solicitation, officials here say there's little they can realistically — or constitutionally — do to police the transient ranks of traveling sales.

Their advice?

"Don't open your door," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said. "It's sad to say it, but those are the times we live in."

Travis Rowley, 23, and Michael Lee, 21, were arrested Friday and each charged with two counts of murder in the Dec. 4 beating deaths of Tak Yi, 79, and his wife, Pung Yi, 69.

Both men were in town as part of a traveling magazine sales team being run by IntegrityPGM, a Las Vegas, Nev., business whose Web site says it offers young adults a chance at "achieving goals and realizing dreams."

Critics say groups like IntegrityPGM offer the equivalent of indentured servitude to wayward youths, by withholding wages, providing poor living conditions and turning a blind eye to violence committed against workers.

Both Rowley and Lee appear to have had several addresses in recent years; in court documents, Albuquerque police listed them as transients. And both had arrest records.

Rowley was arrested on a petty theft charge in Orange County, Calif., in April 2006, according to court records. He pleaded guilty and later received probation for 14 months but failed to report to his probation officer. His probation was revoked and a warrant was issued for his arrest in September.

Rowley also was wanted on three warrants for failing to appear in court on traffic citations, Orange County court records show.

Lee, who was born in Boston, was arrested and charged with petty larceny in Boone, N.C., in 2006, according to court records there. He pleaded guilty to that charge and received 36 months' probation.

During their arraignment Sunday, prosecutors in Albuquerque said Lee also had two prior felony arrests but didn't know what those arrests were for, according to published reports.

Neither Lee, Rowley nor IntegrityPGM had the required permits to sell door-to-door in Albuquerque, city officials have said.

But even if Lee and Rowley had applied for a permit, their criminal backgrounds likely wouldn't have come to the surface.

City spokesman Mark Motsko said the permit application asks whether the applicant or their company has been convicted of a crime "involving solicitation" in the past 10 years.

If the answer is "no," the city does not check the applicant's background, Motsko said.

If they answer "yes," the application is automatically denied, though the applicant can appeal. Only in the case of an appeal will the city conduct a criminal background check, Motsko said.

In this case, that's a moot point, since neither Rowley nor Lee filled out an application. And Motsko and other officials say it's difficult for the city to keep tabs on the crews of solicitors who pass through Albuquerque without ever announcing their presence to the city.

"If someone doesn't apply for a permit and just shows up, we don't know they're here," he said. "We urge residents to ask for an ID. If they don't have one, call the police or 311."

City Council President Brad Winter said he and other councilors would be taking a look at the city's solicitation ordinance and possible improvements to it in coming weeks.

"We've got to do something," he said. "The problem is that we're dealing with fly-by-night companies here."

IntegrityPGM has not returned numerous phone calls from The Tribune in recent days.

Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said his agency had no complaints against the company on record.

Attempts to come to grips with the perceived threats — and the annoyance — of door-to-door sales are nothing new. The city of Green River, Wyo., passed an ordinance banning door-to-door sales in 1933. Hundreds more communities subsequently passed "Green River ordinances."

But while the U.S. Supreme Court upheld one such ban in 1951, more recent decisions suggest that a total ban on door-to-door sales would be unconstitutional and unenforceable, according to the Web site of the nonprofit Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington, based in Washington state.

A Washington court blocked one city's attempt to force all traveling salespeople to register with the police department and submit to a background check, ruling that the ordinance violated free speech rights, according to the site.