Estonian book sellers defamed by fearful locals

Columbia Falls police and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received several reports last week about men with heavy accents selling children’s books.

The reports included outrageous allegations that maligned the two men.

Residents on Eddy Court and Scenic Drive in Columbia Falls reported they’d heard the salesmen were human sex traffickers or Russian burglars. The rumors apparently began to spread.

One of the men, who turned out to be from Estonia, went to the sheriff’s office to complain that someone had put his picture on a Facebook page stating the false claims.

Meelis Mikiver and Raido Raad, both 24, work for Southwestern Advantage. According to its Web site, the company has been in business since 1855, when it was Southwestern Publishing House, and is accredited with the Better Business Bureau.

The company recruits and trains college-age students for its educational book sales program. This is Mikiver’s fourth year with the company and Raad’s first. Mikiver is studying business management at the Estonian Business School. Raad is studying law at the University of Tartu.

The two men were staying with a host family in Kila but moved to a hotel in Kalispell, where they were going door-to-door last week. They said they checked in and left identification with the Kalispell police.