thedrifter
12-11-07, 03:17 PM
Dana Parsons -- Orange County
Scam artist gives Marine carwash dirty end of the deal
Dana Parsons
December 11, 2007
Debra Allen wanted to vent, and although I'm normally Mr. Positive, I let her.
Her story goes back about a month, but she's been stewing about it ever since. It began innocently enough, with a Laguna Hills carwash fundraiser in support of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines outfit at Camp Pendleton. Allen is the one-woman band who heads the city's 3/5 Adoption Committee, an effort similar to that in about a dozen other Orange County communities.
The carwash was set up in the parking lot outside a Circuit City store and was staffed by a couple of volunteers and about 25 Marines and their wives.
As Allen described in an e-mail, a woman came in and gave the group a $5 donation. "Where can you get a carwash for $5?!?!?!," Allen writes, supplying her own punctuation.
But it gets better. She says the woman "immediately began complaining because it was going to take 30-45 minutes for her car to be hand-washed and dried by the Marines."
Well, you know how some people are. The woman helped herself to coffee.
"No big deal," Allen writes. "But then she proceeded to grab a bottle of water and an unopened box of cookies and filled her large purse with clementines. Let's just take the food right out of the Marines' mouths, shall we?"
But the woman was just a preliminary for the main event.
A man came in and gave the group a check for $100, Allen writes, saying he wanted to show his gratitude for his large number of military friends. "Wow, we were ecstatic," Allen writes.
With his car washed, he left but returned about 20 minutes later. He said he'd gone into Circuit City but had misplaced his wallet. Telling the group he needed only $20 for his purchase, he said he'd write them another $100 check if they could spot him the 20 in cash.
"We hesitated," Allen writes, "but figured no one would rip off a good cause, so we gave him the $20."
A week later, she got notice that both checks had been returned because the account had been closed. Besides the original $20, the group paid another $20 for the bank fees. The company name, address and phone on the business card he'd given them were phony.
When I reached her Monday, she said the one-two punch from last month still hurt. "It bothers me," she says. "I tend to be a trusting person. I'm probably a bit gullible when it comes to stuff like this. Is it any charity they want to steal from, or just the military?"
To console her, I ask how the rest of that day went.
The group raised about $2,200, she says. "People in general are really fantastic," she says, lavishing praise on the Circuit City staff that donated that day. The fundraiser was the first for the group that still isn't much of a group. In fact, Allen says, she could use some more volunteers for future events.
There's almost something pathetically symbolic about Allen's fundraising effort for the troops being visited by a scam artist and a whiner. That is, this war isn't exactly reminding anyone of World War II when it comes to the public's willingness to sacrifice for it.
Then, Americans were mobilized behind the war and willing to ration food and drive less to save gasoline and rubber. Now, even though President Bush describes the Iraq War and the war on terror as this generation's great challenge, the public has decided to buy bigger cars and eat more.
Wartime sacrifices?
Baby, that is so 1940s.
Ellie
Scam artist gives Marine carwash dirty end of the deal
Dana Parsons
December 11, 2007
Debra Allen wanted to vent, and although I'm normally Mr. Positive, I let her.
Her story goes back about a month, but she's been stewing about it ever since. It began innocently enough, with a Laguna Hills carwash fundraiser in support of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines outfit at Camp Pendleton. Allen is the one-woman band who heads the city's 3/5 Adoption Committee, an effort similar to that in about a dozen other Orange County communities.
The carwash was set up in the parking lot outside a Circuit City store and was staffed by a couple of volunteers and about 25 Marines and their wives.
As Allen described in an e-mail, a woman came in and gave the group a $5 donation. "Where can you get a carwash for $5?!?!?!," Allen writes, supplying her own punctuation.
But it gets better. She says the woman "immediately began complaining because it was going to take 30-45 minutes for her car to be hand-washed and dried by the Marines."
Well, you know how some people are. The woman helped herself to coffee.
"No big deal," Allen writes. "But then she proceeded to grab a bottle of water and an unopened box of cookies and filled her large purse with clementines. Let's just take the food right out of the Marines' mouths, shall we?"
But the woman was just a preliminary for the main event.
A man came in and gave the group a check for $100, Allen writes, saying he wanted to show his gratitude for his large number of military friends. "Wow, we were ecstatic," Allen writes.
With his car washed, he left but returned about 20 minutes later. He said he'd gone into Circuit City but had misplaced his wallet. Telling the group he needed only $20 for his purchase, he said he'd write them another $100 check if they could spot him the 20 in cash.
"We hesitated," Allen writes, "but figured no one would rip off a good cause, so we gave him the $20."
A week later, she got notice that both checks had been returned because the account had been closed. Besides the original $20, the group paid another $20 for the bank fees. The company name, address and phone on the business card he'd given them were phony.
When I reached her Monday, she said the one-two punch from last month still hurt. "It bothers me," she says. "I tend to be a trusting person. I'm probably a bit gullible when it comes to stuff like this. Is it any charity they want to steal from, or just the military?"
To console her, I ask how the rest of that day went.
The group raised about $2,200, she says. "People in general are really fantastic," she says, lavishing praise on the Circuit City staff that donated that day. The fundraiser was the first for the group that still isn't much of a group. In fact, Allen says, she could use some more volunteers for future events.
There's almost something pathetically symbolic about Allen's fundraising effort for the troops being visited by a scam artist and a whiner. That is, this war isn't exactly reminding anyone of World War II when it comes to the public's willingness to sacrifice for it.
Then, Americans were mobilized behind the war and willing to ration food and drive less to save gasoline and rubber. Now, even though President Bush describes the Iraq War and the war on terror as this generation's great challenge, the public has decided to buy bigger cars and eat more.
Wartime sacrifices?
Baby, that is so 1940s.
Ellie