Someone’s going door to door in Laurel County fund-raising for the East Bernstadt Fire Department, but firefighters say it’s a scam.
The suspected scammers seem to be working their way down Old Richmond Road and Star Hill in East Bernstadt hitting neighbors like Kevin Joseph who says the two asked his family for donations.
“Wouldn’t show a badge or nothing, didn’t have a fire department shirt on, no ID so I said no we’re not going to loan you money,” said Joseph, who reported the incident right away.
He’s one of several people who called East Bernstadt Fire Chief Darren Pennington, alerting him to the scam.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
“They said it’s a male and female in a silver car, possibly a Chevrolet, that’s been coming up to them and asking for donations for East Bernstadt Fire Department,” said Chief Pennington.
Chief Pennington says while his department does rely on donations they never go door to door. Instead, they do it by mail.
“We just sent the letters out last month and now here they are going door to door so people’s going to think well what do they want? We just sent them money in the mail. Now here they are door to door,” said Chief Pennington.
As a volunteer department, donations go a long way so losing out could be detrimental.
“We have to replace it every 10 years, all of your personal protective equipment and you’re looking at thousands of dollars for each man to replace that so the donations help tremendously there,” said Chief Pennington.
Firefighters aren’t sure if the duo successfully scammed anyone out of money, but the sheriff’s office is now investigating.
Anyone who was approached about giving a donation should not give and instead should call the east Bernstadt Fire Department or Laurel County Sheriff’s office to report the incident.
