The Vancouver Police Department said this week that two residents have reported receiving phone calls asking for donations to support police, and said the department isn’t involved.
“VPD is not soliciting for funds so citizens should be wary of calls such as this, and always check the legitimacy of any organization before sending money,” police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said Tuesday.
The two people who took the calls haven’t given police the exact name of the organization the caller or callers claimed to represent. As a result, it’s not possible to verify whether it’s legally registered with the Secretary of State’s Charities Division, where a number of legitimate police associations are listed.
One man told police the caller asked for the “lady of the house” and went on to ask for money “to support police department training in light of budget concerns,” Kapp said.
Kapp added that the caller “was very believable that safety would be compromised if there was not money raised to support the police department. He did not provide the citizen information about who he represented or who he was and would dodge questions.”
When the man who took the call said he wasn’t interested, the caller “became defensive that they did not support public safety,” Kapp said.
A woman who took a call said the caller asked for her information and offered to mail her papers to sign, but she refused and notified police.
By visiting www.secstate.wa.gov and selecting Charities, people can enter a group’s name and learn if it’s registered, and also find out what percentage of total revenues goes to the charitable purpose, called program services.
Casino developer still in serious condition
Two men who were critically injured in separate traffic accidents earlier this week, in Shoreline near Seattle and on the Astoria-Megler Bridge, remained listed in serious condition Wednesday night in hospitals.
Proposed Cowlitz casino developer David Barnett, 49, of Shoreline is recovering at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Herbert Leslie Goebel, 57, of Vancouver is a patient at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.
Barnett was critically injured early Monday morning when he was thrown from the bed of a Toyota pickup, police said. The pickup’s driver wasn’t hurt. The crash is under investigation by detectives with the King County Sheriff’s Office as a possible case of vehicular assault.
Late Tuesday morning, Goebel was driving north on the bridge when an oncoming car tried to pass another vehicle and crashed head-on into his pickup, according to the Oregon State Patrol.
The driver of the car, Kathleen Ann Brock, 51, of Long Beach was killed in the crash.
