The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office was prompted to release a warning to local residents on Dec. 11, after a number of unlicensed solicitors were reprimanded and cited for violating a county ordinance.
The solicitors went door to door, asking for “sponsorships” for care packages to send to military servicemen and women overseas. But the organization, Care Package Campaign, isn’t a nonprofit, it’s a limited liability corporation (LLC). Sheriff’s Office representatives added that none of the company’s solicitors were permitted to operate in Santa Barbara County.
When the first solicitor was cited, the Ventura resident claimed “Care Package Campaign” was a nonprofit, and that he and up 15 other solicitors from out of the area were looking for donations, according to the Sheriff’s Office press release. The Sheriff’s Office later learned that not only was the company for-profit, but that the solicitors could make up to 25 percent commission.
The company is already known elsewhere for targeting military communities, explained the Sheriff’s Office’s Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, transporting young people via shuttle van into communities to ask for money. Hoover said that the unlicensed solicitors were found in Vandenberg Village, Lompoc, and the Santa Ynez Valley.
“Even if they represent one company, every individual who is soliciting has to have a license in Santa Barbara County, they have to have gone through fingerprinting and the rest of the process,” Hoover said. “We want local residents to be educated that, if they do choose to open the door and talk to the solicitor, they make sure they have a legitimate license and that they understand where the money is going.”
The Sheriff’s Office also welcomes locals wishing to report when such solicitors visit their homes, and urges residents to focus on collecting a good description of the individual, including tattoos, scarves, height, weight, and attire.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, criminals are looking for crimes of opportunity while taking advantage of the holiday season—whether it’s exploiting generosity with door-to-door scams or going door to door with another kind of theft in mind.
The higher instance of Internet gift shopping means a lot of expensive gifts get dropped off on doorsteps, Hoover explained, and opportunistic thieves are ready to scoop them up. Locals have even taken to social media—like the Facebook group Orcutt Neighborhood Watch—to share their experiences with package theft.
“The holiday season makes people vulnerable for many reasons; they’re busy, preoccupied, running around buying gifts, multi-tasking, and maybe they aren’t paying attention to their car door being unlocked or keeping track of the packages they ordered,” Hoover said. “So, it’s important that our citizens know that there are people out there right now who are looking for crimes of opportunity this holiday season, and they are going to take advantage of the fact that people are busy and preoccupied.”
Hoover said that the Sheriff’s Office recommends that residents track their packages carefully, get delivery confirmation, and perhaps even pay extra money for insurance or other loss prevention.
“They can steal your presents so they don’t have to go buy their own,” she said. “And with solicitors, they know that people are more in the giving spirit this time of year and are more likely to give to different charities, and are maybe more interested in things that someone is coming to the door and selling.”
This article appears in Dec 17-24, 2015.
