Last week, KRON4 showed you surveillance video of two people suspected of ripping off a business that had been helping victims of last fall’s devastating wildfires.
On Monday night, KRON4’s story has touched a nerve with some folks in Gilroy who believe they too were bilked out of thousands of dollars by the same people.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” See Grins RV Marketing Director Jules Wilson said.
What’s heartbreaking, says Wilson, is that somebody would steal credit cards from fire victims and then exploit their loss to steal more from those who are trying to help.
‘You assume people are good,” Wilson said. “You want to trust them and offer good customer service and then something like happens.”
Last week, KRON4 reported how the people in a surveillance video used a stolen credit card to buy $7,000 worth of generators from Reeds Trailer Shop in Petaluma. It turns out, the same thing happened earlier at See Grins RV in Gilroy.
“One of our employees recognized the guy from the surveillance video that was shown on KRON4 news from the Petaluma case.”
In the Petaluma case, the alleged con artists said the generators were needed for food trucks for a fundraiser to benefit fire victims.
Reeds had already been helping out fire victims with discounts on generators and RVs. Gilroy’s See Grins RV has also donated to fire victims, adding to the outrage.
“When we hear that, that these same people who are trying to help the victims of the wild ire are now being taken advantage of, there is only one way to describe that–it’s just heartbreaking,” Wilson said.
Small generators are easily re-sold and go for about $1,000. See Grins RV is out a little over $6,000. That included a larger, more valuable unit that had to be special ordered, and there may be other victims out there.
The people at See Grins RV say they too had surveillance video that showed these same people, but it was deleted before they made the connection with the case in Petaluma.
They are hoping the video will be shown far and wide and eventually lead to arrests in the case.