Tampabay: Senior sleuths help peers fight crime

Attracted by zero percent financing, they were determined to keep their monthly car payment to $300. Then sales people played musical chairs, managers came and went, and papers shuffled back and forth.

The Hacketts, who live on two Social Security checks, plus a small pension, finally drove away with a shiny red 2003 Silverado and monthly payments of $468 for six years at 8 percent interest. Onalee Hackett, 66, says she had no idea what she was signing. "I just wanted to get out of there."

It's a classic Florida tale, but this time, the ending changed.

A friend of the Hacketts took them to a strip mall in the Citrus County community of Beverly Hills, where a tiny storefront office nestles between the Dollar General Store and Ray's Italian Restaurant. A little-known operation called "Seniors vs. Crime" took up the Hacketts' cause.

After a few phone calls, the dealership took the new truck back, charging the Hacketts only $60 for "renting" it for two weeks. "I can sleep now," Onalee Hackett says. She and her husband declined to identify the dealership.

Since Seniors vs. Crime began 14 years ago, undercover volunteers have put con artists in jail by posing as helpless elderly folks. Other volunteers have helped build civil cases against institutions such as Eckerd Drugs, Sears, Roebuck Co. and Tire Kingdom.

Now they are opening consumer assistance offices like the one that helped the Hacketts. The Tampa Bay area is next in line.

"It's a great idea, maybe long overdue," Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Greg Tita said last week. "We are drawing up the documents, writing the memos and are thinking of using target places like Seminole Mall and Dunedin Senior Center."

Tarpon Springs and Largo police departments also want Seniors vs. Crime storefronts.

"Our volunteer coordinator is screaming about wanting to get it going," said Largo Capt. James Johns. But the supervisor of such programs is on medical leave, he said. "The earliest we could do it is late summer."

Seniors vs. Crime is a nonprofit corporation, authorized by the Legislature to operate under the umbrella of the Attorney General's Office.

More than 1,500 volunteers, nicknamed "senior sleuths," have participated. They spend no tax money. Instead, they are financed by settlements they help forge in civil actions against businesses.

In the late 1990s, for example, the Attorney General's Office received complaints that Eckerd Drugs was shorting customers pills when filling prescriptions. Hundreds of senior sleuths were asked to buy prescriptions at Eckerd, count their pills and keep a log. Eckerd never admitted wrongdoing but paid the state more than $10-million to settle both civil and criminal investigations.

Sears paid $300,000 in 1997 after complaints that it wasn't providing free balancing, as promised, with purchase of new tires. Tire Kingdom paid the state $1-million in 1993 after it was accused of charging people $2 to dispose of old tires, instead of the $1 prescribed by law. Neither company admitted any wrongdoing.

A few sleuths have been used in undercover stings. When authorities suspected a water filter company of high-pressure, fraudulent sales, a white-haired sleuth invited a salesman to her condo, where a videocamera recorded the scene from inside her microwave.

"Whoa boy, you've got a lot of yuck in it," the filter salesman tells her after dropping a chemical into a glass of tap water. "Iron, calcium, lead, asbestos, zinc, magnesium, chlorine. . . . That will give you kidney stones and arteriosclerosis."

A reverse osmosis filter, for only $1,495 with the "senior discount," would fix her right up. Don't buy bottled water, he says, because the EPA says it's not always safe.

Undercover work is rare, said Don Ravenna, Seniors vs. Crime's director. Consumer assistance is now the program's main thrust. Retired cops, lawyers, homemakers, contractors and entrepreneurs process complaints from storefront offices. The first office, which opened in 2001 in Palm Beach County, has recovered more than $1-million for consumers.

Occasional cases are out-and-out scams, which can lead to criminal prosecution -- like the lawn man who collected one-year payments in advance then never showed up.

But most cases are civil disputes, such as the Hacketts' encounter with the car dealership. Since July, the Citrus storefront has tackled problems such as these:

A Beverly Hills woman pays a man $5,000 to pressure clean and spray her roof with silicone. Seniors vs. Crime investigators find that materials and labor had cost about $1,800. The roof cleaner refunds $2,500.

A Citrus resident cancels his burglar alarm service. The company charges a $67 fee to return his house key and demands that he drive to Tampa to pick it up. After one phone call, the company drops the $67 charge and returns the key by registered mail.

A car dealership advertises that anyone coming to the lot will get a coupon for a free Thanksgiving turkey, redeemable at any store. Instead, customers get a $5 gift certificate at Publix. Seniors vs. Crime steps in and the dealership gives the complainant her turkey and writes its next ad more carefully.

People would never get these results by complaining to the police, Ravenna said. Police don't mediate civil disputes. Private lawyers are often too expensive. You don't hire a lawyer to contest a $67 key charge.

"Sometimes victims are reluctant to come forward (to police) because they are embarrassed or afraid of the consequences," said Stetson University College of Law professor Rebecca Morgan, who sits on Seniors vs. Crime's board of directors. "They worry if their family finds out, they will lose their ability to control their finances or end up in a long-term care facility."

Talking to fellow seniors in a storefront setting is less daunting.

Seniors vs. Crime volunteers have one big advantage: Florida law prohibits exploitation of the elderly. Though cases are often hard to prosecute, businesses perk up when they get a call from someone who speaks for law enforcement.

Ravenna recalled a lawyer who charged a large, unauthorized fee from a $300,000 house sale. A Seniors vs. Crime volunteer called and said, " 'We are calling from the Attorney General's Office.' He couldn't get down here fast enough to write a check."

At times, there are no good guys or bad guys -- just problems that need solving.

Citrus volunteer John Hartley recalled several complaints against a termite service that wasn't honoring maintenance contracts. It turned out a new owner had recently bought the company and discovered that previous owners had sold maintenance contracts for lots of up-front money, but little ongoing fees. Some contracts called for free lifetime maintenance.

Seniors vs. Crime determined that the new owner would go out of business if he had to honor all the contracts. Hartley, who works as mediator for the court system, helped arrange a meeting between the business owner and homeowners who had the contracts. Everyone gave a little. Contracts were renewed with annual fees that could support quality service. Most people left happy, Hartley said.

The storefont operations are no-brainers, Ravenna said. "The seniors who are working on these cases feel good about it. The seniors making the complaints get results. The cops can say (to someone who complains) 'That's civil but you can go talk to these people.' "

Where to call

For information about senior sleuths, call 1-800-203-3099, ext. 226, or visit www.senior-sleuths.org. For Citrus County's Seniors vs. Crime program, call Don Moran at (352) 726-4488, ext. 372.

Back to Tampa Bay area news
Back

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Mary Jo Melone

Howard Troxler

Headlines
From the Times
local news desks