ELIZABETHTOWN — Bladen County Sheriff Jim McVicker is warning residents of a scam being orchestrated by a couple who are acting as representatives of Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church and Bladen Crisis Assistance.
“We have been informed of a couple who were in the Bladenboro area (recently) going door to door selling tickets for a fundraiser by Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church,” said McVicker. “The people involved would knock on doors and offer to sell a plate of food to be delivered Sunday night. They were charging $5 a plate.
“Of course, there was no fundraiser and there were no plates delivered,” he added.
McVicker said the same suspects then went to the Lumberton area Monday and Tuesday and were working the same scam, but representing themselves as members of Bladen Crisis Assistance.
“They did not have tickets — but rather writing down the donor’s name and address saying they would deliver the plates later,” McVicker said.
The sheriff added one of the suspects is a white male who drives a black Z71 Chevrolet truck and the other is a woman who is between 5-foot, 3-inches and 5’6” tall with strawberry blond hair, hazel eyes, freckles and possibly a scar under her left eye.
McVicker urges anyone with information on these two individuals to call the Bladenboro Police Department, the Lumberton Police Department or the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office.
“This fraud was uncovered when the Rev. Chris Denny, the pastor of Elizabethtown Presbyterian Church and a board member of Bladen Crisis Assistance, began receiving calls from victims,” McVicker said. “Please help us put a stop to this. This is a crime against everyone.”
W. Curt Vincent can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.