Happy April Fools’ Day! Here’s a wish that our family, friends and neighbors aren’t the unwitting fools in some recent scams going on around the Olympic Peninsula.
A spate of rather nefarious phone calls have inundated the Sequim-Dungeness Valley recently, as the Gazette faithful have told us. Over the years, scam artists have tried various ploys to get personal information (credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, March Madness picks, etc.) from area residents, from claiming the call recipient has failed to comply with jury duty responsibilities to offering tickets on regal cruise lines, from claims that a call recipient’s deceased loved one has debts to pay off to simply asking residents to press certain numbers on their phone.
A particularly popular one in recent days includes callers claiming to be representatives from the IRS and another that claims to be a representative from Clallam County PUD. They’re hitting residential homes and businesses alike, Gazette readers told us.
It’s a similar scam theme from mid-April of last year, when both faux IRS and PUD reps blanketed the area, trolling for any kind of information.
The solution, as always, is to hang up.
Regarding the IRS scam, if you or a family member receives one of these calls, the Attorney General recommends hanging up. If you do get into a conversation, do not give anyone money or credit card information over the phone and don’t trust callers who use threats or insults to bully you. You may report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484.
For more information about the PUD and to verify the legitimacy of an inquiry, give them a call at 452-9771 or see www.clallampud.net.
Stay safe out there.
Crime doesn’t pay
Speaking of crime on the peninsula … one of my favorite spots in the world was desecrated the other day. Three men were arrested in the early morning hours of March 21 after police officers caught them painting graffiti in a historic Fort Worden State Park concrete bunker.
At about 1:30 a.m., Officer Jeremy Vergin was on patrol in the park and noticed the gate closing the road to Artillery Hill was open. A quick inspection of Battery Tolles revealed a 42-year-old Silverdale man with a large machete strapped to his belt and (not surprisingly) a glass pipe and methamphetamine. They found two Seattle men with him, along with several bags of spray paint and tubes of liquid art paint.
Overall cost of the vandalism is estimated at about $750.
Thanks for your service, Diane
Diane Schostak, a longtime Forks resident, a member of a legendary West End pioneer family and, among other things, retired executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau, died in March at age 59. Schostak was being treated for Stage 4 breast cancer and died in California where she had been visiting relatives in Bakersfield.
Schostak was a gracious and helpful source for our staff here over the years. Christy Baron, editor at the Forks Forum, noted that, “I considered Diane more than just a champion of community causes — I saw her as a force of nature. If she had something in mind to do, she got it done.”
Kilmer’s on the job
With countless gallons of raw sewage from Canada being dumped into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, U.S. Rep. (and Port Angeles native) Derek Kilmer met with members of the Canadian parliament recently, pressing them to find a solution.
“It’s time for Canada to solve this sewage problem,” Kilmer said. “I grew up in Port Angeles, right across the water from Victoria. So it concerns me when after many years, Canada continues to send raw sewage right into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I’ll continue to call on our Canadian partners to work on a solution so we can ensure this does not impact our shared waters any longer.”
Last year, the government of British Columbia decided not to move forward with a sewage treatment plant in the Victoria region at McLoughlin Point. The Victoria area, home to 300,000 people, has pumped untreated sewage into waters across from Washington for years.
The treatment facility was supposed to be completed by 2018 until the local Canadian government decided to table the site.
New site profiles WWII heroes
Know of some World War II veterans living in Washington who have great stories to tell? Now there’s a new website that’s starting to collate those in one spot.
As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II nears, the Office of Secretary of State is launching a series of online profiles. You can find them at www.sos.wa.gov/legacyproject/.
The series kicked off recently with with the story of 93-year-old Joe Moser, a Whatcom County fighter pilot who was captured and narrowly avoided death in a German concentration camp during the war.
“We are racing time,” Secretary of State Kim Wyman said. “Most of the Washingtonians who served in World War II have passed away, so it’s important to capture and share stories of those soldiers still alive so current and future generations have a better understanding of the sacrifices made by those who fought in this pivotal war.”
Reach Sequim Gazette editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.
