By Shari Kaplan
Los Gatan Fran Tobin thought it was too good to be true--winning an audio cassette and helping the needy at the same time--and she was right.
She got scammed.
One day at the end of March, Tobin was leaving the Department of Motor Vehicles in Los Gatos and was approached by a man who asked her what radio station she listened to. Boxes of cassettes were stacked against the wall of the building behind him. When she told him KARA, he announced that he was representing the selfsame station and congratulated Tobin for winning a "free" cassette.
Tobin said the man then added that the promotional cassettes cost the station about $2 each, so any contribution she would like to make beyond that would be donated to the "Santa Clara Valley Women's Shelter." Tobin accepted the tape, gave the man $20 and drove away.
"I always try to give money to charitable causes in the hope that if I'm ever in that situation, the kindness will be returned to me," Tobin said. As she was driving home, however, she began to have a strange feeling about the incident, so she called KARA and asked if they were conducting any such promotions. They were not.
"It's kind of funny that he was doing an illegal act right in front of a [state] institution," Tobin said. She has not seen the man at the DMV before or since the incident.
Los Gatos DMV administrative manager Bill McHargue said that the only consistent solicitor he knows of is a man with a valid permit who hands out literature and accepts donations for Community Relief Services. Because the DMV is state property, solicitors must obtain a special permit from the California Highway Patrol, which regulates what the individuals offer and how they go about it. McHargue requests that customers notify a DMV manager if they are troubled by any solicitors around the building or lot.
If nothing else, Tobin still has the cassette she "won"--a soundtrack from one of the Lethal Weapon movies. She also received two restaurant gift certificates from KARA for her trouble and in appreciation for notifying the station.
Tobin describes the man as white, thin and in his 40s, with brown hair and a beard. He was clean-cut, well-spoken and "very personable."
Anyone who wishes to complain about solicitors on any state property may call CHP Executive Lt. Randy Greer at 277-1800.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 1, 1996.
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