Free Food Offer Used by Thieves

Rita Voshall admits that she had doubts when a well-spoken young man called her offering a holiday food- and financial-assistance package on behalf of a Palmdale social service agency.

Although the director of the agency warned Voshall that the offer was bogus, she could not resist temptation after the man called again and allayed her suspicions.

She left her home to collect the phony windfall Thursday. She returned not only empty-handed, but to find that her house had been burglarized.

“Even though I’m well aware you don’t get something for nothing, I thought, ‘What if it’s for real and I pass it up?’ ” Voshall said Friday.

The burglars stole a television, a video recorder, a stereo, tools, guns, jewelry--in all, almost $2,000 worth of property, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Voshall, 55, blames herself for making her precarious economic situation worse. She is divorced and her construction worker son pays the rent. She recently took a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant.

A man she described as personable called Wednesday, Voshall said, saying he was from South Antelope Valley Emergency Services, a Palmdale social service agency where Voshall had received free food during the summer. He said Voshall was eligible for free food and a $200 check.

Voshall called SAVES Director June Hawker, who told her emphatically that SAVES has no such program. “I told her not to fall for it,” Hawker said. “I don’t understand why she went.”

The man called again, persuaded Voshall that he was with a SAVES office in neighboring Lancaster and told her to go to the County Department of Social Services office there.

Hawker said she has had no other reports of people getting calls from a purported SAVES worker. She said Voshall is welcome to a genuine free food package SAVES offers the needy.