West Los Angeles : Yuletide Plea Called Scam
The letter is a holiday tear-jerker:
“My husband suddenly died, and I can’t pay the rent. I will be on the streets at Christmastime! I have 3 children!!! Please, help me!!! Thank you in advance.”
The letter is signed: Christina M. Phillips.
Attached to the handwritten letter is an envelope for donations and a copy of an eviction notice. The only problem, police say, is that the eviction notice is phony.
And the only thing the few Westsiders who have gone in search of the needy family have found at the Olympic Boulevard address listed on the envelope is a mailbox rental shop.
“This appears to me to obviously be a scam,” said LAPD Detective Gary Fullerton at the West Los Angeles station.
Police received their first query about the flyers, which have mostly appeared in West Los Angeles and Westwood, about Dec. 1. Fullerton said he is investigating.
An employee at the mailbox rental shop said Monday that the mailbox is going to be closed by the shop owner.
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