Posted on 08/15/2015 9:29:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The self-proclaimed charity, Gift a Vet, would not provide any records that they have helped a single veteran.
Bill Hampshire served in the US Air Force for 20 years from 1994 to 2014. So when his wife, also a veteran, dropped a few dollars into a donation box for “Gift A Vet” outside his Los Gatos grocery store, he didn’t think much of it. Then he asked the man collecting the money about his service.
“He said he wasn’t a vet, that he worked for the Department of Defense,” Hampshire said. “I said ‘Why are you wearing a uniform if you’re not a veteran? Why are you pretending or implying you’re a vet and tricking people in to donating money to you?’”
Hampshire wasn’t satisfied with the answers he received.
“They never explained how much money they’ve ever given out.”
Over several weeks, NBC Bay Area producers used undercover cameras to record Gift A Vet’s operations. They recorded the group's co-founder Fallean Mintz, and a man who introduced himself as Bob, collecting cash donations from shoppers outside a Whole Foods and Lunardi’s grocery store on Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos.
Mintz told our producers that he used to work for the Department of Defense. Bob said he served five years with the Civil Air Patrol, a volunteer organization that performs tasks such as disaster relief and search and rescue. Neither man served in the military.
“It’s kind of like asking a person if they were in the Marines and the response was Boy Scouts! It’s not the same thing at all,” Hampshire said. What’s more, the Department of Defense emailed NBC Bay Area indicating it didn’t “have any record of his name on file.
Mintz said that all donations go to veterans. However, Bob told Hampshire and our hidden cameras he keeps 40% of what he collects.
“On the weekends here, we average about 200 donations. In the average box it’s roughly $200, $250 on the weekends. Maybe $300,” said Mintz on hidden camera. Mintz made multiple claims about how that money is used to help veterans. He said they worked with the Homeless Veterans Recovery Program in Santa Clara County. He also said they help veterans at the county court.
The acting director of the county office of Veterans Services, Armando Murillo, told us that the "Homeless Veterans Recovery Program" doesn’t exist and that he has never heard of Gift a Vet. A spokesman for the Santa Clara County Veteran’s Court gave a similar statement: “The Court does not nor has ever had any relationship of any kind with Gift a Vet or Fallean Mintz/Dorothy Arndt.”
Mintz told our hidden cameras that Dorothy Arndt is his wife and the co-founder of Gift a Vet. “She’s out seven days a week, 12 hours a day, working with veterans. Directly helping veterans,” said Mintz.
But just a few weeks later, when we requested an interview with Arndt, Mintz changed his story. He said she’s been ill for the past year. She didn’t return our calls or emails for comment and we never saw Arndt collecting donations with Mintz or Bob.
Records the Investigative Unit obtained show Mintz and Arndt have a history with law enforcment.
Arndt is listed on the Illinois sex offender registry, convicted in 2007 for aggravated sexual abuse of a 15 year old. Mintz was arrested in Florida in 2007 for third degree grand theft but failed to appear in court. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Two years later, police found him in Illinois, but charges were later dismissed. When we tried to ask Mintz about his claims and the work of Gift A Vet, he walked away from our cameras. He later declined to provide any documents or proof that Gift a Vet has helped anyone.
“You should really be cautious around unsolicited donations, people asking you for cash when you’re not familiar with their organization,” said Evan Paul, vice president of products for Guidestar. The organization tracks 2.4 million non-profits and charities registered in the United States to help people decide where to send their donations.
Guidestar data reveals there are 45,429 non-profits in the U.S. that serve veterans. Nearly a quarter of those organizations, 10,341, were created after 9/11. California is home to about 2,500 non-profits serving vets.
“The vast majority of them are great organizations doing great work,” Paul said. “They should be able to show you the track record of achievement. If they can’t show you that, then look for an organization that can.”
Air Force veteran Bill Hampshire said that’s what he hopes people will do.
“There are lots of military charities that provide great services for our military vets," he said. "It bothers me to see our vets aren’t receiving these donations intended for them.”
Talking about percentages of donations going to cause, I refuse to give to United Way!!!
“Give direct to local charities you can hold accountable.”
Basically, we give only to the Salvation Army, our church, and food to the local food barrel in our church.
How could they not have ant expenses?
I believe it’s arrived by extrapolating the “22 per day” out from the 2013 statistics.
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2427
But from what I’ve read it’s possible that the 22 a day number may actually be lower than the actual number.
What all of the stories I’ve read seem to agree on is that the number has spiked alarmingly since 2007.
http://time.com/304/report-suicide-rate-soars-among-young-vets/
“- The number of male veterans under the age of 30 who commit suicide jumped by 44 percent between 2009 and 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, according to numbers released Thursday by the Department of Veterans Affairs. -”
Thanks for the information. Hmmmmmm 2009 onward.....sound like something?
Also - from what I’ve seen and heard there are a large number of veterans over 50 who are committing suicide.
I guess what we have to look at in terms of older veterans (I’m a 66 YO vet) are onset of later life health problems and also severe economic distress like a lot of us have seen in the last 8 years or so.
It would be interesting to see if those over 50 vet losses compare at all with the general population losses.
The VA study found that the percentage of older veterans with a history of VA healthcare who committed suicide actually was higher than that of veterans not associated with VA care. Veterans over the age of 50 who had entered the VA healthcare system made up about 78 percent of the total number of veterans who committed suicide - 9 percentage points higher than the general pool.
Read more at - http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/31/older-vets-committing-suicide-at-alarming-rate.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.