None of the information in this story about Kristine Crawford is true. If you want to verify any of the search information, contact the California Rescue Dog Association, www.carda.org. Just check CARDA's certified SAR dogs, and yes, Dakota and Tahoe are listed; Cheyenne never did search and rescue. NEVER certified. NEVER tested. NEVER searched. Go on. Check it out.
If you want to check out the story about how Dakota was saved, run a few search engines. Crawford has claimed that Dakota was variously saved from a dog fighting ring where she was used as a bait dog; saved from a litter of puppies scheduled to be euthanized http://www.workingpitbull.com/recycleabull2.htm and www.forpitssake.org; this story http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/articles/sarpits.html; this story with the variation that the neighbor was later arrested and jailed for dog fighting.
Same thing with her dog Tahoe. Heard how Ms. Crawford rescued Tahoe from a dumpster? How Tahoe was abused and abandoned in a Dumpster on Christmas? How Tahoe was found by a homeless woman and her daughter who were searching for cans. How Kristine rescued the dog, and paid for all of her extraordinary vet bills, and how this dog is now saving lives herself. This story was even featured in the 2001 C.H.A.M.P. conference: http://www.animalfarmfoundation.org/2001nokillspeach.htm. Except that it's not real either. None of it.
How about going to Gaff Kennels, http://www.gaffkennels.net/, and asking the breeder herself. Kristine Crawford bought Tahoe on Christmas Eve, 2000, for the amount of $350.00, posed for pictures with the breeder's children in front of the tree and the new puppy.
Kristine Crawford is a huge fraud, and before anyone any where donates money, gear, or other donations to her purported non-profit, go run search engines. Check out the federal IRS charity search engine http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78; as of today, For Pits Sake does not come up. Then go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and look up For Pits Sake archives http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://forpitssake.org; they've been purportedly waiting on their non-profit - and still taking donations - for at least the past four years. News paper online searches show articles purporting Ms. Crawford to be a non-profit since 1997 and in others, since 1998.
Check it all out. Check out more. Run lots of engines and compare them all. And don't be surprised if you receive Hotmail or Yahoo! free account emails supporting Ms. Crawford and all she does. Especially from accounts from Daryl Riva (rivak9cop@yahoo.com, rivak9cop@hotmail.com), T. Eric Sheets, III (coastguarderic@hotmail.com), Pat Grant (plgrantvm@yahoo.com), Fran Troutman (frantroutman@yahoo.com) or Thomas Faraghan (thomasfaraghan@yahoo.com). Those are all known Kristine R. Crawford alias email accounts.
Caveat emptor, all potential donors.
This morning, February 17, 2006, at 1100 hrs in San Diego Superior Court, Judge A. Preckel, Ramona, San Diego County, California, the case "Kelly Falconer versus Kristine Rae Crawford", civil court case #SR008487, was heard in open court.
Kris Crawford did NOT show, however, she did contact the court telephonically, stating she had never heard of this case, that she'd only learned of the case the day before after a friend found it on the Internet. She requested a continuance, stating she had not been properly served.
The court denied her request, stating that proof of service was shown, and proof of substituted service was accepted at her Los Gatos mail box. In file were also past attempts, sucessful mail services, and process services billings, receipts, and notes, as well as her California corporate record of address, and her current criminal court case information, including her home address as the address properly served.
Service was accepted, and the proceedings continued.
Allegations against Ms. Crawford are, as verbatim:
Why does the Defendant owe the Plaintiff money?
"Actual damages, pain and suffering, penalties for fraud, theft by deception, computer/website intrusion (California 502PC), and willfully damaged/erased content, as well as actual damages/financial loss for services rendered and received after fraudulently claiming cancer (housing, money, care, board, vet svcs), slander, harrassment, libel".
The judge heard, reviewed material in file, as well as accepted additional material, including documentation from Palomar Hospital admissions department from November 23, 2004; Kris's own handwritten statements authorizing care, training, and possession of her dogs; phone records; proof of service; and proof of damages.
Finding: SUSTAINED. Actual damages were calculated to be between $15,535.76 to $17,214.24.
AWARDED: California state civil/small claims court maximum, $5000.00, plus $92.00 in court costs.
JUDGMENT: $5,092.00 to Plaintiff Kelly Falconer, AGAINST Defendent Kristine Rae Crawford.
Kristine is also facing criminal charges in an unrelated case.
Criminal court case, "People versus Crawford, Kristine", San Mateo County, court case number SM341062A, for two counts of criminal embezzlement (Count 01, California penal code 508/487(a), PC 17, and Count 02, CA PC 508) are still slated for jury trial. Next criminal court hearing date is March 02, 2006, 9:00AM, Department AR. Jury trial is set for April 03, 2006, at 9:00AM, Department JT.
Case name: Kristine R. Crawford
Case number: SM341062A
Charges:
001 PC 508/487(A)
01 PC 17
002 PC 508
Violation date: 09/28/2004
PC 508 - 508. Every clerk, agent, or servant of any person who fraudulently appropriates to his own use, or secretes with a fraudulent intent to appropriate to his own use, any property of another which has come into his control or care by virtue of his employment as such clerk, agent, or servant, is guilty of embezzlement.
Two counts of embezzlement: one for the theft of a Fender Passport amplifier and speaker system, and the second charge is defined below.
PC 487(a) - 1997. 487a. (a) Every person who shall feloniously steal, take, transport or carry the carcass of any bovine, caprine, equine, ovine, or suine animal or of any mule, jack or jenny, which is the personal property of another, or who shall fraudulently appropriate such property which has been entrusted to him, is guilty of grand theft.
The charge in this case is for the theft of a human teaching skeleton, stolen from the Biology Department of Menlo College.
PC 17 - Codifier for felony/misdeameanor.
On January, 2005, Kristine R. Crawford was picked up, detained, and questioned by Atherton Police Department at her place of employment*.
*NOTE: In December, 2004, Kristine sent out a newsletter on behalf of her For Pits Sake organization stating that she was unemployable, and out of work, due to a hand injury. That is, and was not true. She was at her normal course and place of employment during the week of January 21, 2005, when she was detained by police in regard to thefts reported by Menlo College on/or during September, 28, 2004.
After being questioned, she was escorted to her residence, where she ultimately turned the stolen items over to police.
In August, 2005, she was arrested, charged with two counts of embezzlement, and continues to face those criminal accusations today. She has listed a false address, ie, a fictitious apartment, as her home address, and has given a third differing date of birth. No one really seems to know exactly WHO Kristine Rae Crawford really is...including Kristine.
Criminal case docket information is publicly available. For copies of criminal files and related court records:
San Mateo County Courts
Superior Court Southern Branch
400 County Center, 4th Floor
Redwood City
650-363-4302
Lastly, Kristine resigned from one of her SAR teams after an Internal Affairs investigation began, and has since suspended from others until the resolution of her criminal arrest and complaint. If you are donating money to support her SAR efforts, you should be aware that your money is going directly into her own pocket - and most likely, always has.
Kristine Rae Crawford, Kristine Crawford, Kris Crawford, For Pits Sake, For Pitts Sake, forpitssake, Tahoe, Dakota, Cheyenne, SAR Pits, sarpits