Published in the Current
A rabid fox bit a 2-1/2 year old girl Tuesday at a day-care center in Cape Elizabeth.
Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, a fox ran from a brushy area 20 feet from Funny Farm Daycare on Old Ocean House Road. Ten children were playing in the driveway, supervised by two adults. The fox ran directly to the group and bit the girl on her arm, breaking the skin. The fox then ran back into the underbrush between the day-care and the yard next door.
Cape Elizabeth Rescue responded and transported the child to a Portland hospital.
According to the day-care owner, she was treated and released from the hospital and is now home with her family. Two day-care teachers, who may have been exposed to fox saliva, also are being treated.
Officers Vaughn Dyer and Mark Dorval were able to locate what they believed was the same fox. When found, the fox charged the officers, who shot it. The body is now in a state lab in Augusta.
The lab confirmed on Wednesday that the fox was rabid, which came as no surprise to Cape police Capt. Brent Sinclair. “That’s just not normal behavior” for a fox, he said.
Scott Rockwell, an owner of the day-care, said he has seen foxes in the past, but has never had any problems with them.
Ironically, he said, “I had just taken the kids on a walk” on the town greenbelt trail behind the day-care property. The kids had gone inside for a drink and then headed outside to play in the driveway, he said.
Rockwell said that parents had been understanding about the event, and though the bite victim was not at the day-care the following day, “everyone (else) brought their kids back here today. ”
Rockwell said the girl was fine and at home with her parents on Wednesday.
He said the day care routinely talks about animal safety with the children in its care, teaching them “the importance of staying together in the woods.” He added that people encountering foxes should be wary.
“If you see one, don’t go near him,” Rockwell said.
Sinclair said the teachers at Funny Farm had done everything right by taking the kids inside, getting medical treatment and notifying parents. “They did exactly what they should have done,” he said.
Dr. Jon Karol, an emergency medical physician and director of Maine Medical Center’s Brighton First Care facility, said the standard treatment for a human bitten by a rabid animal is two shots on the first visit, both given in the upper arm. One shot is rabies immune globulin, given just once in a dose
based on the patient’s weight. The other shot is a rabies vaccine.
The patient also has to return four times over the month following exposure for additional doses of the rabies vaccine, Karol said.
Thursday, August 8, 2002
Quick work stops gas spill contamination
Published in the Current
A fuel truck spilled 3,500 gallons of gasoline in a Pleasant Hill Road parking lot just before 7 a.m., Aug. 6, briefly threatening the Nonesuch River and the Scarborough Marsh. But quick work by a crew from Maietta Construction kept the spill from spreading very far.
At 6:42 a.m., the Scarborough Fire Department got a call that a tanker truck had hit a pillar protecting fuel valves and had sprung a leak.
The truck, owned by Abenaqui Carriers of Windham, was carrying both diesel fuel and gasoline, and had just finished making a diesel delivery to the Penske truck leasing business on Pleasant Hill Road.
As it was pulling away, the truck hit a concrete pillar, damaging the discharge manifold the truck uses to dispense fuel, according to Fire Chief Michael Thurlow.
Gasoline from that compartment of the truck began to spill, and the emergency valve, also damaged in the collision, didn’t work properly to cut off the flow.
Neil Maietta was at the Maietta Construction company just next door when he heard the accident happen. “We saw gas coming out of a tank truck like it was coming out of a fire hydrant,” he said. “I didn’t know when it was going to stop coming out.”
About 2,000 feet from the spill site is the opening to a culvert with no outlet except the Scarborough Marsh. Maietta said his nephew Mikey and other Maietta workers were able to put a big pile of clay and sand into the culvert’s opening before the gas flowed through.
“We had a lot of pressure but everybody stayed pretty calm,” Maietta said. “My guys, they reacted really well.”
Thurlow said their efforts “certainly saved a substantial environmental impact.”
The first firefighters on the scene decided there was a large explosive hazard and asked Central Maine Power to shut off the power. Electricity was cut off for much of Pleasant Hill Road and a large section of Route 1.
Power was restored to most of the area when the danger of explosion diminished, Thurlow said. A couple of buildings near the spill were without power for several hours.
South Portland firefighters brought over some of their spill containment equipment, which they have on hand in case of an incident at the tank farm there, including a foam truck and booms to help control the flow.
Clean Harbors Environmental Services, a South Portland environmental remediation firm, brought over a large amount of pumping equipment to empty the catch basins and then the pool created at the base of the dam.
When Maietta’s crew had filled in the culvert, it was dry, without even any water running through. He took Clean Harbors workers back to the dam and found the dam had worked.
“There was two feet of pure gasoline at the dam site,” Maietta said.
Also on scene were people from the U.S. Coast Guard, the state Marine Patrol and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Most of the firefighters left when the DEP deemed the scene safe around noon, according to Deputy Fire Chief Glen Deering. While gas fumes had been thick in the area earlier in the day, air quality tests showed safe levels before the fire crews departed.
Some firefighters did remain on the scene, though, pumping water into the drainage area just north of the Hannaford Bros. office building, working to flush out remaining gas from the dense underbrush.
There may be further activity required to clean up the site, Deering said, but that would be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Jon Woodard, DEPsupervisor for response services for Southern Maine, said the cleanup should be relatively quick. Workers went through the underbrush area to be sure they had collected all of the gas possible. The foliage will probably die off this year, but will return next year, Woodard said.
Work was expected to be completed the evening after the spill, Woodard said. Further evaluation might result in additional cleanup work, he said, but he expected it to be a small-scale cleanup over the long term.
“What’s dissolved in the water and what’s a sheen really can’t be cleaned,” Woodard said. Most gasoline in a spill, he said, evaporates before it can be cleaned up by remediation crews.
Sampling of the water upstream and downstream of the spill will help the DEP determine what contamination has occurred, he said.
Abenaqui Carriers, Woodard said, is considered the responsible party in the incident, and has “stepped up” and is paying for the cleanup.
Woodard said he thought the truck could have held more gas, possibly three times as much as spilled, and noted that the “quick thinking” of the Scarborough firefighters and the Maietta crew in building the dam helped quite a bit.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Woodard said.
A fuel truck spilled 3,500 gallons of gasoline in a Pleasant Hill Road parking lot just before 7 a.m., Aug. 6, briefly threatening the Nonesuch River and the Scarborough Marsh. But quick work by a crew from Maietta Construction kept the spill from spreading very far.
At 6:42 a.m., the Scarborough Fire Department got a call that a tanker truck had hit a pillar protecting fuel valves and had sprung a leak.
The truck, owned by Abenaqui Carriers of Windham, was carrying both diesel fuel and gasoline, and had just finished making a diesel delivery to the Penske truck leasing business on Pleasant Hill Road.
As it was pulling away, the truck hit a concrete pillar, damaging the discharge manifold the truck uses to dispense fuel, according to Fire Chief Michael Thurlow.
Gasoline from that compartment of the truck began to spill, and the emergency valve, also damaged in the collision, didn’t work properly to cut off the flow.
Neil Maietta was at the Maietta Construction company just next door when he heard the accident happen. “We saw gas coming out of a tank truck like it was coming out of a fire hydrant,” he said. “I didn’t know when it was going to stop coming out.”
About 2,000 feet from the spill site is the opening to a culvert with no outlet except the Scarborough Marsh. Maietta said his nephew Mikey and other Maietta workers were able to put a big pile of clay and sand into the culvert’s opening before the gas flowed through.
“We had a lot of pressure but everybody stayed pretty calm,” Maietta said. “My guys, they reacted really well.”
Thurlow said their efforts “certainly saved a substantial environmental impact.”
The first firefighters on the scene decided there was a large explosive hazard and asked Central Maine Power to shut off the power. Electricity was cut off for much of Pleasant Hill Road and a large section of Route 1.
Power was restored to most of the area when the danger of explosion diminished, Thurlow said. A couple of buildings near the spill were without power for several hours.
South Portland firefighters brought over some of their spill containment equipment, which they have on hand in case of an incident at the tank farm there, including a foam truck and booms to help control the flow.
Clean Harbors Environmental Services, a South Portland environmental remediation firm, brought over a large amount of pumping equipment to empty the catch basins and then the pool created at the base of the dam.
When Maietta’s crew had filled in the culvert, it was dry, without even any water running through. He took Clean Harbors workers back to the dam and found the dam had worked.
“There was two feet of pure gasoline at the dam site,” Maietta said.
Also on scene were people from the U.S. Coast Guard, the state Marine Patrol and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Most of the firefighters left when the DEP deemed the scene safe around noon, according to Deputy Fire Chief Glen Deering. While gas fumes had been thick in the area earlier in the day, air quality tests showed safe levels before the fire crews departed.
Some firefighters did remain on the scene, though, pumping water into the drainage area just north of the Hannaford Bros. office building, working to flush out remaining gas from the dense underbrush.
There may be further activity required to clean up the site, Deering said, but that would be under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Jon Woodard, DEPsupervisor for response services for Southern Maine, said the cleanup should be relatively quick. Workers went through the underbrush area to be sure they had collected all of the gas possible. The foliage will probably die off this year, but will return next year, Woodard said.
Work was expected to be completed the evening after the spill, Woodard said. Further evaluation might result in additional cleanup work, he said, but he expected it to be a small-scale cleanup over the long term.
“What’s dissolved in the water and what’s a sheen really can’t be cleaned,” Woodard said. Most gasoline in a spill, he said, evaporates before it can be cleaned up by remediation crews.
Sampling of the water upstream and downstream of the spill will help the DEP determine what contamination has occurred, he said.
Abenaqui Carriers, Woodard said, is considered the responsible party in the incident, and has “stepped up” and is paying for the cleanup.
Woodard said he thought the truck could have held more gas, possibly three times as much as spilled, and noted that the “quick thinking” of the Scarborough firefighters and the Maietta crew in building the dam helped quite a bit.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Woodard said.
Thursday, August 1, 2002
Kids design race shirts
Published in the Current
Come race day, Beach to Beacon competitors and volunteers, as well as participants in the children’s race, will be wearing shirts designed by Cape students.
The T-shirt designs were developed in a contest open to all Cape Elizabeth students, many of whom participated through their art classes.
Ten-year-old Kylie Tanabe created the design for the children’s T-shirts as part of her fourth-grade class last year, with Pond Cove School teacher Ogden Williams.
“He got us going on drawing the lighthouse,” Tanabe said. She also takes art lessons from her grandmother, and prefers to do tole painting, copying and adapting photographs and paintings. She had painted a lighthouse as a gift for her parents, and drew a similar lighthouse, adding in a small house and other elements to resemble Portland Head Light.
Her father, Keith, said Kylie is “fearless” and always ready to try new things. She recently went on her first upside-down roller-coaster and grinned widely when asked what she thought of it. She will be running the kids’ one-kilometer race on Saturday.
Joanna Wexler will be a senior next year at CEHS, and designed the logo that will be printed on the runners’ and volunteers’ shirts. Her design was also an art class project from school.
In the class, with high school art teacher Richard Rothlisberger, students created thumbnail sketches and then fleshed out their ideas in various mediums.
“We went through many stages,” Wexler said. “It was really open to what you wanted to do.”
Wexler, a cross-country runner and lacrosse player at CEHS, will not run the race this year, as she tried to register after the field was full, but will volunteer.
Her design includes Portland Head Light, as well as a wave and a path with footsteps. “I definitely wanted to include the beacon,” Wexler said.
Come race day, Beach to Beacon competitors and volunteers, as well as participants in the children’s race, will be wearing shirts designed by Cape students.
The T-shirt designs were developed in a contest open to all Cape Elizabeth students, many of whom participated through their art classes.
Ten-year-old Kylie Tanabe created the design for the children’s T-shirts as part of her fourth-grade class last year, with Pond Cove School teacher Ogden Williams.
“He got us going on drawing the lighthouse,” Tanabe said. She also takes art lessons from her grandmother, and prefers to do tole painting, copying and adapting photographs and paintings. She had painted a lighthouse as a gift for her parents, and drew a similar lighthouse, adding in a small house and other elements to resemble Portland Head Light.
Her father, Keith, said Kylie is “fearless” and always ready to try new things. She recently went on her first upside-down roller-coaster and grinned widely when asked what she thought of it. She will be running the kids’ one-kilometer race on Saturday.
Joanna Wexler will be a senior next year at CEHS, and designed the logo that will be printed on the runners’ and volunteers’ shirts. Her design was also an art class project from school.
In the class, with high school art teacher Richard Rothlisberger, students created thumbnail sketches and then fleshed out their ideas in various mediums.
“We went through many stages,” Wexler said. “It was really open to what you wanted to do.”
Wexler, a cross-country runner and lacrosse player at CEHS, will not run the race this year, as she tried to register after the field was full, but will volunteer.
Her design includes Portland Head Light, as well as a wave and a path with footsteps. “I definitely wanted to include the beacon,” Wexler said.
Monks calls for corporate responsibility
Published in the Current
Part-year Cape resident and former Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Bob Monks, spoke out against corporate accounting scandals July 29 at a Portland campaign event for Democratic Senate candidate, Chellie Pingree. He called the current financial, accounting and legislative climate “a watershed in America.”
Speaking alongside Bevis Longstreth, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a part-year Maine resident, Monks called for Democratic control of both houses of Congress, saying it was the only way corporate financial reform would truly happen.
Monks was a Reagan appointee at the U.S. Department of Labor and has been a member of the boards of several public companies. A Republican, he challenged now Sen. Susan Collins in 1996, and now is supporting Pingree. “Who you vote for makes a difference,” Monks said.
He said the American economy has succeeded as a direct result of the trust investors had in publicly traded companies. “That has enabled our standard of living,” Monks said. But corporate and government irresponsibility has badly hurt the credibility of the system.
“We may have killed the golden goose,” Monks said.
He roundly criticized the U.S. Senate for regulating specifics of the accounting profession, saying legislators “can’t tell people how they should add.”
Corporate officers have had huge pay increases that do not relate to the value of the work they do at a company. Instead, Monks said, CEOs have formed a powerful group of people who serve on each other’s boards and increase their own salaries.
“When people change the rules, vote themselves the money and get 1,000 percent pay increases, that’s just wrong,” Monks said.
Also, he said, 75 percent of stock options go to the top five corporate officers in a company. Stock options are at the center of a national controversy about accounting practices, with companies claiming they are not expenses, while critics say stock options have value and therefore are expenses.
“It’s about Mr. Big getting bigger, ” Monks said.
Part-year Cape resident and former Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Bob Monks, spoke out against corporate accounting scandals July 29 at a Portland campaign event for Democratic Senate candidate, Chellie Pingree. He called the current financial, accounting and legislative climate “a watershed in America.”
Speaking alongside Bevis Longstreth, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and also a part-year Maine resident, Monks called for Democratic control of both houses of Congress, saying it was the only way corporate financial reform would truly happen.
Monks was a Reagan appointee at the U.S. Department of Labor and has been a member of the boards of several public companies. A Republican, he challenged now Sen. Susan Collins in 1996, and now is supporting Pingree. “Who you vote for makes a difference,” Monks said.
He said the American economy has succeeded as a direct result of the trust investors had in publicly traded companies. “That has enabled our standard of living,” Monks said. But corporate and government irresponsibility has badly hurt the credibility of the system.
“We may have killed the golden goose,” Monks said.
He roundly criticized the U.S. Senate for regulating specifics of the accounting profession, saying legislators “can’t tell people how they should add.”
Corporate officers have had huge pay increases that do not relate to the value of the work they do at a company. Instead, Monks said, CEOs have formed a powerful group of people who serve on each other’s boards and increase their own salaries.
“When people change the rules, vote themselves the money and get 1,000 percent pay increases, that’s just wrong,” Monks said.
Also, he said, 75 percent of stock options go to the top five corporate officers in a company. Stock options are at the center of a national controversy about accounting practices, with companies claiming they are not expenses, while critics say stock options have value and therefore are expenses.
“It’s about Mr. Big getting bigger, ” Monks said.
Seniors warned of in-house thefts
Published in the Current
Seniors are being warned to be careful about workers and others they allow into their homes. In three recent incidents, two Cape Elizabeth seniors had jewelry and other valuables stolen, and another had 50 tablets of painkillers stolen. In all three cases, in-home workers are suspected, according to Cape police.
The pills are believed to have been stolen by a person who advertised a housecleaning service by putting fliers on cars and in doors in various neighborhoods in Cape, according to Community Relations Officer Paul Gaspar. The victim hired the woman.
“She cleaned her house and cleaned out some of her medication as well,” Gaspar said.
Gaspar recommended that seniors and their families use caution when selecting home health care workers. He said people should make sure they use a reputable agency licensed by the state. To verify that information, people can call the Southern Maine Agency on Aging or the state Attorney
General’s office.
Pam Allen of Elder Independence of Maine said her organization requires provider agencies to check backgrounds and certifications of prospective employees.
She noted that a criminal history check won’t catch someone who is waiting for the chance to steal for the first time.
“Lock your possessions away, ” Allen said.
And screenings may not always be as thorough as they should be, she said. In Cumberland County there are 200 cases waiting for staff or additional staff, which is half of all patients waiting across the state, Allen said.
Agencies can’t find the staff to care for all the people who need help, meaning they may drop their hiring standards or be less likely to check every applicant fully, Allen said.
“Agencies are desperate to find staffing,” said Betty Jewett of the Southern Maine Agency on Aging.
If there is trouble getting help through an agency, people sometimes hire private caregivers, and that can be a real problem, Jewett said. With no supervision at all, they can gain access to more things and take greater advantage of their charges.
Allen’s organization audits home health care agencies, but can only check 20 percent of the statewide organizations in any given year.
Gaspar recommends checking references personally, rather than taking the word of an agency that a background check has been done.
Get the names of previous clients and call them, he said.
Protecting valuables by putting them in a safe-deposit box is another good move, as is getting jewelry and other valuables appraised and photographed, Gaspar said.
Allen said the best way to protect yourself is to know the names of people in your home, and who they are employed by. Allen also said seniors should remember that their home is still their property.
“If you feel uncomfortable, don’t let them in your home,” Allen said.
Financial exploitation
Some caregivers are more difficult to keep out of homes. They are friendly neighbors or even relatives.
Michael Webber, a detective with the state Attorney General’s office, said 80 percent of financial fraud against the elderly is committed by relatives.
Webber and Gaspar said between 60 percent and 80 percent of those crimes are not even reported because people are nervous about seeming unable to take care of themselves.
Sometimes unscrupulous neighbors can befriend seniors and begin to exploit them, or private caretakers can get access to checkbooks, credit cards or cash and use them for personal gain.
Home health workers and even helpful family members and neighbors should never ask for cash or gifts, said Jewett of the Agency on Aging. If seniors want to give gifts, that is fine, but there should never be any pressure to do so, she said.
Gaspar said there are people who are very friendly and helpful, and may ask for reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred on behalf of seniors. For example, if a neighbor picks up groceries, it is reasonable for them to ask for the money to pay for it. But Gaspar warned against giving bank account or checkbook access to people seniors don’t know or don’t trust.
Detective Webber in the Attorney General’s office agrees. “Choose your caregiver well,” he said. And seniors should always get a neutral third party to look at any legal documents before signing them.
“Never sign paperwork unless it’s been reviewed,” Webber said.
He said don’t sign blank checks for anyone. He also suggested setting up direct deposit for any payments seniors expect to receive, such as pension or Social Security checks. That can limit the opportunity of people to steal checks or otherwise gain access to funds.
Webber said some seniors set up a limited power of attorney arrangement, which permits a caregiver to act on behalf of a senior citizen. Webber reminds seniors that those can be revoked at any time, and the power granted in one can be very specific, including restricting a person to using a checkbook for bill payments but no other purpose.
He encouraged seniors to keep a close eye on their finances. Often financial exploitation is only discovered late, when services are not being provided because of lack of funds, Webber said.
A variety of criminal charges can result, from simple theft charges to endangering the welfare of a dependent, misuse of entrusted property, or even serious felony charges, depending on the amount of money involved, Webber said.
Fraud even increases the risk of death, Webber said. Seniors who have been victims of theft or fraud face a higher risk of dying in the decade following the incident, than do seniors the same age who are not victims.
Scam protection
A further important part of senior self-protection is being careful not to be scammed, authorities say.
Late summer and early fall are prime time for home repair scams involving driveway, roof or chimney repairs, Gaspar said. Fall cleanup and tree pruning are also common fronts used by scammers.
Many of these scams begin with a knock on the door. A worker will say something like, “We were in the neighborhood and saw you need some work done.” Then he will explain that he can help out with some “spare materials from another job nearby,” or can do the job for less money because he is already on the job site.
These are warning signs for a scam.
Maine state law requires three days elapse between when a homeowner makes an agreement with a door-to-door tradesperson, and when that work can begin. Even if a property owner wants work to begin immediately, to start before three days goes by is against the law.
State law also requires a written contract detailing the specifics of the job and compensation.
“Don’t be pressured by a door-to-door person who says, ‘I need to do the work now,’” Gaspar said.
Some door-to-door workers will work in pairs. One person keeps the owner occupied at the front door, while the second goes in the back door and steals wallets, purses and other valuables.
There are phone, mail and e-mail scams, too. One of the latest announces that the recipient has won a major award in the Canadian lottery but has to pay a large sum, $500 or more, to cover bank transfer fees. The “transfer fee” charges are deducted, but no award is ever paid, as none has been won.
If seniors believe or discover they are the victims of a theft, fraud or exploitation, Gaspar spoke for all the agencies and said, “please consider prosecution.”
Seniors are being warned to be careful about workers and others they allow into their homes. In three recent incidents, two Cape Elizabeth seniors had jewelry and other valuables stolen, and another had 50 tablets of painkillers stolen. In all three cases, in-home workers are suspected, according to Cape police.
The pills are believed to have been stolen by a person who advertised a housecleaning service by putting fliers on cars and in doors in various neighborhoods in Cape, according to Community Relations Officer Paul Gaspar. The victim hired the woman.
“She cleaned her house and cleaned out some of her medication as well,” Gaspar said.
Gaspar recommended that seniors and their families use caution when selecting home health care workers. He said people should make sure they use a reputable agency licensed by the state. To verify that information, people can call the Southern Maine Agency on Aging or the state Attorney
General’s office.
Pam Allen of Elder Independence of Maine said her organization requires provider agencies to check backgrounds and certifications of prospective employees.
She noted that a criminal history check won’t catch someone who is waiting for the chance to steal for the first time.
“Lock your possessions away, ” Allen said.
And screenings may not always be as thorough as they should be, she said. In Cumberland County there are 200 cases waiting for staff or additional staff, which is half of all patients waiting across the state, Allen said.
Agencies can’t find the staff to care for all the people who need help, meaning they may drop their hiring standards or be less likely to check every applicant fully, Allen said.
“Agencies are desperate to find staffing,” said Betty Jewett of the Southern Maine Agency on Aging.
If there is trouble getting help through an agency, people sometimes hire private caregivers, and that can be a real problem, Jewett said. With no supervision at all, they can gain access to more things and take greater advantage of their charges.
Allen’s organization audits home health care agencies, but can only check 20 percent of the statewide organizations in any given year.
Gaspar recommends checking references personally, rather than taking the word of an agency that a background check has been done.
Get the names of previous clients and call them, he said.
Protecting valuables by putting them in a safe-deposit box is another good move, as is getting jewelry and other valuables appraised and photographed, Gaspar said.
Allen said the best way to protect yourself is to know the names of people in your home, and who they are employed by. Allen also said seniors should remember that their home is still their property.
“If you feel uncomfortable, don’t let them in your home,” Allen said.
Financial exploitation
Some caregivers are more difficult to keep out of homes. They are friendly neighbors or even relatives.
Michael Webber, a detective with the state Attorney General’s office, said 80 percent of financial fraud against the elderly is committed by relatives.
Webber and Gaspar said between 60 percent and 80 percent of those crimes are not even reported because people are nervous about seeming unable to take care of themselves.
Sometimes unscrupulous neighbors can befriend seniors and begin to exploit them, or private caretakers can get access to checkbooks, credit cards or cash and use them for personal gain.
Home health workers and even helpful family members and neighbors should never ask for cash or gifts, said Jewett of the Agency on Aging. If seniors want to give gifts, that is fine, but there should never be any pressure to do so, she said.
Gaspar said there are people who are very friendly and helpful, and may ask for reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred on behalf of seniors. For example, if a neighbor picks up groceries, it is reasonable for them to ask for the money to pay for it. But Gaspar warned against giving bank account or checkbook access to people seniors don’t know or don’t trust.
Detective Webber in the Attorney General’s office agrees. “Choose your caregiver well,” he said. And seniors should always get a neutral third party to look at any legal documents before signing them.
“Never sign paperwork unless it’s been reviewed,” Webber said.
He said don’t sign blank checks for anyone. He also suggested setting up direct deposit for any payments seniors expect to receive, such as pension or Social Security checks. That can limit the opportunity of people to steal checks or otherwise gain access to funds.
Webber said some seniors set up a limited power of attorney arrangement, which permits a caregiver to act on behalf of a senior citizen. Webber reminds seniors that those can be revoked at any time, and the power granted in one can be very specific, including restricting a person to using a checkbook for bill payments but no other purpose.
He encouraged seniors to keep a close eye on their finances. Often financial exploitation is only discovered late, when services are not being provided because of lack of funds, Webber said.
A variety of criminal charges can result, from simple theft charges to endangering the welfare of a dependent, misuse of entrusted property, or even serious felony charges, depending on the amount of money involved, Webber said.
Fraud even increases the risk of death, Webber said. Seniors who have been victims of theft or fraud face a higher risk of dying in the decade following the incident, than do seniors the same age who are not victims.
Scam protection
A further important part of senior self-protection is being careful not to be scammed, authorities say.
Late summer and early fall are prime time for home repair scams involving driveway, roof or chimney repairs, Gaspar said. Fall cleanup and tree pruning are also common fronts used by scammers.
Many of these scams begin with a knock on the door. A worker will say something like, “We were in the neighborhood and saw you need some work done.” Then he will explain that he can help out with some “spare materials from another job nearby,” or can do the job for less money because he is already on the job site.
These are warning signs for a scam.
Maine state law requires three days elapse between when a homeowner makes an agreement with a door-to-door tradesperson, and when that work can begin. Even if a property owner wants work to begin immediately, to start before three days goes by is against the law.
State law also requires a written contract detailing the specifics of the job and compensation.
“Don’t be pressured by a door-to-door person who says, ‘I need to do the work now,’” Gaspar said.
Some door-to-door workers will work in pairs. One person keeps the owner occupied at the front door, while the second goes in the back door and steals wallets, purses and other valuables.
There are phone, mail and e-mail scams, too. One of the latest announces that the recipient has won a major award in the Canadian lottery but has to pay a large sum, $500 or more, to cover bank transfer fees. The “transfer fee” charges are deducted, but no award is ever paid, as none has been won.
If seniors believe or discover they are the victims of a theft, fraud or exploitation, Gaspar spoke for all the agencies and said, “please consider prosecution.”
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