Texans Targeted In Veterans Raffle Scam
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LOS ANGELES (CBS11) - Texas residents spent more $20,000 on a raffle they were told would help veterans. The man behind the raffle though wasn't able to offer any proof of where the money went, and never actually owned the grand prize airplane buyers were hoping to win.
A document from a lawsuit filed against Winged Warriors, based in California, shows more than 500 raffle tickets were purchased by buyers in Texas. One is listed on the organization's Facebook page as a third-place winner in the raffle. A second place winner in California, however, said he never received the pilot's headset he won. And the actual owner of the Beechcraft Sierra plane offered as the grand prize, said checks from the organization all bounced.
"He is the worst scum of the earth," said the plane's owner, Bob Hancock. "I can't imagine anybody being worse than what he has done to these veterans."
Hancock was referring to Jason Wirtzer, the man behind Winger Warriors. Wirtzer told CBS11's sister station in Los Angeles he had 25 veterans in a flight training program. When confronted, Wirtzer said he would like to offer proof of the training, but didn't. He denied scamming people.
According to data in the lawsuit filed by the group's website designer, which says it was never paid for its work, nearly 4500 tickets were sold, for a total of almost $175,000.
Donald Bleiler in Flower Mound said he received an email from Winged Warriors out of the blue in 2013. The professional pilot thought the raffle looked legitimate, and the plane offered as the grand prize was enticing.
"And when he mentioned he was using it to raise money for returning injured vets to give them flight training, I was all for that," he said.
He bought a second round of tickets on Christmas, but said he started to get suspicious when he did some research on the airplane being offered. He continued to receive more emails for more auctions from the group.
After the interview with Wirtzer first aired in Los Angeles, the front page of the group's website was taken down.
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