Massachusetts business owner says he was threatened for not donating to police union
A Billerica, Massachusetts business owner said he was threatened because he wouldn't donate more money to a police union.
Ronnie Doucette loves feeding his Billerica community, running What the Fork food truck and restaurant with his wife and their six kids.
"We've met so many different business owners from town and surrounding towns. We've become friends with a lot of our customers. It's been an amazing journey," he said.
But an act of generosity toward their town's first responders landed the small business owners in a really stressful and frightening situation.
"We use our cellphones for our business," he explained. "We've done that since we had the food trailer. When we're trying to operate on a Friday or Saturday night and we're getting bombarded about donation stuff, it gets a little crazy. Then when we blocked him, he started calling my wife's number."
After donating to a telephone fundraiser for the police union in previous years, Doucette told a caller it wasn't in the cards this year and to stop calling. But then, his phone wouldn't stop ringing, different numbers, even threatening violence against the couple and their family.
"I've told many telemarketers off in my lifetime, I've never had an experience like this afterward," Doucette said.
Doucette went to Billerica Police, who immediately began investigating the threats. Their union, which raises money for scholarship programs, and sick and wounded police officers, has cut ties with their outside fundraising vendor TCI America.
In a statement, the New England Police Benevolent Association said: "These actions are reprehensible, criminal, and have zero connection to the dedicated men and women of the Billerica Police Department."
Doucette hopes other cities and towns will follow Billerica's lead, parting ways with vendors who seem like their local police but are not.
"If you don't answer them or ignore them, they keep calling you, calling you, calling you," Doucette said. "You don't know who's working for these companies that have your information."
