Lakewood Police Warn Of Scam 'Fallen Officer Food Drive'

LAKEWOOD, WA — The Lakewood Police Department is sounding the alarm after they received multiple reports of a new phone scam in their area.

According to those reports, scammers have been calling Lakewood residents, posing as officers and asking for donations for a "Fallen Officer Food Drive."

The problem: there is no such food drive. Lakewood police say they won't have their next food drive until November, and even then their officers will never call around asking for money.

As the department explained on Facebook:

"We do our "solicitation" the same way every year. We post it on Facebook and Twitter, we put it up on our reader board, and websites, and we work with Emergency Food Network to mail out donor letters for those who have asked to be on that list. WE DO NOT CALL YOU. Ever."

The department says the scam is an important reminder to stay vigilant. They say if you receive a scam call like it, or any call you think is suspicious, just hang up and call the company the scammer claims to be representing. In fact, that's how police first got tipped off to this food drive scam: a concerned citizen told the scammer he'd bring the money to the department himself and hung up, then called police.

"We are so thankful he trusted his instincts and reached out to us in person, both for his wallet, and so that we can send out this notice to beware," the department said.