Police: Make donations for fallen officers' families directly | Crime

Beware of solicitors asking for donations to help the family members of the four fallen Lakewood police officers.

Lakewood police officers said such solicitations are not authorized by any law enforcement agency.

"Nobody, none of my people are calling anybody," said Brian Wurts with the Police Guild. "There is no direct solicitation that's happening. We are not sending out e-mails asking for money. So if anybody gets that kind of stuff, it is not coming from any our our recognized representatives."

Wurts said he's heard of telemarketers calling for donations, then keeping the bulk of the money for the call center. Investigators also found postings for donations on eBay, and requested they be taken down.

Wurts knows there are some people out there who, out of the kindness of their hearts, are just trying to collect funds to help the family members of the fallen officers. But he fears some people may be taking advantage of the tragedy to make a quick buck.

"This is very disturbing to us. If anybody is trying to make money off of my four dead cops, I'm going to find out. And if there's fraud, we're going to come after them. And I want to be very clear about that. If there's a warrant to be written, I'll write it myself."

Why go through a third party when you can make a donation directly to the fund? That way, you know exactly where your money's going.

The Police Guild urges anyone who'd like to make a donation to do so at one of the following locations:

All donations collected at the above locations will go toward a trust fund being set up for the nine children of the slain officers.