Aug 20, 2008 11:18 pm US/Eastern
Plea To Help Dying Children May Be A Hoax
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A plea to help sick and dying children may have been a hoax.
CBS
A plea to help sick and dying children may have been a hoax. That's the warning from Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Dennis Edwards has talked to the hospital about the case.
The pediatrics center is the apparent beneficiary of a magazine subscription offered when a Towson woman tried to sponsor a young baseball player. But Johns Hopkins is warning the public to beware of any door-to-door fundraiser involving their name.
Mary Ann became suspicious when she couldn't contact the company printed on the receipt. It contains a reference to sending a magazine subscription to the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. The boy said he was a neighbor who lived down the street from her Stags Head Road home.
"I called some people on Huntsman Road. They never heard the name Pierce," she said.
This isn't the first time Johns Hopkins has gotten a complaint about someone soliciting in their name by someone not connected with them at all.
"That is not the case. We are not in any way connected with the magazine company so in turn we wanted to let the public know that they should be aware of potential scams," said Kim Hoppe with Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Mary Ann hopes the young boy was legitimate. She says she just doesn't want to be taken advantage of.
"It wasn't frightening at all. I mean, I've had issues in my life that were pretty hair-raising. This was just kind of a thing to wonder about," she said.
So far, police haven't been called in and there are no suspects.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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