Pleasant Prairie Police Department

2007 New Releases Archive

02/15/2007 | Police Concerned about Increase in Panhandling
(PLEASANT PRAIRIE, WI) The Pleasant Prairie Police Department has seen a significant increase in panhandling complaints and concerns are rising that these may be related to other crimes occurring in the village said Pleasant Prairie Police Chief Brian Wagner.

“The past six months or so we have seen one or two of these complaints reported to the police each week and I am sure that there are many that go unreported”, Wagner said. The department has received some 22 complaints over the past six months from residents who have had a knock at their door. According to Wagner, in these incidents residents report that a male came to their door asking for money. “The person usually has some story designed to elicit sympathy from the resident such as needing money for a child’s medication or needing money for gas so that the person can get to the hospital to visit a dying parent”, he said. Often older people are targeted.

The Village of Pleasant Prairie has an ordinance that prohibits begging and the concern is that such activity may lead to other more serious crimes. “It is not a huge leap to go from knocking at the door to breaking in when it appears no one is home.”

The Pleasant Prairie Police Department is asking residents who experience this type of activity to not give the person money but rather to call the police immediately. Any physical description or vehicle information that a resident can provide, especially a license plate number is very helpful. “Our desire is to identify these people, enforce the ordinance and then explore what if any other crimes they might be involved in and we need our residents to help us to do that.”, Wagner said.

An archived copy of this and other Pleasant Prairie Police Department News Releases is available on the department’s website at www.pppd.info.

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