Letters to the Editor

Scam of the Month

My neighbor passed on this [9/18/26 Beachcomber scanner] article to me entitled Carson St at Cherry Avenue because a similar encounter happened to me.

I was at Sprouts on Woodruff & Carson on 7/14/26. A tall middle eastern man was behind me at the checkout acting suspiciously. By that I mean he didn’t stand patiently to my left but kept walking behind me as I made my transaction.

Then, when I walked to my SUV and was unloading the groceries, this same man tapped me on the shoulder and startled me. He said that I left $10 in the checkout machine. I know I hadn’t but he was very persistent. He took out his wallet and showed me his wallet full of cash. When he saw that I was taken aback, he reassured me that he was not there to harm me. I made a costly mistake by taking my wallet out and checking and during that time he got closer to shake my hand.

It was during this scary encounter that I believe he pick-pocketed my debit card! But I did not realize this until I arrived home. My phone was in my purse and when I finally retrieved it, there was a fraud alert from Chase Bank for $750! That’s when I looked in my wallet and saw my Chase debit card was gone. I immediately called Chase Bank to report it and later found that they had taken thousands from my account.

I can’t tell you how hopeless and upset I felt when I realized what this individual had done. He totally took me by surprise as this happened at 2 in the afternoon and took advantage of my vulnerability! Please tell your customers to be careful and vigilant. It sounds like we have a ring of thieves in our midst. I also reported this to LBPD as well.

Please do not put my name out there! This has been difficult to report as I feel so foolish for being polite to this stranger! But I felt you needed to know in case there are other victims of this crime out there.

Name Withheld

Incredible Heat

Wow, it’s hot! And who’s to blame? We are!

Every tree that’s been taken down because it’s in the wrong place (like we’re not?), every forest that’s been clear-cut by corporate greed, and all the trendy excuses that go with these, have brought us to this moment in time, not as if we haven’t been warned.

Much to some of my neighbors’ chagrin – and in opposition to the prevailing philosophy that yards should be landscaped according to and in compliance with the latest fashion – I have managed to retain my trees in the midst of the continuing complaints, the latest being scare tactics about the potential for even healthy trees to fall. Never mind that during this incredible heat, my house was 15 degrees cooler than outside with no air conditioning whatsoever: only the natural cooling of the trees.

The animals know where to go. Squirrels come to my house to play amongst the lush, shade-giving trees. Lizards go to my neighbor’s house to bask in the hot sun on the dry and barren dirt. And the people? They’re locked in their air-conditioned houses, using up a lot of resources and paying way too much for it!

Despite publicly decrying the trees that provide it, secretly they seem to want shade too: since taking their own trees down, they regularly rush to park their cars under the trees in front of my house, the only shade remaining on the street.

The benefits of trees are too numerous to name. Among them are oxygen for us to breathe, cleansing the air of pollutants, cooling, providing habitat, increasing property and neighborhood values, and protecting us with a general sense of well-being.

If you don’t believe it, on one of these unnaturally hot days (provided to us by the denuding of the earth) try standing under a tree … if you can find one.

Merry Colvin