A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

After being turned away from the Yuma Lakes RV Resort day before yesterday, we ended up at Pilot Knob RV Park west of Yuma. We've stayed here before, as this is an RPI park, and it's real close to the border town of Alogodones, Mexico. We'll be moving to the Yuma Fairgrounds on Saturday.

First thing yesterday morning, I was burning up the cellular airwaves, trying to find out what local agency was in charge of regulating business advertising. I also placed a call to the Yuma Lakes RV park, and after listening to the same recorded message, I once again left a message that I would like to speak to the manager. I guess no one ever picks up the phone at this place, and they have never returned any of my calls. One of the next calls was to the corporate office of Colorado River Adventures (CRA) in Parker, AZ. I actually spoke to a live body, who passed me off to the voice mail of Mark Wade, the CRA Operations Manager. My message to him was that there was a problem with Yuma Lakes, and he needed to call me back A.S.A.P. That call was returned at about 5:30pm yesterday, more on that later.

We drove into Yuma, and I decided to stop at the Sheriff's Office, to see if someone there could direct me to the proper agency that has some oversight regarding business advertising. I met with Deputy Meyer, and explained the whole story about Yuma Lakes. Yesterday's post explains the entire situation if you're not up to speed. Deputy Meyer made copies of the flyer, which offered an RV site, and a $100 gift certificate from WalMart, then did some research in respect to business advertising. I made it clear that I was simply trying to find out where the best place was to lodge a complaint against this business, so that perhaps, other folks would not be subjected to the experience that we went through.

Deputy Meyer admitted that this was the first time she had taken a report of this nature, but after checking the Arizona Administrative Code, she found a misdemeanor statute 13-2203, that regulates business advertising, and more specifically, addresses the issue of "false advertising". She wanted to consult with her supervisor to make sure she wasn't misinterpreting the statute, and asked me if I wanted to pursue the investigation. My answer was unhesitatingly "yes", and she logged the case number as 2012-14530. She also made it clear, that if it was determined that the criminal code wasn't applicable, the Sheriff's Department would not get involved with a civil situation. She agreed to get back to me as the investigation moved forward.

We left the Sheriff's Department, driving over to the fairgrounds, where we visited with Tom & Barbara Westerfield, our friends from the FMCA Golden Spike RV Chapter. We also chatted with Nick and Terry Russell, the proprietors of the Gypsy Journal, who are putting on the RV Rally that begins this weekend. After a nice visit, we agreed to meet later for dinner, and we then went computer shopping.

When we arrived back at the fairgrounds around 5:30, I got a return phone call from Mark Wade, the Operations Manager of CRA. I won't get into a lot of details, but suffice it to say that after hearing my story, Mr. Wade apologized for the way we were treated, and his emphasis was that it was more of an employee problem. We should have been allowed to stay at the $10 advertised rate, and he was going to address the problem at Yuma Lakes today. He thanked me for bringing this to his attention, and assured me that it wouldn't happen again. After the conversation ended, I thought to myself that he said all of the right things, hopefully it wasn't just BS.

We had a nice dinner & conversation with Tom & Barb at Cracker Barrel, and today, we're off to buy a new laptop.