Many people have asked for a condensed version of the story to post on other places. I am
not a journalist but I typed up an article that can be used and shared on whatever website, newspaper, bulletin board that will get the word out. If any body knows how to post a blog online and get more hits maybe we can figure out how to get it onto yahoo and aol top stories.
I will just do a copy and paste but if you want it emailed as an html or word document just let me know.
The Not So WISE Scam
In today’s electronic era forums are popping up all over the place to allow people with like interests and hobbies a place to meet. In many of those forums the members become like family. When one member is going through a hard time the community comes together to do what they can in order to make life a little easier. This is what happened on Fauna Classifieds. Chuck Kimmel, a long time member and family of the community, had a heart attack. The community came together and had auctions for his wife Maggie and their three children, Angelina (8), Annie (6) and Charlie (19 months). . Previous to Chuck’s heart attack and passing another family member of the community, Rick Morro tragically lost a daughter. The Morros’ had no insurance and the community also came together for Rick and his family to help with some of the added expenses.
These auctions were ran by Jeff and Christina Wise out of Flint, MI. Many members donated reptiles and reptile related items for other members to bid on with all proceeds supposed to be going to Chuck’s widow and their three children or to Rick’s family. The community raised thousands of dollars for their online family in their time of grief. All the proceeds of these auctions went directly into Christina Wise’s PayPal account under the name of Christina Horn. These funds were supposed to be transferred directly to Rick Morro and Maggie Kimmel. Christina did forward two payments of $800 into Maggie’s paypal and $440 into Rick’s account.
Christina and Jeff Wise started going on a shopping spree within the community making many of the members wonder if the money was going to the proper places. Because many people were questioning them Jeff Wise posted a list of all money collected and what money went to each person. The totals that were given to the community was $5453 going to Maggie and $908 going to Rick. Many members of the community feel these figures are low due to cash donations that went unreported. Even with these figures the Wise’s owe the Kimmel family $3853 and owe the Morro family $468.
A respected member of the community, David Gruning, took it upon himself to attempt to collect the rest of the money from the Wise’s without making it public knowledge. Christina Wise then produced a forged check and forged bank records as proof she paid Maggie an additional $3500. When David proved that this was forged and was unable to collect the money owed he made it public in the Fauna BOI. (
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=179622)*Warning members of the community are extremely shocked and outraged by Jeff and Christina Wise.
When it went public the Wise’s, in an attempt to justify their actions, first blamed it on a drug addiction and were going to allow David Gruning to pick up their animal collection to sell in order to come up with the funds. When David was on his way to pick up the collection Christina called him stating that she was advised by an attorney and the police not to give up any animals. Christina and Jeff Wise then started deleting everyone from Fauna from all of their social sites and closed their website(
www.wisereptiles.com), trying to cover up their tracks. It was clear the families were not going to see their money without pursuing this further.
To add even further insult one of the $800 deposits into Maggie’s PayPal account is now being disputed by Christina’s bank. This has frozen Maggie’s PayPal account not allowing the community to send her donations directly. Maggie is needing these funds to assure she can work this summer to provide for her family. Rick was planning on using the rest of the donations for a headstone for his daughter’s grave.
The actions of these two individuals is inexcusable and immediate justice is needed.
