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Three loaded into Playa del Carmen police truck on allegations of illegally collecting donations

Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — Three people were loaded into the back of a police unit in central Playa del Carmen on Tuesday after they were reported for asking for money. The two men and one woman were removed from store fronts after being reported for asking for donations for the organization Acción Animal.

While the organization is real, the authorization to collect money on their behalf is not.

“We met a group of people ‘bouncing’ on behalf of the association in Bancomer and in the 3 Hermanos shoe store. Apparently these people had already come to the association as ‘volunteers’…. Please, we ask for your support to be able to solve this fraud,” published Acción Animal on social media.

Acción Animal was aware of the threesome asking for donations on their behalf in Playa del Carmen since they had been reported to Acción Animal the day before. However, it was not until Tuesday that they were located after a public report was called in to 911.

Acción Animal said that the three people have been doing it since 2019, and although they were aware of them, they were never able to locate them.

“In 2019, we received a report from an association that hired young people and made them ask for donations on behalf of Animal Action. Part of the money collected was left for the boys and the balance was taken by a woman from Mérida who came to look for it weekly, of course without giving that money to the association,” they said on social media.

“At that time, we found out by chance from a boy, but we couldn’t find out who they were or where we could locate them to sue. As we were investigating, they disappeared, but [now] they returned with a new technique to deceive volunteers who do not know the association and thus, hire children to ask for money for the association, of course, without authorization.”

Acción Animal said the resources collected were used for their own benefit. Municipal police were quick to move in and remove the two men and one woman from the street where they were asking for the cash donations. They were arrested for fraud.