Fraud in W-S Rescue Mission golf event

[PhDeac]

https://www.journalnow.com/news/loc...cle_ad44e439-4257-5ecd-aca5-40436467489a.html

Folks at the Rescue Mission had for months been promoting “A Day with PGA Tour Champion and Ryder Cup Captain Steve Stricker.”

For $7,500, participants could play a private round with Stricker and eat breakfast with him. Sponsorship opportunities were offered to companies at different levels between $500 and $5,000. The point man for the Rescue Mission was listed as one Rob Hillmer.

Meanwhile, poor Steve Stricker had no idea any of this was happening. He found out via Twitter — Twitter! — at home in Wisconsin.

And while the named celebrity was beginning to learn how he’d been used, some 200 golfers paid to play — or came as guests of big-name sponsor companies — and showed up Thursday morning at Maple Chase.

 

[Dekin]

https://www.journalnow.com/news/loc...cle_ad44e439-4257-5ecd-aca5-40436467489a.html

Folks at the Rescue Mission had for months been promoting “A Day with PGA Tour Champion and Ryder Cup Captain Steve Stricker.”

For $7,500, participants could play a private round with Stricker and eat breakfast with him. Sponsorship opportunities were offered to companies at different levels between $500 and $5,000. The point man for the Rescue Mission was listed as one Rob Hillmer.

Meanwhile, poor Steve Stricker had no idea any of this was happening. He found out via Twitter — Twitter! — at home in Wisconsin.

And while the named celebrity was beginning to learn how he’d been used, some 200 golfers paid to play — or came as guests of big-name sponsor companies — and showed up Thursday morning at Maple Chase.

So......where is Rob Hillmer and the money?

 

[deacondamo]

The executive director of the Rescue Mission bailed this guy out of jail in VA. They certainly can't claim ignorance. Heads need to roll and ol' Hillmer needs to go back to jail.

 

[Liquid Karma]

This happened at my club. It's been a surreal few days since it went down.

First off, the Mission absolutely has a problem here based solely on bailing Hillmer out of jail for writing bad checks and still keeping him in a position where he was involved in financial operations. That info coming out has caused everyone to reexamine the rescue mission as an innocent victim in all of this, which is a shake because at face value they seem like an outstanding organization.

It's been reported that Hillmer tried to peddle the same Stricker scam to Mark Brazil and Sedgefield. Brazil followed up on the Stricker connection, found out it was bullshit, and refused to work with them to put on an event. At that point, I'm wondering why someone on that end didnt notify the other PGA section pros to be on the lookout for this scam. Maybe they field dozens of these requests that are unverifiable and just move on, or the reporting is off.

The claim that reps from the mission went silent is bullshit. For both the morning and afternoon wave of the event they gave a speech explaining the situation and informing every participant they could get a full refund if they wanted. And the actual golf event itself went off very well thanks to all the rescue mission volunteers as well as the staff at the club.

No clue where Hillmer and the money have gone, or how much he managed to steal, or if this is a one off or has occurred multiple times.

It's amazing that nobody at any time in the last 6 months managed to alert Stricker about this via social media tagging.

 

[ConnorEl]

After false claim that PGA golfer would host event, rescue mission fires organizer, promises refunds

...The rescue mission said in a statement that it has completed an internal investigation of the incident and determined that all money from the tournament is accounted for. The organization declined to say how much money it received from the tournament, but said Rob Hillmer, who was hired as marketing manager after completing a recovery program at the mission, received “no financial benefit” from the scheme.

“Why Mr. Hillmer engaged in an elaborate deception which yielded no financial benefit to him remains as much a mystery to us as it does to the community,” the rescue mission said in the statement. “Anything more as to his motive would be speculation.”

The mission said it was deceived by Hillmer.

Hillmer, who has a lengthy criminal record, claimed that he was a close relative of Strickers’ and had direct access to him, the mission said.

“When the deception first came to light, we had more questions than answers — like everyone else,” the rescue mission said in the statement. “In response to this sad situation, the mission leadership acknowledges that while we did not create the deception, as Mr. Hillmer’s former employer and as the host of this event, we are responsible for the results coming from it.”...