POLICE OFFICER OF THE YEAR FEBRUARY 27, 2014
and has two children, Kyle, age 17 and Brooke, age 13.
Carol Gulbrand
Carol Gulbrand is a 10-year WalMart service desk
employee, honored with assisting Sgt. Bruce Jacobs of
the Manitowoc Police Department to protect Manitowoc
area citizens from scammers.
One often-used scam is for the perpetrator to call a potential
victim, posing as a relative, and asking that money
be sent to alleviate some dire circumstance. It can
be very convincing because of the availability of family
information on the Internet. Rather than sending cash or
a personal check, for safety’s sake it is suggested that the
victim use a wire transfer service offered through
financial institutions, check cashing businesses, or large retail stores.
“After getting literally hundreds of phone calls from people who lost thousands of dollars
from scams,” stated Sgt. Jacobs, “I decided that public presentations, radio spots and
newspaper articles were not reaching nearly enough people. I decided to go to the businesses
that were wiring the money, beginning with Wal-Mart.”
Carol immediately recognized the seriousness of the situation, especially after learning
that much of the scammed money goes to terrorists. She began to gently query customers
who wanted to send money through the MoneyGram® service offered at Walmart to
determine if they might be potential scam victims, and call Sgt. Jacobs if suspicions were
raised. Carol served as a good role model, causing other WalMart employees and other
businesses and banks to buy in to the effort. Success was soon realized. In one 52-day
period, 24 scams were intercepted, saving $46,045.00 from going to scammers.
“While it might be easier and less embarrassing to just complete the customers’ requests,
Carol chose to do the right thing because she cares about people and her community,”
said Sgt. Jacobs. “She has taken it upon herself to be a champion in preventing
community loss through internet, lottery, family-in-need, or Money Gram scams.”