ASHLAND — The organizer for Saturday’s downtown Ashland car show is warning the hundreds of car owners expected to show up of an attempted scam through Facebook.
Sandra Tunnell, organizer for this year’s Ashland Downtown Dream Cruise and Car Show, said someone attempted to scam money out of an unsuspecting car show goer on Wednesday.
First of all, there are no pre-registration requirements for participants, Tunnell said.
Secondly, there is no set cost for registration, parking or for gaining an “access code” to the event. She said the alleged scammer tried to charge someone for all of the above.
Tunnell said she has notified the police. Chief Dave Lay said he is aware of the issue, but verified that there has not been a formal complaint filed with the department.
“That tells me there is no real victim,” he said.
Nevertheless, Tunnell is disturbed.
“It horrifies me that someone is doing something like this,” Tunnell said. “I just want people to recognize it as a scam.”
The annual car show serves as a fundraiser for Shop With a Cop, an Ashland Division of Police program that provides parents in need an allowance to shop for toys ahead of the Christmas holiday and season.
Last year’s car show raised $25,000, Tunnell said.
She said the car show does not require participants to pre-register. Instead, registration is done day-of.
“That’s the whole idea, we tell them when they register that all the money goes to Shop With a Cop. It’s great to be able to tell them we have this event that allows all the money to go to this awesome charity and everyone is on board with that. I mean, we get $100 bills when we tell them that,” Tunnell said.
So far, since 2010, the event has resulted in roughly $200,000 raised for the APD program.
Tunnell said last year there were around 700 cars that signed up to participate in the show that takes up most of Ashland’s downtown district.
The festivities begin at noon and wrap up by 3 p.m. Spectators and participants will have food choices from two “food courts.”
One of them will be located in the Corner Park parking lot. The other will be located along Second Street.
Following the show, all participating cars are invited on a “dream cruise” through some of Ashland’s neighborhoods.