For-profit collections for troops raise alarm bells

A for-profit company called out by the Better Business Bureau for questionable business practices is collecting donations for military care packages in Sioux Falls.

A young man with Patriot Packaging Sales approached Paula Pardy two days ago at her south Sioux Falls home to sell a care package.

"No lies were told. He was a friendly young man. He was very pleasant — he told me his grandpa was in the military," Pardy said.

Pardy was in a hurry, she said, and wrote the check.

"My brother-in-law was in the military, so I kind of have a soft spot," she said.

She later looked up the company online and learned that Patriot Packaging Sales is not a nonprofit corporation, but a for-profit enterprise. Pardy reached out the Argus Leader as soon as she found out.

Others who have been approached by company representatives in other cities and states have raised similar concerns. The Better Business Bureau issued an alert about the company in April after hearing from a woman in Columbia, Mo., who told a similar tale.

The consumer protection agency soon learned that the company was recently founded in the Twin Cities. The BBB alert was issued after staff members contacted a man named Scott Crawford, who said he was a co-owner of the company.

Crawford told the BBB that 20 percent of collections go to the solicitor — the packages are priced at $40 — and an unknown amount goes to overhead. He was unsure how much of each donation is used for care packages.

According to the company's website, Patriot Packaging Sales is not a registered 501(c)(3), but the company is "equally dedicated to providing support for our nation's deployed soldiers."

A call to the company's listed phone number returned an automated message saying the mailbox for Ryan Choinski was full and could not accept new messages.

The company isn't listed as one with a peddler's license for the city of Sioux Falls, according to police spokesman Sam Clemens. Choinski's name isn't registered on the peddler's license list either. The list of approved peddlers can be viewed at www.siouxfalls.org/police/peddler.

Patriot Packaging Sales LLC is not a registered corporation with the South Dakota Secretary of State, and the name isn't registered as a fictitious business name.

Sara Rabern, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's consumer protection division, said Tuesday that the division would welcome any information from consumers in South Dakota about Patriot Packaging Sales.

The consumer protection division's number is 1-800-300-1986.

Pardy hopes that others will take notice and think twice before offering a donation. After reading the notice from the BBB, "I don't have a lot of confidence that the donation I made is going to end up with the troops."

- John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog for Argus Leader Media. You can call him at 605-331-2301 or 605-370-8617. You can tweet him @ArgusJHult or find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog .