Gilroy PD, KMVT and Santa Clara DA Team Up

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office and Mountain View-based  have partnered to create public service announcements that could help prevent crimes.

This past Friday, Deputy District Attorney Janet Berry and Gilroy Police Department Sgt. Chad Gallacinao taped a segment about landscaping scams taking place in the south county city.

"We are thrilled with this situation," said Sean Webby, media coordinator for the DA's office. "We don't have the skills or experience to do even an amateur job."

According to Webby, some landscapers have targeted elderly people in Gilroy and do a mediocre—if not bad—job and then left with the victim's money, without rendering good service. These public service announcements, he explained, would hopefully help prevent people from getting scammed, or at the very least, encourage them to report this fraud.

He wants people to realize that the DA's office doesn't always set out to prosecute. They also try to do outreach.

"With these landscaping scams, we said 'lets's get out in front of this,'" said Webby. "Often agencies put out PSA's after the fact, but this is a situation that we thought we should try to get out in front of."

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