PHARR - Jugs used to collect donations for sick children can be found from Roma to South Padre Island. The jugs are decorated with photos of children, including a sick baby in a hospital bed.
It may look like a legitimate cause. But CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the photos were downloaded from the Internet.
We investigated where the money is going. The trail led us to one man's pocket.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS discovered paid volunteers go to small businesses throughout the Valley and ask if they can put a jug on the counter.
Several store owners allow the jugs to be placed in the stores, because they tell us they feel sorry for the children.
Mary Morin says sympathy is the reason the collection jugs fill up with cash.
Morin used to work for Extra Hand Volunteers of Texas, the organization behind the jugs.
"I had a route, anywhere from 60-70 jugs in the route. We'd pick them up and count the money. For every jar, we wrote down how much was inside," she explains.
We learned each jug holds about $60 when it's full.
With 70 jugs per route, that amounts to: $4,200 in a week $16,000 in a month Over $200,000 a year That's for just one volunteer.
The paid volunteers who leave the jugs in stores instruct the businesses on the procedure.
"Don't hand this to anyone, unless they have this tag," says Hugo Gonzalez, one store owner. Later the paid volunteers return and walk away with money in hand.
Morin says she and other employees were told to keep a percentage of your donations.
She recalls, "They'd say, 'Sixty, 40, 30, 50 percent of the money will be yours. So get to work, get donations."
Morin showed us her routes, which included Starr and Zapata counties.
She tells us she drove her own car, but got $50 a day for gas.
She tells us she was paid under the table.
Morin says, "We'd ask for a check and he'd tell us it's not something we should report to the IRS."
She claims she made hundreds of dollars a week.
The money Morin and other volunteers collected was taken to the Extra Hand Volunteers office in Pharr.
Ricardo Gracia is the director of Extra Hand Volunteers.
He calls himself an "authorized professional fundraiser."
He claims to collect money for national charities.
Our investigation uncovered a loophole allowing people to operate charities with very little oversight and no real accountability.
We learned from the Texas Secretary of State that Texas does not require unincorporated charities or professional fundraisers to register.
That means nobody's watching Gracia and no one really knows what's happening the money donated.
Gracia's Extra Hand Volunteers raises money for charities outside the Valley and outside of the state.
One of them was the Children's Fire and Burn Fund. But CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the foundation severed all ties with Gracia.
"I had no idea what was collected, no control over it," says Daniel Moran of the Children's Fire and Burn Fund.
"I just didn't think it was a good thing for the foundation." The foundation's president got suspicious when Gracia expanded his campaign to other parts of Texas.
"I didn't think that was appropriate," explains Moran. "The program was out of control. That's not what we agreed to."
The foundation also learned Gracia was using a certificate with the burn fund's name and the director's forged signature.
They told Gracia to stop raising money and to stop using their name.
According to the foundation, Gracia gave them $400 after several months of fundraising.
Morin, the former "volunteer" we spoke to, says she made hundreds of dollars a week.
Morin claims she was fired when she told Gracia she was going to the police.
She says he threatened to have her deported.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS found out Gracia is now raising money for a new charity in New Jersey, the American Children's Society.
Tax records show the organization is run by a family who operates the non-profit out of its car dealership.
The man at the charity we spoke to says Gracia gives him 30 percent of everything he collects from the Valley's jug drive.
He tells us Gracia sends them sheets of how much he collects.
However he couldn't tell us exactly how much money Gracia collected or gave to them.
But if Gracia is supposed to give the charity 30 percent of his collections, that leaves the other 70 percent unaccounted for.
We asked Gracia where the money was going.
He wouldn't answer our questions, but he promised a sit-down interview if we returned.
We did. When he finally sat down with us, we had a hard time getting a straight answer.
When we asked about money for the charity he's working for now, he couldn't give us a figure.
"It just depends on what's collected, and I don't know how much it is," Gracia tells us.
He added, "I like to give to the community." But he didn't explain what community, as the charity he raises money for isn't local.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS took our findings to the Texas Attorney General.
We were told investigators are aware of Gracia's activity.
But they won't comment on any ongoing investigations.
We'll keep monitoring Extra Hand Volunteers and any others who may be cheating charity.
Meanwhile, the American Institute of Philanthropy recommends you research every time you donate.
You can get some help with that online.
If you're unsure those collecting are legitimate, keep your money in your pocket.
hey were paid straight from the jugs.
