America's Forgotten Heroes Tribute Van Charity Fraud

Kris Crawford's tribute van is now supposedly being "run" by k9 handlers and veterinarians. 

From the About Us page

America's Forgotten Heroes is a nonprofit program run by K9 handlers and veterinarians dedicated to honoring the invaluable service, loyalty and sacrifices of America's Search-and Rescue Dogs, Police Dogs and Military Working Dogs, past and present.


Our mantra is Remember-Honor-Celebrate so we transformed a 1991 ambulance into an extraordinary rolling tribute to Search-and-Rescue (SAR), Police and Military Working Dogs - America’s Forgotten Heroes. Hundreds of thousands of people owe their lives to the courage and devotion of these animals, yet the dogs are oftentimes forgotten. So the America's Forgotten Heroes tribute vehicle was created to tell their stories.


The vehicle tours military bases, makes appearances at law enforcement award ceremonies and police dog events, pet expos, parades, schools, Boys & Girls Clubs and other public events raising awareness and honoring these four-legged heroes as well as their handlers.The America’s Forgotten Heroes Tribute vehicle was created to Remember these devoted animals, Honor their courage and sacrifices, and Celebrate the human-canine bond.

The handler shown in the image is Corporal Garvin. 

This image is intended to imply that Corporal Garvin is one the k9 handlers that "runs" her scam van.  

Corporal Garvin, Riverside Sheriff k-9 handler with his search Hound Dog Inga 

Who are these "us" individuals? Where is the transparency? Perhaps Dr. Cristi Derenzi-Blackwolf may be one of these "us" veterinarians. Dr. Blackwolf is employed at Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, California.  Dr. Blackwolf's first-aid website www.canine1staid.com is 
owned by Kris Crawford.

  

Dr. Blackwolf's (Dr. Derenzi) name is listed as the author of Crawford's self-written press releases. 

 

Dr. Cristi Blackwolf DVM, Adobe Animal Hospital

 According to the IRS website, there is no 501-C (3) or 990 on file for Americas Forgotten Heroes.
 Could it be she is funneling her donations to her pit bull charity?

For Pits' Sake is Crawford's charity to raise awareness about dog fighting and to promote pit bulls so it is unclear how this relates to her charity to memorialize working dogs. I believe this is called over-reaching.

Listen to how Crawford stumbles on her words.  

"its to help raise awareness about... huh um.... (ooops, I meant) a lot of people  raise awareness about dog fighting"

Here braggo-Crawford claims that she was the most active search dog team in the world for 6 years yet this statement cannot be proven and she knows it, she worked the Lacy Peterton case (actually, she was just there,) and she was the first person to certify pit bulls in the field of SAR. 

She forgot to mention that she was also the first SAR person to steal a human skeleton and be convicted for grand theft .

Crawford asks for donations on her scam van website. 

The America's Forgotten Heroes tribute vehicle receives daily invitations to attend a variety of events. If you and/or your organization are interested in having this wonderful and unique rolling tribute to our four-footed canine heroes at your event, please contact us and include the date and location of your event.

 Depending on the event and location, a formal agreement may be sent for signature confirming the date(s) outlining the cost, and deposit requirement.

Donations are critical for the maintenance and travel costs of theAmerica's Forgotten Heroes tribute vehicle. Please help us ensure that our educational mission continues with a tax deductible donation, so that America's four-footed heroes are not forgotten.

This image is painted on the scam van. This image has striking resemblance to the photo taken at Navy Seal Jon Tumilson's funeral.   I wonder if Crawford got permission from Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson's family to use this heart wrenching image of Hawkeye, Tumilson's loyal dog who refused to leave his side even in death. 

Kristine Crawford for pits sake

Navy Seal Jon Tumilson, Hawkeye

         

Below is the authentic image.  




















Crawford shamelessly leverages her scam van with military veterans to garner donations. 

Americas forgotten heroes tribute van

Please do not donate to fraudulent charities, especially ones that exploit our military veterans, first responders, working dogs, and law enforcement to promote their personal agendas.

America's Forgotten Heroes Tribute Van, How it came to be

Kris Crawford's

  Scam Van

                                                        Americas Forgotten Heroes

America's Forgotten Heroes Tribute Van, owned by Kris R. Crawford, AKA
Kris Dawglander, of For Pits Sake

Kris Dawghandler Crawford contacts Nationally acclaimed airbrush artist Mickey Harris  from Tennessee to paint her America's Forgotten Heroes van. He and his wife are also huge dog lovers which made it all the easier for Crawford to persuade him to donate his time.  Read full story here

Mr. Harris is an accomplished airbrush artist and is known for his patriotism and love of his country, which is reflected in many of his most famous works to date.  

He donates much of his time and artistic skills to military, veteran programs and charities.  He has done work for the Fisher House and Achilles Foundation.  

His list of accomplishments is endless, but to list a few, he is four time winner of the DuPont To-Gun award, and  is a member of the Pentagon Art Program. 

 Mr. Harris has been commissioned by corporations such as General Motors, CNN, and the Pentagon. 

March 13, 2012

Airbrush Artist Mickey Harris in Banning to Work on 'K9 Heroes' Ambulance Job

"I do a lot of charity stuff," Harris said. "This is a great cause for the dogs. They want to have a vehicle to bring awareness to service dogs. And to tell you the truth when the woman (he's referring to Kris Crawford) emailed me at first I looked at it and I read through what she was wanting and I thought 'You know I do so much charity, nyaaah' . . . kind of I was blowing it off.

"Now my wife, I call her Ellie Mae Clampett, because my wife is a huge animal lover and we have 16 dogs ourselves. She started conversing back-and-forth over the internet with Kris, the lady that brought this project to us, and it didn't take too long between those two, with information she was sending, very cool stories about the sacrifices these dogs make, it became very emotional for my wife, and that was it for me."

"it's small potatoes to what I normally charge," Harris said. "The artwork on this would normally be about a $30,000 job. And they're basically picking up the room and board, you know, that kind of stuff."


"Some of the money that was raised to get me out here was raised by some Vietnam vets, and they said they didn't want any recognition out of it. The lady (Kris) who set this up asked them why, and they said, 'Because we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for those dogs we had in Vietnam. And when we left Vietnam, America didn't bring those dogs back. They either shot them in the head, executed them, or left them in-country. It's a travesty and it still haunts us to this day that we didn't bring those dogs back.'

 Video Mr. Harris a true patriot, unveiling his dedication to Billy Mitchell at the Pentagon.   

March 20, 2012

Airbrush Artist's Tribute to Service K9s Nearly Ready for Public View in Banning

Read full story here  

AmericasForgottenHeroes.com  

AmericasForgottenHeroes.org

Why would someone buy both .org and .com domain names?

Kris Crawford has now shut down her websites

                                       



Watch video of the making of the America's Forgotten Heroes Tribute van.


The comments are disabled from her youtube video. Wouldn't one think that if Crawford truly wanted to honor these k9 forgotten heroes she would welcome comments?

K9 Tribute Ambulance May be Displayed this Saturday, Wednesday in Riverside

Read the full story here 

March 29, 2012
The big reveal has come, and one year later, its gone. 

Here's a comment left on the Patch from someone Crawford swindled. 

Kimberly R. Kelly 9:16 pm on Monday, April 23, 2012 In no way, shape or form do I want to diminish the painter's amazing work - I do think it's important to point out that the woman that owns this ambulance, Kristine Crawford, and who organized all the donations for this is a convicted felon (embezzlement, theft of a human skeleton) who was also found liable for faking cancer for financial gain. She is a notorious fraud who has claimed, among other things, that her father died at 9/11. She was removed from search and rescue volunteer work in California, had her disaster service worker coverage revoked with a guilty/no contest plea in a criminal case, resigned when investigated by Alameda County Sheriff's Department's Internal Affairs where she volunteered in search and rescue, and has falsified nearly all of her most incredible claims. She has been found civilly liable in CA civil court, and sentenced in CA criminal court. She does not have permission to have the Riverside County Sheriff's Department depicted, as it is, and she does not have permission from the AP photographer who took the 9/11 photographs, as far as I can ascertain. She now runs a website offering this "tribute van" - with her pet dogs on it - be sure to email for the fee schedule. Caveat emptor.

About Kimberly R Kelly  (the victim)

Kimberly R. Kelly Falconer founded Project Far From Home, a national not-for-profit education program designed to teach law enforcement and search and rescue teams about missing at-risk Alzheimer's and dementia subjects. She is also a certified technical rescue specialist, reserve sergeant and SAR volunteer with the San Diego Sheriff's Department.  

She was a technical consultant on the documentary Search Dog's Raven. 

Here's Ms. Falconer's bio from Washoe Country Search and Rescue Website   

Missing at Risk: Elderly Patients 
Kimberly R. Kelly Falconer

Ms. Kimberly R. Kelly Falconer is a reserve lieutenant and SAR volunteer with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Kimberly is primarily assigned as the head of the Training Unit with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team. She also served as training sergeant for the mounted, training and underwater search and recovery units, acting lieutenant for the training unit, as well as certified as a technical rescue specialist and medical unit support personnel.

Ms. Kelly Falconer is the founder and executive director of Project Far From Home, a national law enforcement educational program designed to teach law enforcement and search and rescue teams about missing at risk Alzheimer's and dementia subjects

Ms. Falconer was an contributing author to the book In Search of the Alzheimer's Wanderer: A Workbook to Protect Your Loved One by Mark Warner.

Ms. Falconer sounds pretty legit. 

After Crawford's conviction, she went to work using the Internet to cover her tracks by posting her own releases and producing youtube videos depicting herself as a search and rescue hero. She owned and published numerous websites, many with "donation" buttons, now all shut down.

The pit bull community was ecstatic to be reference Crawford's accomplishments as a SAR handler but once word got out about her lies and her "other life"  the pit bull community was the first to toss her away.  Here's some of the comments left on the pit bull forums. 

Sounds like she's suffering from some kind of untreated mental illness. I mean, what else could explain that? I guess if you're a shitbag person that's just what you are.

It does sound like she either has some kind of somatform disorder or she's plain and simple scamming people.


Sounds like she's suffering from some kind of untreated mental illness. I mean, what else could explain that? I guess if you're a shitbag person that's just what you are.


That's weird for her to be a socially excepted heroine and a scammer of this sort. Super weird


I think I would have figured it out once I heard this...
"Crawford told Kelly she had one month and two days to live."
Yup, modern science can pin point it to THE DAY now

 Mr. Harris does not feature Crawford's van on his website.