By Nikki Silverstein
Hero: Consumer advocate 7 On Your Side, a segment of Bay Area TV station KGO, helped a Marin County woman recover several hundred dollars from Visa after the company shined her on. Susan Anderson purchased Visa gift cards for friends last Christmas and delivered them in person. Months later, she learned that the cards didn’t work when her friends tried to use them. Turns out that a thief near Modesto stole and used the card numbers, which resulted in the cards having a zero balance. Visa informed Anderson that they wouldn’t cover the loss, since she had waited more than 60 days to report the issue. She contacted 7 On Your Side and the TV station went to work on her behalf. Visa finally saw the light and decided to replace the gift cards.
Zero: Approximately 290,000 gallons of public water went down the drain, thanks to vandalism at the Wild Horse Water Tank in Novato. To give that immense amount some perspective, it equates to almost 5 million glasses of drinking water, or enough H2O to flush your low-flow toilet more than 18,000 times. The trouble began when the North Marin Water District (NMWD) received an intrusion alarm on Friday, July 7, which indicated that an intruder breached the tank. Although there was no evidence of contamination, the NMWD took the precaution of draining the tank. If you have info about suspicious activity in the vicinity of Wild Horse Valley Drive from 5-8pm on July 7, contact the Marin County Sheriff’s Office or the NMWD.
