Got a note from a City of Tucson planner asking nicely if I was happy with the presentation of my data on a block plat. He and I have been friends for years and he is a great source of solid information. So I look at the plat and there is the certification that the plat was prepared under my direction, and there is my seal and signature. Only I did not prepare the plat, and the seal and signature was lifted from a pdf of a legal description I did earlier this year, and inserted onto the plat drawing without my permission or knowledge. I asked him to reject the plat application, and I sent a blistering note to the people involved. Pretty sure this is called fraud and I am not happy
Wow. Beach balls for gonads.
I’ve never been to Tucson. Is it a small community?
Fraud, pure and simple. Grounds for criminal charges. Follow up with your state board, at a minimum. You are not the only victim of this crime.
Not particularly. Maybe half a million population?
Definitely one of my favorite places to visit. My parents live in Prescott, and I always try to get down to Tucson when I visit.
Holy Crap!!!!
My first contact would be with one of the bull-dog attorneys I know for advice on how to proceed.
I do believe this is a criminal matter.
A felony.
Ditto.
And bird seed for brains.
A quick google of Arizona statutes list this type of forgery as a class 4 felony. Mitigating circumstances turn it into a class 3 felony. The city/county or whoever is the entity approving and signing the plat will not want to sign a forged document, so they need to be informed immediately (no doubt Bruce already did that). This is an amazingly outrageous act. What would concern me is that Bruce was accidently informed about this, so how many other plats are out there doing the same thing. How do you even check?
"How do you even check?"
I can do an online check for plats and surveys filed under my name easy enough. The problem is that it would have to be done county by county. Ain't nobody got time for that.
From google:
What is the sentence for a Class 4 felony in Arizona?
The sentencing range for a class 4 felony is usually between 1 year and 3.75 years for a first offense. But a defendant with multiple prior felony convictions can face up to 15 years for committing a crime that is categorized as a class 4 felony. A conviction can also result in fines.
Several phone calls and emails this morning from the various players, all making it clear they had nothing to do with this and falling over themselves to apologize. My revenge is knowing that they will now have to hire another surveyor to survey the site and prepare a real block plat, so $$$$, and that assumes the new surveyor doesn't find out about this fraud and frighten him/her off. It would certainly scare me.
Bottom line: The univsersal mistakes were made but not by me.
wow! How could this be a "mistake"?
"Bottom line: The univsersal mistakes were made but not by me."
I presume you are implying some public agency accepted/approved the document in question. I would suggest they review other documents submitted from this source and question the certifying professional(s). There may be engineers, architects and other professions that have been victims of the same source.
Some years back there was a Structural Engineer in Arizona that signed a plat, and in so doing made a statement about structural engineers being the most highly educated engineers and that engineers instructed surveyors on what to do. And so on. I bet somebody has a copy or a link. It's an epic piece of work. Could it be that guy is back in town?
Chances are that the engineering work associated with this plat is signed fraudulently as well.
Damn, I had a copy of that sucker on my old laptop, and now I can't find it.
Maricopa County Book 800, Page 24 of Surveys. Not sure how that stuck with me, but my brain's weird like that.
They yanked it from the records some time ago so a search returns nothing...maybe it's still on one of the old external drives I still have kicking around.
What in the actual hell.
Obviously criminal. Did anyone actually take responsibility for it or was it just a bunch of 'wasn't me's'?
Found it. It seems to still be on the Maricopa County site after all.
Now what are the odds Joe Schmo decided on his own initiative to draft the block plat, commited fraud by inserting my seal and signature, and transmitted the file to the City of Tucson for review, without any of the higher ups noticing. Nah, today's protestations of innocence to the contrary, somebody higher up blessed this effort.
That's hilarious.
The misspelled registered makes me think it was a last second prank though. Is there a backstory?
Please don't label me as being discriminating. My first assumption is that English is probably not the first language of this brilliant fellow. Once worked with a fellow with a fairly similar name, who was hired because he had a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Did not take long to discover he had no knowledge of subjects that are handled during the second year in that major and which are mandatory prerequisities for higher level engineering classes. Turned out he had purchased his diploma. Our Director of Engineering was a native of the same home country. This embarrassed him immensely. Bye bye.