After intial refusal, teacher receives non-authentic newspaper plaque

MAMOU – When Kelly Schaltze won the Evangeline Parish Teacher of the Year, she was obviously quite proud.
“I was very happy when I saw an article about it in one of your (Louisiana State Newspapers),”said Schaltze. “Then about two weeks ago I was e-mailed, from someone who I thought worked for your company, regarding your article. She told me she was sending me a plaque with the article and my name to view in case I wanted to purchase it. I told her I was not interested because of the price she was quoting.”
The phone number that showed up on her Caller ID was a 783 (Crowley phone number).
Louisiana State Newspapers does not send out plaques for award winners nor do we do so for any articles that appear in our paper.
However, Schaltze was surprised when the plaque arrived at her school
“A week later, I received the product, along with an invoice, at my place of employment (Mamou Elementary) after telling her I did not want it,” said Schaltze. “I never once gave her a shipping address. I am assuming she researched my place of employment. I emailed her back asking what to do with the product being that I did not request it and I was not paying shipment back on it.”
The woman that she spoke to (Tracey Burnetti) then offered the plaque at a much lower price.
“Still, assuming it was your product, I agreed and purchased the product,” said Schaltze. “It is a nice product that I received.”
It also was possibly illegal for the company that sent it (a company called “That’s Great News) to attempt to make a profit under the guise of representing Louisiana State Newspapers.
“That’s why I contacted you in case you didn’t know that another company was making a profit using one of your articles,” she said.
When contacted Monday morning, Burnetti said that it was necessary to speak with her superior named Robert. After being transferred to Robert’s “secretary,” we were told that he would be out for the remainder of the day.
A call was placed to the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana who said that the business operated out of Connecticut and a recording said they specialized in making plaques out of newspapers and magazines. However, she said that they were not Better Business Bureau approved and that calling from a Crowley number while operating in another state and sending the plaque even after being told Schaltze didn’t want it is definitely “fishy.”
“I wish she could have contacted us first because we would have told her that she didn’t have to pay anything due to the fact that she had originally declined their offer,” said the Better Business Bureau representative.
The Post-Signal would like to emphasize that we do not take part in such business practices. We would also like to congratulate Schaltze on the honor she received and thank her for coming forward.