Travel agency's closure won't end investigation of complaints
January 21, 2012 · Updated 9:07 AM
Independent staff report
Even though Adventure Travel & Cruise is going out of business, a Port Orchard police detective is continuing to investigate numerous complaints from people about mishandled travel bookings.
“At this point I’m up to roughly 17 people who filed complaints,” Det. E. J. Martin said Tuesday.
He said travel agency owner Launa Blahm maintains that all the problems reported by her customers resulted from various mistakes.
Martin said her explanation could be “plausible.”
“It could have just been a multitude of errors,” he said, but it’s going to take some time to collect travel records and documentation from all the people who have contacted him.
“I have to put it together and try to figure out whether there is any criminal element here,” Martin said.
Determining that will involve looking at the “totality of circumstances; that’s where you look at the entire picture of what she was doing, and what was her intent,” he said.
There may also be some question about whether Blahm had a current business license.
Blahm confirmed last Friday that she was closing her business.
An article in last week’s Port Orchard Independent detailed some of the problems experienced by people who booked trips through Adventure Travel in recent months and paid cash in advance.
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