View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2008 > October
October 2008
The scams just keep coming
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I spoke to a senior group this week and out of about two-dozen in the audience, three said they have been approached before by someone claiming to have found a bag of money. This is an old, old con that still plays out today. It’s a found-money scam also known as a “Pigeon Drop” scam.
It normally begins with a well-dressed woman approaching the victim, usually a female senior citizen who is either getting into a car or about to get out. She informs the intended victim she found the money and doesn’t know what to do with it. She gains the trust of the victim who, in most cases, gives her a short ride to her “office” or other location where she supposedly works. The con-artist gets out, goes inside, and then returns to tell the victim her “boss” said they could split the money if no one claims it.
Although the scam can go in several directions, in most cases the money is supposedly put in escrow for 30 days or so. During this time, the victim and suspect exchange phone numbers. The victim is usually called that night by the woman who exclaims that the bag contained a lot of money plus winning lotto tickets and whatever else will excite the victim. She tells the victim that in a month they’ll all be much wealthier than before. The point here is to instill some greed into the victim. (Something for nothing.)
Long story somewhat shorter—the victim is soon contacted by a man who is much more intimidating. He tells the victim that she should absolutely NOT talk about this to anyone or they risk not getting all that money. Soon the same intimidating man convinces the victim she should contribute money as “earnest” money or even “tax” money. The reason always varies but the con is to get the victim to start funneling money to the nice young woman. They meet several times and she contributes money. Sometimes it’s a bait and switch with a money bag or sometimes, like a case we had here, the bad guys allow the victim to keep the suitcase (locked) with the large sum of cash, while they all put up a few thousand dollars in cash. Of course, the only one putting up money is the victim.
Although this scam has many different variations, its foundation is to present the victim with an initial good fortune of found money. That should be the key that something is wrong.
Look for this scam to initiate in parking lots of shopping centers or other areas where seniors frequent.
PHISHING Scam
This victim received an e-mail from AOL stating he needed to update his account by the end of October or else the account would be terminated. The e-mail had a link to the billing department which took the victim to an area requesting personal information including a credit card number, SSN, DOB, and mother’s maiden name among other things. After the victim complied and provided this info, it was determined the e-mail was fraud.
Don’t be fooled by elaborate and legitimate looking e-mails and website designs accompanied by unsolicited requests for personal information. Contact the company via the legit website and inquire about this e-mail or any attempt, out of the blue, requesting sensitive information.
Some of the crime reports received recently by Sandy Springs police:
Bozo alert Two men went into the office building in the 5900 block of Lake Forrest Drive, representing themselves as office furniture salesmen. They spoke to an office manager who, by this report, was a whole lot smarter than they were. She asked for a business card and a catalog for which they had none. She asked which company they worked for and they gave her the name of a company in Canton, GA. The office manager contacted that company who told her they did not do door-to-door sales.
The two geniuses figured out things were not going well and left. The two men were videoed.
More clown news
A man reported that someone forced open his front apartment door and took his watch with a chain and clown-faced pendent.
People Needing Tranquility
Police were called to an apartment. They talked to Freddy who said Annie hit him in the head with a salt shaker.
And the crime beat goes on
A condo association purchased just under $1600 in roofing material. Later, a white van was seen in the area where the material was and later still, the material was stolen. Some time later a subject in a white van came by and offered to sell roofing material. The phone on the van was listed to a roofing company. Again, not too smart on the part of the suspects and arrogant to boot, but stolen material like that is hard to identify. Criminals do return to the scene of the crime.
Never do this!
A woman told officers that she was eating at a restaurant when she got up to go to the bathroom. She left her purse hanging on the back of the chair. She returned to find out the purse had been stolen.
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What I hear in Georgia Senate race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:58 p.m.
Hi, this is Jim Martin. Saxby Chambliss voted to fund the war in Iraq. He took your money and spent it on the war to appease the war monger George W. Bush. He also re-broadcast the Falcons game without the expressed, written consent of the NFL.
Vote for Jim Martin.
5:58 ½ p.m.
“Hi, this is Saxby Chambliss. Jim Martin voted the largest tax increase in the history of the world and then voted to increase his salary. I’m pretty sure he went wee-wee on the governor’s bushes after that.”
Vote for Saxby Chambliss.
6:05 p.m.
“Jim Martin says he’ll control spending. Really? He voted to increase the tax on beer kegs! Yes, BEER KEGS!! Not only that, Jim Martin voted to increase Vernon Jones’s security staff from 8 to 165. Jim Martin hates puppies!”
Vote for Saxby Chambliss.
6:05 ½ p.m.
“Saxby Chambliss killed Elvis!”
Vote for Jim Martin.
6:17 p.m.
“Hi, this is Jim Martin. If you take Saxby Chambliss and spell his first name backwards, it’s Ybxas. The sign of the DEVIL! Ybxas means “He without any conscious and perhaps six toes on one foot.”
Vote for Jim Martin.
6:17 ½ p.m.
“This is Saxby Chambliss and I approve this ad. Jim Martin voted for the designated hitter rule in the American League and effectively destroying all that is sacred in baseball. Not only that, he started the rumor that fresh water mussels were endangered and is responsible for all the water loss in Lake Lanier. Jim Martin hates Bobby Cox!”
Vote for Saxby Chambliss.
6:26 p.m.
“Hi folks, this is Jim Martin. Saxby Chambliss has hair plugs! Not only that, he’s so dumb, he voted for financial aid to Japan because he thought Godzilla was real! Man, that guy is dumb!”
Vote for Jim Martin.
6:26 ½ p.m.
“Good evening. I know you’re probably tired of the political rhetoric and mud-slinging these negative ads portray. I’ve asked Jim Martin to put aside political character assassination and deal with the facts, the things he or I could do for you, the constituent in our district. I’m asking for your vote for Saxby Chambliss. By the way, Jim Martin looks like Walter Brennan in those silly glasses and goofy hair.”
Vote for Saxby Chambliss
6:28 p.m. I’m Jim Martin. I heard what Saxby Chambliss said. I don’t resemble Walter Brennan in the least. Look, Saxby Chambliss played poker with Fidel Castro and he sure does look a lot like D.B. Cooper doesn’t he? Saxby Chambliss once had a mullet!
Vote for Jim Martin
6:28 ½ p.m. I’m Saxby Chambliss. Jim Martin wets the bed.
Vote for Saxby Chambliss
6:28 ¾ p.m.
I’m Jim Martin. Who the hell names their kid Saxby? My name is Jim! All-American Jim! Saxby? What’s that all about? Saxby? Named after what? A sack? Saxophone? Oh yeah! Sad Saxby! Yeah, come on Sad Saxby!!
Vote for Jim Martin
6:29 p.m. I’m Saxby Chambliss and I’m gonna whip Jim Martin’s ass! No—not at the polls, I’m gonna whip his bed-wetting Democrat ass and then I’m gonna stomp on those glasses and—Hey Jim! Get a (^$*$&^#)ing haircut!!
Vote for Saxby Chambliss.
6:29 ½ p.m. I’m Jim Martin. Bring it on you hair-plugged fat-cat votin’ yourself this and that you George Bush bandwagon riding bureaucratic dummy. Who voted in favor of the federal government’s right to spy on you electronically by reading your email, listening to your telephone calls and all that other stuff? Folks, Saxby Chambliss will make your skin itch! No kidding! It’s like some sort of rash and you can’t stop it!
Vote for me, Jim Martin.
Please let November 4th get here so we can watch TV again!
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Halloween advice for kids and adults
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since Halloween falls on a Friday this year, along with our usual advice about kids, we would also like to offer some good advice for the adults.
Here are a few things to remember:
ABOUT KIDS
• Make sure you the costume is fire resistant.
• Make sure your child can see well through the mash—especially peripheral vision.
• If your child is carrying a prop such as a knife or sword, make sure it’s soft enough not to injure anyone. (Make sure they don’t take the real thing either. Yes, that’s happened before.)
• Supervise the pumpkin carving. Many stores sell carving kits with little saws that are much safer than sharp knives.
• Some folks will have a “Halloween Dinner” before trick or treating.. (Good luck with that. I fooled my kids once and afterwards, they fasted for a week before Halloween.)
• Be especially careful in the roadway. Younger kids just don’t know the danger of darting out into the street. Make sure they have a flashlight and you give them instructions before sending them to the door. Young children shouldn’t cross the road except with parents. Remind older children to check the roadway before crossing. For those of you with kids ages 13 and up—well, good luck.
• It’s Halloween and trickery is allowed. So if some candy should “disappear” overnight, only to re-appear in smaller increments over the next couple of days, well, I don’t think that would make you a bad parent.
• A couple of days before Halloween, I get flooded with calls asking where the sex offenders live and could we round them up and hold them until November 1st? There are several good sites on the Internet marking where registered sex offenders live. We do track them and over the years this is probably the one night they are most likely not to be home. Still, for those of you unfortunate enough to have one in the neighborhood, make sure the neighborhood is well informed. Can you inform your neighbors where a registered sex offender lives? Yes. Again, just know and supervise accordingly.
• For fathers, a good piece of advice. Let the moms run the show on Halloween. Just stay to the side and keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told.
• Halloween on a Friday means more than usual traffic. And one problem we see is older kids are allowed to stay out later. At some point folks, Halloween is over. Trick or Treating after, let’s say, 9 p.m. is tacky—except if you’re at a Halloween party or something. Most of the time, after 9 p.m. it’s more trick that treat. When it’s time to end the candy-giving, turn the front porch light out, release the Dobermans, and hopefully, the kids will take the hint.
ABOUT TEENAGERS
Please remind them that the cops will be out in large numbers on Halloween. We normally have to take one or two home after a pumpkin-related incident. Set some curfews to be off the street. Will it work? Maybe and maybe not but at least discuss it.
ABOUT ADULTS
Have fun, party all you like, enjoy the funny, ridiculous or whatever costume you decided on, but, while you’re still sober, make some arrangements for a designated driver. Why? Other than the obvious reasons, remember that you’ll still be in that costume when we take the mug shot. Going to jail in your SpongeBob costume will most certainly result in your mug shot somehow getting out there. Don’t think this isn’t a small world. You don’t want to show for a job interview next year and after a few uncomfortable moments your potential boss finally realizes who you remind him of. “Ah—I just realized it! You’re the SpongeBob guy on the Internet!!”
Be careful and have fun.
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Crime shifts into high gear
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A woman called and demanded we enforce the noise ordinance on the news helicopters that fly over head between 3 - 7 p.m. I didn’t call her back because I wasn’t in the best of moods and how can you talk to someone like that without letting some well-placed sarcasm out? It was one of those weeks where people were calling us for strange reasons.
Did you know that dogs biting folks is a legit reason to call the cops but dogs humping them isn’t?
Street robberies are up. For those of you in the food-delivery business, take heart to this: The number of robberies of food delivery drivers is up. The most common scenario is this: A fake order is placed to an apartment complex. The bad guys, usually two, are in a vacant apartment or hiding around the corner from a vacant apartment. They jump the driver and take the cash and sometimes the pizza.
Most of the times the age of the bad guys are in the area of late teens to early twenties. Don’t carry too much cash (although meth-heads will shoot you for ten bucks) and although it’s probably difficult to do, your chances are better they’ll abort the robbery if you show up with a second employee.
Some pizza delivery polices include meeting the customer at a public place when they live in high-crime areas.
Another trade taking a hit during this pseudo-sort-of-recession is the landscaping business. Thefts of landscaping equipment are up including stolen landscaping trucks. The fact that drivers are leaving the keys in them isn’t helping much. Many times they steal the truck, drive it to a remote area, strip the equipment, and leave the truck. Here’s a hint: Don’t leave the (%#$*&)ing keys under the floor mat. Other times, they steal the equipment while the workers are in the yard working. This stuff gets sold later on.
The GPS going rate is about $40 on the street. That’s not bad for a $300 Garmin. Laptops are still often stolen and unfortunately there’s an AR-15 out there we’d like back please! Don’t put things in the trunk of the car after you arrive at wherever you’re going. These crooks who specialize in parking lot thefts will sit and watch from their cars. They see someone get out and put a purse in the trunk and there is the target. At least give it some thought.
There are some who have disengaged the trunk release button so that you can’t get into the trunk other than with the key or forcing it.
What else? Sadly enough, there are more honest people doing dishonest things. I’m sure some of it is economy-driven but, for instance, in shoplifting cases, we see a lot of people with no prior arrests stealing from retail stores like Target, Lowes’ and so on. (By the way, Target is excellent in catching shoplifters. They triple any other retail store in arrests.)
Anyway, the things people are stealing aren’t necessities. Just luxuries they paid for in the past but now can’t afford them. Dude, life goes on without an iPod.
Be careful and take stock in what you have. Empty the car at night because breaking into garages isn’t uncommon during the wee hours. Just think a bit about your house and car and really, the goal is to make it difficult. You can’t necessarily build a fort but you can make it hard enough for the bad guy to decide to hit somewhere else. I don’t know what to tell you about the ($@&#$^)ing helicopters!
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A cop’s take on the news
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Drama is alive and well. Here are some recent headlines…
Police shut down Canton clinic run by fake doctors.
Arrested were Miguel Valez and Raul Valez for running a medical clinic even though they had no medical training or had spent any time at a Holiday Inn Express.
One sibling posed as a doctor and even performed surgeries. The other, according to police, filled prescriptions. Cops began to get complaints from patients who said the doctors didn’t seem to know much about illnesses for several reasons among them the fact nobody ever got better. Detectives said they suspected the prescriptions were fake because you could actually read them.
Kesting denies visiting voodoo priestess
Cobb Commissioner Annette Kesting was accused by a woman in South Carolina of writing two checks, totaling $3,000, that were returned for insufficient funds, in an attempt of securing some voodoo mojo stuff against Woody Thompson, who beat Kesting in the Disctrict 4 runoff.
According to George Ann Mills, voodoo priestess, Kesting gave her a photo of Thompson and asked if Mills could give him cancer or send him off to a car accident. Mills reportedly refused saying she didn’t want Thompson’s blood on her hands but did offer to make trouble for him to make people see who he really was. Kesting denies all this but Mills seemed to know a lot and have a lot of info such as her cell phone number and a Moneygram number she said Kesting sent to cover part of the amount of the checks.
Kesting and her lawyer said she never spoke to her or anyone else in South Carolina. Whether or not you believe in voodoo, this related story is interesting:
Annette Kesting called a press conference and announced that when she awoke this morning she discovered she had been turned into a Four-Toed Hedgehog.
The Holy Hook Up
Bishop Thomas Weeks is going ahead with plans for his reality show “The Holy Hook Up: Who Will Be the Next Mrs. Weeks.” The show will document his search for a new love as he performs his daily duties as leader of an international ministry. Critics lauded the show as “This year’s best new comedy.” Weeks commented: “Seriously—it’s not a comedy.”
David Duchovny checks out of sex addiction rehab
Actor David Duchovny apparently is all better after checking himself into a clinic because of his addition to sex. Says lawyer Stanton Stein: “David has successfully completed his rehabilitation and is out of rehab and will be starting a movie soon.” Inside sources said Duchovny now has “absolutely no interest in sex” after watching previews of “Holy Hook Up.”
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Crime & punishment
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A look at the police blotter:
Robbery
A man said that just before 2 a.m. he left his apartment in the 500 block of Northridge Drive, headed to his car to go to the store, when he was attacked by three males who hit him with an object and then went through his pockets. The victim was treated for two broken teeth. The suspects were around 16-18 years of age, one wore a white t-shirt.
Thefts
The resident of a home on Crompton Court said that his maid service is responsible for the theft of three iPods from his home.
A woman reported someone stole her wallet from her purse. The thief got $100 cash and three credit cards. The amount later charged on the cards exceeded $1,000.
A representative of an office on Peachtree Dunwoody Road said after they hired an employee to manage billing, that employee began taking money exceeding $1,400. More money is missing and the suspect has not returned to work nor will return calls to the office.
Forgery, Fraud, and ID Theft
The woman reported that her Social Security number was stolen and used to obtain a loan for more than $5,700. She found out when collections services contacted her. If this happens to you, call the police to make a report. Get a copy of the report, make additional copies and immediately send one to the agency attempting to collect. Notify the three reporting credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. Have fraud alerts placed on your credit.
A man in the 9400 block of Roberts Drive received a letter from Harbor Financial in Ontario, Canada, telling him he won $100,000. (Clue) Enclosed in the envelope was a check for over $3,900 to cover taxes for the winnings. (Big clue) The victim was instructed to wire that amount of money to New York to an Alicia Cook. The victim would then receive the winnings. (Really Big Clue!) As if you didn’t know, the victim deposited the money and the check was later returned as phony. Go with your suspect instincts anytime you are suddenly informed that you’ve won money, especially lots of it.
An employee of a doctor’s office in the 5500 block of Peachtree Dunwoody Road fraudulently called in a forged prescription for 30 tablets of Lortab in the name of one of the doctor’s existing patients. The fraud was discovered before the suspect could pick up the prescription.
Burglary
A man who lives in the 1600 block of Harbor Point said his front door was forced open while he was at work. Thieves made off with a 42-inch plasma TV, PS3 and a paintball gun.
Two people, in charge of checking on a man’s house while he was out of town, saw someone leaving the home on Misty Ridge Manor after breaking in. Officers later made an arrest on the case. The arrested man had worked for the victim. He said he was down on his luck and for that reason, did the burglary. The homeowner refused to prosecute.
This resident said someone entered her apartment in the 1900 block of Sandalwood Drive, without forced entry, and took a gold-plated nameplate from her clock. She suspects the apartment maintenance staff.
Assaults
Two men got into an argument when one of them, allegedly consuming adult beverages, wanted to play the drums in a jam session at Café 290. Soon it turned to physical violence when one of the guys got hit in the head and the other in the face. Please, play the drums responsibly.
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A gas hunter’s paradise
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It appears the gas crisis centers around area QT stores.
Aside from their fine fountain drinks and clean restrooms, QT has now become the first franchise to host its own history of social development. Why QT? Probably because each station has over one-thousand gas pumps fueling over 2.4 million cars daily each.
That’s great until you run out of gas. Then, customers equaling the population of Scion, Texas, instead of rolling out and moving toward more fertile ground, will stay and plant roots at the pumps. This literally creates a new history of people. Large groups of people, masses of them, not leaders, literally shape history. This is good timing for the QT squatters since our leadership is (hopefully only temporarily) thin.
Now, from a historical perspective, if history is to repeat itself, these squatters will begin to create a new social development and literally start a new history. You and I both know this means one thing:
Viking helmets and wagon trains.
We will survive. History will show that sooner or later we’ll overcome the absence of gasoline and form small communities surviving on convenient store burritos and Cappuccinos. We will eventually migrate north to the mountains near Helen where we’ll combine to form larger social communities selling beer and fudge to the invading Norwegians who will invade but due to their lack of enthusiasm for weapons, will quickly surrender to the members of the Moose Lodge in East Brunswick.
As bleak as it seems, the gas is moving from Texas through Georgia and up the coast. It will cover 3-5 miles a day and once again we will full and happy gas pumps around the year 2013.
Soon? We’ll get there and then once we’re putting around town in we can turn our attention to other matters such as how the hell we’re going to retire now. The good news: It’s 5 O’clock somewhere.
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