Thief steals police uniform www.privateofficer.com

Friday, October 26, 2007

Thief steals police uniform, impersonates officer www.privateofficer.com

Richmond County Ga. Oct. 26, 2007 Investigators say that a man may have used a stolen police uniform in an attempt to commit a crime and are urging the public to be cautious.
A man claiming to be a sergeant with the sheriff’s office called Paulos Cleaners and Laundry, 2525 Peach Orchard Road, on Oct. 19 and said he would be picking up the uniforms in place of Deputy Ronald Phillips. The man, who is described as black and 6 feet tall, took four uniforms from the cleaners, according to a sheriff’s report. A day later, police received a report that a man had called the Ace Cash Express on Walton Way and claimed to be investigating check fraud for the sheriff’s office. When he arrived at the store, he was wearing a pair of pants similar to the ones stolen the previous day and a long-sleeve, gray shirt with a sheriff’s tab on the right shoulder, according to sheriff’s Maj. Ken Autry. The man left the store and did not return after a suspicious clerk demanded to see his badge.
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Maj. Autry said the FBI and Homeland Security were notified after the theft, as were other departments in the area. He said anyone suspicious of an officer should demand to see a badge.
“It’s perfectly legitimate for citizens to ask those questions,” he said.
The sheriff’s department is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Anyone with information can call the office at (706) 821-1080.

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Gangs Target Shopping Malls www.privateofficer.com

Traveling Gangs Target Malls www.privateofficer.com

Oak Brook, IL – Oct. 26, 2007
Police this week arrested a woman who shoplifted more than $17,000 worth of merchandise, some from Oakbrook Center, and connected her to a retail theft ring traveling the country hitting malls.
Urrutia Carolina, 28, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was charged with felony retail theft and possession of stolen merchandise.
“They’re very good at it,” said Oak Brook Police Sgt. Tami Shuey, standing beside a table with the merchandise police found in a rental van after arresting the woman Tuesday night.
The store manager at Victoria’s Secret in Oakbrook Center, Route 83 and 22nd Street, called police after watching the woman leave the store with dozens of bras in a shopping bag without paying for them.
“Two people had just come in and cleaned out a shelving unit basically, a store cabinet thing,” Shuey said. “They filled up their bag, exited the store and while they were leaving they dropped a bra.”
Police said Carolina, like many sophisticated shoplifters, used a well-known device to get past the electronic detectors in the store.
Aided by Oakbrook Center security, police found Carolina hiding between cars in the parking lot, and eventually found her van with duffle bags full of merchandise. The bras stolen from Victoria’s Secret sold for $50 apiece or more.
A male helping Carolina got away, fleeing on foot, police said.
“We had documentation that within the last couple of days they have shipped out hundreds of pounds of merchandise through different avenues to different states,” Shuey said.
Oak Brook Police Chief Tom Sheahan said an intelligence unit he formed earlier this year with other police agencies alerted his department Tuesday the gang was in the area.
“It’s as organized as organized crime because it is organized crime,” Sheahan said. “They stay in hotels in the area at night, and then they go out and steal all day.”
Oak Brook Police Detective Tom Russell said such gangs hit one shopping center a day.
“They’ll stay at one mall one day and go to another mall the next day,” Russell said. “They’ve gotten away with it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t keep doing it.”
Sheahan said police are working with Limited Brands, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and other retailers to keep track of the gangs.
Shuey said the arrest this week is part of a gang of six individuals who keep returning to Oak Brook. Shuey said the van they found had a U.S. atlas with towns circled with malls in every state. Shuey said Illinois had 18 mall towns circled.
Oak Brook tactical officer Bob Christopherson said the couple hit only three stores Tuesday, and he said not all of the retailers had in-store security.
“They’ve been trained to call police when they see someone doing something suspicious,” Christopherson said. “They’re getting better at calling right away. The training worked well, I guess.”
Shuey added Carolina bonded out after posting a $75,000 bond.

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Students Gone Wild; Police Respond By; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Students Gone Wild; National Police Response By; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

ATLANTA GA. Oct. 26, 2007

School resource officers, sworn police officers or deputy sheriffs have been in schools across the country for years. And with the police presence has come increased arrests, physical police response in cases of fights and student outbreaks and some schools which have looked more like rioting city mobs then school campuses. Police using teargas and pepper spray and tasers to subdue and quell student fighting, outbreaks and disturbances. In recent weeks there have been numerous school shootings and school hostage situations some as large and scary as the shootings earlier this year at Virgina Tech.

Just this week a fight at a Florida school involved more than 300 students who also caused major damage at the school and took a small army of police and teargas to quell the disturbance and bring order. Another such incident on Thursday in Greesboro North Carolina where police there had to call several times for reinforcements and used teargas to help bring a large fight in a high school gym under control. Several smaller incidents in other school districts this week including Nashville Tennessee and a school in Michigan and New Jersey causes law enforcement to question whether or not students are getting more violent amongst themselves and against the police. Frequent outbreaks in schools across the nation do appear to be a common place
occurrance.

Here’s an example from incidents in New Jersey during a one week period.

VINELAND NJ — Police arrested 14 students in less than a week on a variety of charges ranging from assault to weapons possession and disorderly conduct. Eight students were arrested during a brawl that police said could be gang-related.
In the most recent incidents, police arrested three teens at Vineland High School and Landis Middle School about 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The following details were released Wednesday by police about the rash of student arrests:
· A 15-year-old male student was charged with possession of two pocketknives at Landis Middle School. The juvenile, who said he was afraid other students would attack him, was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon and released to his parents.
· A 16-year-old male was charged with possession of a razor blade at Vineland High School 9-10.
· Another 16-year-old boy was charged with disorderly conduct at the 9-10 building when he attempted to fight another student on a bus during dismissal.
· Eight boys, ranging in age from 14 to 16, were charged with disorderly conduct when police broke up a large fight in a field on the north side of Chestnut Avenue at Spring Road on Tuesday afternoon.
Detective Lt. Tom Ulrich said police believe the fight was gang-related, but he declined to elaborate.
“This fight occurred at 2:30 after school was dismissed, and we’re working with school administrators to determine exactly why it occurred.”
Ulrich said several other youths involved in the fight escaped on foot.
· A 15-year-old boy was charged with assault on a school employee for allegedly pushing a security guard at Vineland High School 11-12 on Tuesday afternoon.
The juvenile allegedly refused to sit down on a bus and was told to get out of the vehicle by the security officer. He refused and pushed the officer in the process. The teen was held at the county detection center.
· Around 1:30 p.m., another 15-year-old boy was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest during a disturbance at the tennis courts at Vineland High School 9-10.
The suspect did not show up for morning class and was marked absent. He refused orders from security and staff to leave the school property, and Officer Brian Pooley of the Juvenile Unit used pepper spray during the arrest of the unruly teen.
· One person was arrested during a disturbance at a Vineland High School football game last Friday night.
Salman A. Yusuff Jr., 18, of Walnut Manor Apartments on East Walnut Road was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police ordered several people to leave the school property because of a disturbance in the bleachers, but Yusuff refused and resisted when officers attempted to handcuff him.
Yusuff is a senior at the high school, according to police.

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Store Employee Rips Off 35 Identities From Customers www.privateofficer.com

Long Island N.Y. Oct. 26, 2007

A Verizon employee at a Green Acres Mall store in Valley Stream racked up about $2,400 on fraudulently obtained credit cards after stealing at least 35 customers’ identities, authorities said yesterday.
Durraine M. Dunn, 26, of 117-11 169th St., Jamaica, pleaded not guilty in a Hempstead courtroom yesterday, a day after her arrest on fraud and forgery charges. She is being held on bail of $120,000 bond or $60,000 cash. Police said Dunn swiped the information while working as a trusted customer representative at the wireless provider’s store”The victims in this case did nothing wrong,” Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. “They went to a legitimate store and gave the information required to open an account and purchase a cell phone.”
Manhattan-based Verizon Communications launched an internal probe to determine what happened and is working with authorities, said David Samberg, a spokesman for the wireless company. Det. Sgt. Thomas Reilly of Nassau’s Crimes Against Property Squad said investigators believe Dunn stole identities only of customers she helped – not any from the wireless provider’s customer database.During routine transactions, Dunn dealt with picture identification cards and Social Security numbers as well as birth dates, police said.Dunn used the information to apply for credit cards she had sent to her Jamaica address, officials said. She charged gift cards, shoes, air conditioners and flat-screen televisions, Reilly said. Authorities began investigating Dunn after a Maryland man filed an Aug. 17 missing-wallet report with the Port Authority at Kennedy Airport.Transactions made with the unidentified man’s credit card were traced to a shoe store at Green Acres Mall. An employee of the store who recognized Dunn said she made the purchase. A search warrant served at Dunn’s home Tuesday turned up numerous forged credit card applications and customers’ personal information, authorities said.Customers of the Verizon store and of a Sprint store at Green Acres, where Dunn worked more than a year, should have their credit reviewed, Rice said. She also urged customers to call Nassau’s identity theft hotline at 516-571-0677.
Alisa Madden, 30, of Lynbrook, ran a credit check after reading about the fraud on Newsday.com, and everything appeared OK. She had purchased a cell phone at the mall’s Verizon store in August. “It makes me feel violated,” she said. You take for granted all the information you put out here until something like this happens.”

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Dismembered Body Discovered In Freezer www.privateofficer.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Oct. 26, 2007 — A man was killed with a frying pan, dismembered and then his body parts were bagged and placed in a freezer, police said.
The body of the victim, 38-year-old Terry Lee Jackson, was discovered Saturday when a woman went to open up her freezer, police said.
Authorities are still searching for the woman’s grandson, 22-year-old Elmer Seetot, who shares the apartment with her.
A warrant charges Seetot with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Police claim the murder happened after the two men drank and fought Friday night.
The grandmother, Ruth Seetot, told police she went to bed early Friday night because she hadn’t been feeling well, but woke up briefly when her grandson came in. Later, she got up to use the restroom and saw reddish-colored water in the bathtub, but thought it might have been a dream, she told police.
The next morning, she told police her grandson was still there, but was crying and was upset.
“I accidentally killed Terry,” he told her, according to an affidavit. “He boxed me then I grabbed a skillet and hit him in the head.”

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