Santa tossed from store www.privateofficer.com

AUGUSTA, Ga. Nov. 25 2007 – “Let Santa go! Let Santa go,” That’s what Circuit City shoppers at the Augusta Exchange were chanting when a local pastor, dressed as Santa Clause, was asked to leave.
Circuit City employees told their District manager, Kim Cavros, that customers in line complained to them, saying Santa was “disturbing the peace.”
“There was a Santa Clause preaching the gospel out on the corner of the building,” said Cavros.
Wayne Adams was one of the shoppers who saw the guy dressed as Santa,”He never promoted his church…never promoted anything just the nice Christmas season.”
Whether Santa was preaching the gospel or promoting the Christmas season, Richmond County deputies were called and Santa was escorted off Circuit City property.
Adams saw the whole thing and says, when Santa left — shoppers left.
“In fact, 5 people left the line after waiting there almost an hour. They left the line because they said,’If Santa couldn’t stay there…they weren’t going to stay,’ “said Adams.
Shoppers say the whole ordeal took part of the fun out of Black Friday.
“Circuit City ought to be nicer,” added Adams.
But Circuit City tells News 12, they didn’t call deputies on Santa. It was one of the shoppers.
“I don’t understand why someone would have done that,” said Cavros,”I can tell you that we’re a company that believes in free speech and I can tell you that nobody here called the police on the preaching Santa.”
Either way, folks agree someone called deputies on Santa and it dampened the Christmas Spirit.
“It dampened it being that Santa was out that early in the morning–just out there walking around trying to let us know the season and reason for the season and they kind of stole that,” said Adams.

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Church robbed; guards tied up By; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

DALLAS TX. NOV. 25 2007

Two armed men robbed First Baptist Church 1700 block of San Jacinto Street in downtown Dallas on Thanksgiving night. Police say that they tied up three security guards who were on duty at the time and then stole 8 plasma TVs worth at least $5,000.
Surveillance cameras caught them in the act and police investigators are studying the camera footage.They carried semiautomatic handguns and wore black fatigues and some say that they acted as though they knew the lay of the land and possibly had been in the church before.
The police called their approach “very professional.
At about 2 a.m. on Friday, one guard untied himself and called for help.
Police say that one of the suspects had a tattoo of the letter “J” on his right arm just above his wrist. Police think a truck seen near the church may have been connected to the robbery, described as a newer midsize four-door pickup, possibly a silver Dodge Dakota, with a fiberglass cover on the bed, with a third robber driving.
If you have info, call Crime Stoppers at 1-877-373-8477 or Dallas police at 214-671-3584.

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Shoplifter steals coats, jeans worth thousands By; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifter takes jeans, coats worth thousands By; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

EDMOND Okl. Nov. 25 2007 — A Skiatook woman was arrested in Edmond on a complaint of stealing merchandise from Kohl’s Department Store 2201 W Danforth Road.
Elsie Lorene Caldwell, 33, was booked into the Oklahoma County jail on a shoplifting complaint.
A security officer at the store told police he watched a woman take price and security tags off several leather jackets and put the garments in her shopping cart, according to an Edmond police report released this week.
The woman then went to the women’s and home sections of the store, where additional merchandise was put into the same shopping cart, the report shows.
The woman was stopped by the security officer once she left the store.
The stolen merchandise was estimated at more than $4,200 and included six leather coats, eight pairs of jeans, and a $300 comforter.
The woman apologized and asked not to be taken to jail. She told police she was displaced from Louisiana and was only trying to provide Christmas for her children, the report states.
Glynda Chu, spokeswoman for Edmond police, said she doesn’t know whether the woman arrested is in fact from Louisiana.
Caldwell is scheduled to be sentenced this week in Tulsa County after she pleaded guilty to felony charges of uttering a forged instrument, larceny of merchandise from a retailer and bringing contraband into the jail, court records show.

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Security officer helps find missing girl www.privateofficer.com

Security officer helps recover missing girl www.privateofficer.com

Spokane Wa. Nov. 25, 2007

A 13-year-old girl missing for almost a year-and-a-half has been found safe in Spokane by an observant hospital security guard.
On Friday November 23, 2007, a security guard at Sacred Heart Medical Center was walking the perimeter when he recognized a young female teenager from a missing person flier he’d seen posted at the hospital.
During a police interview the mother admitted she and her daughter were the people in the flier. She said a priest from Germany was helping the two locate in Spokane under fake names. They were visiting the hospital from a monastery when they were contacted by security.
13-year-old Meagan Mulczynski was living in Germany with her parents when her mother took her and left the country in the summer of 2006. The father Thomas Mulczynski, who was working as a civilian for the Air Force, had been previously awarded temporary custody of the child.
Thomas is now living in the United States, stationed in Virginia. In November 2006 there was a possible sighting of the mom and daughter reported in Spokane. That is when fliers were initially posted at the hospital.
51-year old mother Gail Elk Cannon Mulczynski was placed under arrest for custodial interference and booked into the Spokane County Jail. The daughter has been placed with child protective services until the father can make arrangements to fly up from Virginia.
Thomas has not seen his daughter for almost a year and a half.

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Private party turns into riot www.privateofficer.com

Framingham Ma. Nov. 24 2007

A near riot broke out at a local restaurant on Thursday in what police say started as a minor altercation between several people and ended up with two police officers facing down several hundred disorderly persons.
Several party goers began cussing at police officers Paul Duncan and Pamela Buford who were working a private security detail at the Aegean Restaurant and began calling them pigs and becoming loud and aggressive toward the officers.
One group also tried to wrestle a taser gun away from officer Duncan as he was making an arrest and officers quickly put a call out for assistance.

Neither Duncan nor Bufford were injured, and all available police officers, more than 10, rushed to the restaurant to break up the hostile crowd, the lieutenant said.
“This was a very dangerous situation,” Shastany said. “The danger was as high as it gets. Mobs don’t respond well to police.”
Two people were arrested during the 12:10 a.m. incident: James R. Brown, 26, of Clinton, and Daniel Maldonado, 28, of Cape Coral, Fla.
The Aegean Restaurant was hosting a Thanksgiving Eve party, with Duncan and Bufford were working a paid detail.
Around midnight, one of the employees told Duncan a man was causing a problem inside the bathroom. Duncan began to confront the intoxicated man, but Brown intervened, Shastany said.
“The new guy said, ‘I know this guy. I’ll take care of him,’ ” the lieutenant said. “Duncan said they have to leave and the guy (Brown) shrugged his shoulder, and with a smirk said, ‘Whatever,’ and started walking toward the bathroom.”
The men ignored Duncan’s order to leave. The first man swore at Duncan and was baiting him, saying “Arrest me, arrest me,” Shastany said.
Duncan reached toward the drunken man when Brown elbowed the officer in the stomach, the lieutenant said.
As Duncan tried to take the struggling Brown into custody, he crowd whipped into a frenzy.
“The crowd was riotous,” said Shastany. “The officer felt several hands on his body, trying to pull him off. … He took out his Taser, and people were trying to take his Taser away. Officer Bufford tried to assist him and both officers were fighting for their survival.”
While the officers handcuffed Brown, Aegean security staff kept the crowd at bay.
Once outside, the officers called for assistance over the radio, while the crowd followed them outside. One person returned Duncan’s tie, which was ripped off during the fight.
The arriving officers helped break up the crowd.
Inside, one man, later identified as Maldonado, kept grabbing another man. The officers separated them to prevent a fight, but Maldonado continued screaming. He was arrested.
Brown was charged with assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Maldonado was charged with disorderly conduct.
Both Brown and Maldonado were released without bail after their Framingham District Court arraignments yesterday and are due back in court on Jan. 2 for a pretrial conference.
Shastany said the Police Department’s licensing unit would investigate to see if the Aegean Restaurant is at fault for the events.
“It’s much too early to speculate about that,” he said.

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Canadian border gateway for smuggling drugs, people and now tobacco www.privateofficer.com

AKWESASNE, Ontario – Mohawk police spotted a red van with swiped license plates riding through the reservation on a recent night looking like it was loaded down with something heavy. It was. After a brief pursuit, the officer pulled over a vehicle that smelled like a humidor. Garbage bags packed with more than a ton of golden cut tobacco filled the back from floor to ceiling.
Another night, another illegal load of tobacco headed to Canada from the United States through this Mohawk reservation. Akwesasne, which stretches into northern New York, is by far the busiest spot for cigarette smuggling along the northern border.
While the U.S.-Canada border runs some 4,000 miles through mountains, plains and some of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet, the security challenges posed by Akwesasne are unique. A bit smaller than the Bronx, the reservation straddles New York state, Quebec and Ontario and is sliced by the St. Lawrence River. Border crossers here pass through land controlled by four distinct governments: New York state, U.S.-side Mohawks, Canadian-side Mohawks and Ontario. This geopolitical complexity has helped make Akwesasne a go-to gateway for smugglers at least since Prohibition. Right now, cigarette smuggling is big. “They take advantage of the geography and the jurisdictional nightmare,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Michael Harvey.
Tobacco smuggling caught on after Canadian officials boosted cigarette taxes in 2001 to combat smoking. Criminals can sneak in their own cigarettes and retail them for as little as $10 a carton, compared to $80 or more for legal cartons. Mounties are seizing almost 17 times more tobacco than in 2001. Last year, they seized 472,000 cartons across Canada _ 90 percent originating from this Mohawk reservation. Harvey said the tobacco is trucked north to the territory, where factories on the American side of the reservation, known as St. Regis, can pump out millions of cigarettes a year. Others simply smuggle bulk tobacco through the reservation, presumably to be made into cigarettes up north. Sneaking the goods into Canada is a cat-and-mouse game. Smugglers zip across the river at night in low-profile duck boats with no lights to the Ontario portion of the reservation, which is an island.
Then they can take a bridge to Cornwall, Ontario. Or they can boat a dozen miles down-river to any number of coves or marinas on the Canadian shore. In winter, they can drive trucks or snowmobiles over the ice. Once in mainland Canada, it’s an easy drive to Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto. The contraband cigarettes, often sold at “smoke shacks” on Indian land in Canada, look like any other, except without labels or boxes. They are packed parallel in clear plastic resealable bags. Harvey said the Canadian-based organized crime groups behind tobacco smuggling will sometimes bring ecstasy or hockey bags full of marijuana back down to the United States. Still, it does not appear U.S. officials view Akwesasne as a comparable floodgate for illegal immigrants, drugs or money _ which are their primary U.S. northern border concerns.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Mark Henry said Akwesasne is a geographic challenge, but it is among several that agents focus on in their Northeast patrols. The Border Patrol does not keep seizure figures for Akwesasne. But the agency’s Swanton sector _ which stretches 295 miles from northern New York to New Hampshire _ last year made 1,119 arrests for alien smuggling, a bit less than one in five of all such arrests along the northern border. Chief Andrew Thomas of the St. Regis Tribal Police said smugglers exploit opportunities wherever they find them and the reservation’s reputation as a “gateway” is unwarranted. “That happens here, that happens points east, that happens points west,” he said. “We seem to get all the attention.” Thomas has 16 officers to patrol the American side of the reservation, a flatland of woods, fields, modest houses and a bunch of gas stations that sell can sell tax-free fuel and cigarettes. Thomas said tobacco is “not a high priority with my agency.” In his view, cigarette smuggling would disappear overnight if Canada would simply lower tobacco taxes. “We have smuggling issues that my office focuses on, and that’s the drug trade, weapons and illegal immigrants and illegal aliens,” Thomas said. “Those are the real criminal issues that we deal with.” Law enforcement officials say Mohawk authorities on both sides of the border routinely cooperate in crackdown efforts, which are aggressive. Mounties have seized dozens of smugglers’ pickup trucks and minivans (many with back seats removed to make room for more product ) this year alone. This summer, they teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard to patrol the river under a pilot project called Shiprider. On the U.S. side, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it has seized 16 tractor loads of tobacco headed to Akwesasne in the past 18 months. But police actions involving Akwesasne can still be complicated by jurisdictional issues. Many Mohawks remain deeply connected to their land and sovereign heritage, a point of view summed up by a prominent banner hanging along the main highway here reading: “This is Mohawk Land Not NYS Land.” Consider that the St. Regis Tribal Council, the American-side government, lists six factories registered with the tribe to manufacture cigarettes, but there appears to only be one with federal approval. Art Resnick of the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau said a federal license is required for manufacturing tobacco products, even on Indian land. The Mounties believe there are about a dozen unlicensed operations on the American side of Akwesasne and one gearing up on the Canadian side, Harvey said. Canadian officials are concerned that the cigarettes flow funds organized crime, cuts into tax revenue and exposes citizens to health risks. But on recent rainy day as Harvey showed the sheltered inlets favored by smugglers, he stressed that is not just a Canadian problem. “It doesn’t matter what the commodity is,” Harvey said. “We have to be concerned that the stuff is getting through.”

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Space center guard arrested for shooting at police www.privateofficer.com

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. Nov. 24 2004– A heavily-armed security guard at the Kennedy Space Center is accused of shooting at his wife while wearing a bulletproof vest.
Joseph Brian Odom was charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, use of a weapon in commission of a felony, child abuse and wearing a bulletproof vest during a felony.
Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies said they were called at about 2 a.m. to a home in an unincorporated area near Cocoa after a report that Odem, 30, fired at his wife.
Deputies saw Odom exit the home wearing a military-style ballistics vest and carrying a shotgun and a rifle, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Andrew Walters said.
A sheriff’s deputy fired three times at Odom, striking him once in the chest, after he disregarded orders to drop the weapons.
The single shot did not injure Odom because of the bulletproof vest, but was significant enough to knock him down, Walters said.
Odom also fired one of his weapons after the deputy shot his weapon.
No one was injured during the incident.
The deputy, whose name was not released, is on administrative leave per sheriff’s office policy while administrators investigate whether the deputy was justified in shooting, Walters said.

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Funny money at the casino nets arrest www.privateofficer.com

Port Orchard Wa. Nov. 24 2007

What started out as a night of gambling at the Suquamish Clearwater Casino in Port Orchard, Washington, quickly took on a criminal role.
Law enforcement officers responding to the scene found two women in possession of counterfeit currency, methamphetamines and forged documents. Both women have been treated at the local hospital, and one taken into custody.Officers from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call Thursday, after security staff at the Clearwater Casino observed two women passing counterfeit currency. Casino surveillance had captured the women loading funds onto a gaming card by paying with fake money, and immediately contacted authorities, while keeping track of the women’s movements across the casino gaming floor.
Sheriff’s Deputies arriving on the scene located the two women, who are currently unnamed and identified only as a 51 year-old female and a 30 year-old female accomplice. A search of the 51 year-old female revealed that she was in possession of two counterfeit $20 bills and one phony $10 bill. A K-9 unit was used for more detailed search of the suspect’s van in the casino parking lot, which revealed a quantity of methamphetamines and scales.A search of the 30 year-old female revealed that she had $230 in counterfeit currency hidden in her shoe. The suspect also had a backpack in the van, which was filled with methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia. The backpack also contained a large cache of credit cards, checks, a social security card, W-2 Form and bank account information – all bearing other people’s names.When questioned about the items in her possession, the 30 year-old female stated that she had been smoking methamphetamines with several men earlier in the day. The female claimed that these men gave her the counterfeit money and placed the items in her backpack, but told Deputies that she did not know who they were.
At this point in the investigation, the older female began complaining that her back was giving out and that she could not feel her legs. As a result, she was transported to the local hospital while the younger female was transported to the local jail.
Due to the nature of the incident, the jail could not admit the suspect without medical clearance. Upon hearing this, the woman began convulsing and became unresponsive. An ambulance was called and the female arrived at the hospital just as the older suspect was being released and transported to the jail.The 51 year-old female was booked into jail on charges of possessing methamphetamines and suspicion of forgery. Deputies state that there is sufficient evidence to charge the younger female, when released from the hospital, on charges of suspicion of forgery, identity theft and possession of methamphetamines with intent to deliver.

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Woman’s finger severed during purse snatching www.privateofficer.com

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. Nov. 24 2007— A man was being held in the Gwinnett County Jail without bond after he was accused of tearing a finger off a woman’s hand during a purse snatching.
Caesare R. Pinkins, 21, was charged with multiple felony counts of robbery and aggravated battery.
Gwinnett Police Corporal Illana Spellman said the incident took place about 2 p.m. on Wednesday in the parking lot of a Kroger store in Lilburn, a suburb about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta.
She said Pinkins drove by the victim, swiped the purse and stepped on the gas.
“As the suspect drove away, one of the victim’s fingers was pulled off,” Spellman said.
Attempts by surgeons to reattach the severed finger were unsuccessful.

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POLICE STILL SEEK SECURITY OFFICER KILLER by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

TEMPE AZ. NOV. 24 2007
The headline in the Jan. 29, 2006, edition of The Arizona Republic read: “Shooter kills 1 man, wounds 1.”The story began: “Esau Arturo Heras-Holguin wasn’t armed, but he chased a man down an alley who had just shot someone in a bar fight. That decision cost Heras-Holguin his life.”The 28-year-old uniformed security guard from Phoenix was attacked by a gunman nearly a half-mile from where he worked at Club Macarena in Glendale, according to police. Club Macarena is across the street from where the shooter claimed his first victim.”

The shooting occurred Jan. 27, 2006, at Famous Sam’s bar, 4343 W. Glendale Ave. Jim Ledgewood, 30, a Scottsdale architect, was wounded. The bullet struck Ledgewood in the left temple, severing a facial nerve, destroying his eardrum, grazing an artery and lodging in his skull.Now, he can’t hear in his left ear or see with his left eye. There is also paralysis on that side of his face.Summary: Two off-duty Glendale police officers and Heras-Holguin were working nearby, heard the shots and gave chase. Heras-Holguin, the unarmed security guard, confronted the gunman about two homes away from Famous Sam’s and was shot and killed.The gunman fled and has not been found.They said that the foot chase by Heras-Holguin probably saved the two off-duty police. Investigators have been unable to offer a description of the shooter other than to say he was a Hispanic male with a medium build wearing dark clothing.Police hope people who have provided anonymous leads will call back. Investigator: Detective Roger Geisler, a cold-case investigator for the Glendale Police Department.What bothers police most: “Sadly, two people lost their lives here, one of them literally and the other with loss-of-life issues due to a debilitating head wound,” Geisler said. “We’re looking for new leads to bring somebody to justice.” New technology’s role: DNA evidence has been preserved in the case, but no match has been found, Geisler said.
How you can help: To offer information, call the Glendale police tip hotline at 623-930-3399; or e-mail police at coldcase@glendaleaz.com.
Anonymous calls can also be made to Silent Witness at 1-800-343-TIPS.

The National Association of Private Officers has now joined in with the local police and is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the officer’s murder. Mr. Richard McCann, president of the association also stated that he intends on asking America’s Most Wanted to profile this case.

HIGH TECH SECURITY AT N.C. CAPITOL www.privateofficer.com

RALEIGH N.C. Nov. 24 2007 – Before members of the public can do business at some state government buildings, they will first be photographed, screened and scanned by a new computerized guard.
The device, a touch-screen kiosk, scans a visitor’s driver’s license, takes a photo and prints a unique badge for the visitor to display — all in less than a minute. The LobbyGuard system can screen visitors against a database of people who are considered security risks. And the electronic records of the visit, including the photograph, are stored on a secure server.
The State Capitol Police, which is responsible for security at 150 state government buildings covering 5 million square feet of office space, billed the system as a necessary anti-terrorism tool in justifying the purchase. The division used more than $22,000 in federal Department of Homeland Security grants this year to buy three kiosks, software and supplies. And Capitol Police Chief W. Scott Hunter said he wants to apply for more grants for more kiosks.
Homeland Security money — hundreds of millions of federal dollars — flows freely to communities across the nation. The spending has led to criticism that small cities and towns are gearing up for terror attacks that are unlikely to ever happen. The Department of Homeland Security has worked to better distribute the money on a need basis.
In purchasing documents and memos, officials pitched LobbyGuard as an anti-terror tool — a device that would allow authorities to track visitors to a building if it were the target of an attack. Hunter said in an interview that the system would also help his officers protect the public and state employees from crime. LobbyGuard allows the police to flag at the front door potentially risky visitors who might wish to harass a state employee or official, Hunter said. It replaces the paper logs that the police were already using to monitor activity at state buildings.
“We’re not there to keep people out. We’re there to just regulate people coming in,” Hunter said.
The state government complex is hardly a hub of crime. In the past year, the Capitol Police wrote eight incident reports or citations for suspicious activity, according to Capitol Police records. Most of those incidents involved panhandling.
Hunter said the records don’t reflect the cases of unauthorized people roaming the halls of state government buildings.
To enter state buildings, visitors need some form of photo identification, which hasn’t changed from when the police kept paper logs. Once signed in, visitors are often allowed to roam unescorted.
Beyond paper
The kiosks are currently in the Administration, Albemarle and Archdale buildings. The buildings house many state departments, including the Governor’s Office.
“The sheer volume of visitors that you have in these buildings, you need something more than paper,” said Kevin Allen, president of LobbyGuard Solutions, which is based in Raleigh.
Allen said the system was created by a Raleigh software company that didn’t have a receptionist. The company set up a computer, camera and printer in the lobby for visitors to check themselves in. So many visitors began asking about the system that its creators decided to market it, Allen said. Sales have tripled each year since 2005. LobbyGuard now has more than 500 customers, Allen said.
The current self-contained kiosk with a touch screen, a built-in camera and a printer has been around since 2006. Several Wake County schools and the state Department of Public Instruction use the system to screen visitors against sex offender registries, Allen said.
Is the risk real?
But inevitably, when supporters list the benefits of LobbyGuard, they mention its usefulness in the event of a terrorist attack.
“We hope to God that we never, ever need that,” Hunter said. “Is my concern here in the North Carolina government complex international terrorism? No. It’s not. It’s domestic terrorism.”
Veronique de Rugy, a critic of anti-terror spending, said the state’s use of federal terrorism money to buy LobbyGuard fits a nationwide hysteria over terrorism.
“What’s the probability of the city of Raleigh, no offense, being attacked by terrorists?” asked de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University outside Washington. “This is the perfect excuse for politicians, whether at the federal level or state and local level, to get some money and spend it on stuff.”
Hunter said the kiosks give the police more sophisticated tools to provide security.
“The question is, do you use pencil and paper and remain in the paper generation,” he asked, “or do we move to the technology generation?”

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Security officer kidnapped, robbed www.privateofficer.com

Cleburne Tx. Nov. 24 2007

Three armed suspects used zip-ties to bind a security officer Nov. 15 before ransacking the office buildings on a gas well site operated by J. Irwin.
Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputies responded about 7 p.m. to the aggravated robbery call from the J. Irwin Gas well site on County Road 1225.According to reports, a security officer at the site was leaving the building when he was approached by three individuals with thick Mexican accents, each armed with semiautomatic handguns. The suspects ordered the security officer to follow them to a storage bin on the property.The suspects then bound the officer to the storage bin with zip-ties.
According to reports, the suspects then ransacked the security officer’s vehicle, office and several other buildings on the property. They took the security officer’s wallet and a large sum of cash from the buildings.The suspects’ primary targets, according to reports, were a Kubota farm tractor and a new Caterpillar backhoe. The suspects could not start either piece of machinery, so they made off instead with the GPS tracking unit from each vehicle.The suspects were last seen driving a red Chevrolet north on CR 1225 toward Farm-to-Market Road 1434. According to reports, the dually 1990-1991 pick-up has a loud exhaust system. Attached to the pick-up was a 30 to 35 foot flatbed gooseneck trailer with no running lights.Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to contact the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 817-556-6060 or the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Investigative Division at 817-556-6058.

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Police officer retires after 50 years of faithful service www.privateofficer.com

HARTFORD CT. NOV. 24, 2007

On April 4, 1968, in the hours following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., enraged Hartford residents burned down the Stop & Shop Supermarket on Albany Avenue.Almost all the businesses in the city’s North End went up in flames — forcing police officers to shut down major roadways.Patrolman Donald R. Healey, who was then in his second decade as a Hartford police officer, stayed on his motorcycle, blocking traffic, for eight hours that night, so the firetrucks could get safely to the burning buildings.
It was mayhem,” said Healey of the burning and looting that went on for three days. The police department set up bunks at the old Morgan Street jail so cops like Healey — who stands about 6 feet tall and carries himself with the persona of a John Wayne character — could get some shut-eye.That was but one of the half-century of memorable moments for Officer Healey, 72, who retires today after 50 years with the Hartford Police Department.
He is believed by Hartford officials to be the longest-serving police officer in the nation. Now, it’s time to “smell the roses” with his wife of 46 years, Judith.Healey this week recalled some of the significant moments in a long, well-respected career. Such as the morning of Jan. 18, 1978, when the roof caved in at the Hartford Civic Center.”You’ve got to suit up,” Healey recalled his lieutenant’s orders about 4 a.m. “It snowed so hard that the roof collapsed. It was a good things that it happened early in the morning. There was a game there the night before and a lot of people could have been hurt,” Healey said.Just another day’s work for “Heals,” as he is known to his fellow cops and countless friends.”
It’s an historic moment,” said Hartford Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts. “He’s been here longer than I’ve been alive. He’s an example of what our officers should become. He was dedicated to providing a good service and stayed committed to doing something he had a passion for.

“Healey, a graduate of Bulkeley High School, was working at Andy’s service station on the Berlin Turnpike when his childhood friend Charles J. Fisher Jr. suggested they join the Hartford police department.The year was 1957, and the job promised to provide stable pay and secure employment.It did that, and gave him his identity.”It’s entirely what he is,” said Healey’s daughter Staci. “He looks like a policeman. He wore that role well.”"He’s always been a decent guy,” said Fisher, who has known Healey since they were 15. “We’ve only had one argument, over a danish,” he joked. “When you do something for 50 years, that shows a love and dedication for the job. The guy’s got heart.”Although there have been tough times, Healey said, he can recall only the good, and sometimes the funny.
Once he and another officer, Tom Grodecki, were assigned to serve as motorcycle escorts for Gov. Ella Grasso during her second term. It might have been a plum assignment if the ride from the State Armory to the Hilton hadn’t been so brutally cold. It was below zero and the windchill factor was 15 below.The next morning Grodecki says he telephoned Healey, seeking sympathy.”Heals, I can’t get up.”"Neither can I,” he said Healey responded. “We became real good friends.”Grodecki, like many of Healey’s peers, retired and went on to work for the state. But Healey stayed.

It was as much his social life as anything. We try to romanticize community policing. It was a natural thing for a guy like Don.”Healy gave up his motorcycle years ago; his cruiser, No. 64, will soon have someone else behind the wheel.There were many late-night shifts that turned into days for Healey, who exercised the power to stop traffic for dignitaries, presidents and ordinary citizens during 44 of the 50 years on the force that he spent in the traffic division. He was the public voice of Hartford-area traffic for many years, broadcasting over the radio from the top of the Traveler’s Tower on highway conditions in Greater Hartford.

This morning at 8 a.m., Healey will report to his supervisor’s tiny cubicle on Main Street for his final shift.But he is likely to get there about 7:45 a.m., because coming to work 15 minutes early and leaving 15 minutes late has always been his practice, one of his supervisors, Sgt. Thomas Null, said.”He loves the people. I like his old-school work ethic. He didn’t care about the money. It was public service,” Null said.Earlier this month, Chief Roberts presented Healey with a gold ring, shaped like a police officer’s badge.He and Judith are planning a trip to Florida to visit their daughter Kelli and their grandchildren.As Healey walked into the traffic division’s offices on Wednesday, he was reminded that his days were numbered and that the people in this town would miss him.”Hey, Heals. Did you get your ticket yet?” said a guy from public works.”My ticket?” Healey said.”Your ticket to Florida,” the man pressed.”Oh, yeah, it’s all paid for,” said Healey.

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Monkey meat,religous freedom and criminal charges center of trial www.privateofficer.com

NEW YORK N.Y. Nov. 24, 2007 – From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.
Now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with meat smuggling, and touching on issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation.
The case “appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product,” defense attorney Jan Rostal wrote in a pending motion to dismiss. “Unfortunately, it represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America.”
At the center of the case in federal court is a modest woman with nine children and a history of domestic discord.
The case dates to early 2006, when federal inspectors at JFK Airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes from Guinea.
They were addressed to Manneh and, according to a flight manifest, contained African dresses and smoked fish with a value of $780.
Instead, stashed underneath the smoked fish, the inspectors found what West Africans refer to as bushmeat: “skulls, limbs and torsos of non-human primate species” plus the hoof and leg of a small antelope, according to court papers.
Three days later, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents were at Manneh’s door, where she told them she ran a smoked fish importing business.
According to the agents, she initially denied ordering any bushmeat from Africa or ever eating it while in the United States.
But after she consented to a search, the agents came across a tiny, hairy arm hidden in her garage.
“Monkey,” she explained, claiming the arm was sent to her out of the blue “as a gift from God in heaven.”
Federal prosecutors hit Manneh with smuggling charges that accused her of violating import procedures and suggested she was a menace to man and beast alike.
A criminal complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals.
More ominously, the complaint warned of “the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.”
Defense attorney Rostal has countered by accusing the government of picking on a poorly educated immigrant.
Her client’s only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.
Defense papers also argue that the U.S. demand for the meat involved in the Manneh case — from Africa’s green monkey population — is “too small to have any significance for conservation.”
Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.
At age 7, “I was baptized and they used that for the baptizing ceremony,” she told a judge.
Manneh is already serving a two-year sentence in state prison for trying to run over a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband, Zanger Jefferson. If convicted of the federal charges she faces up to five more years in prison and deportation.
“The government’s taking a woman away from her children,” complained Jefferson, who’s struggling to raise the children alone. “It’s very depressing, especially with the holidays right around the corner.”
The prosecution also has dampened spirits at the church in Staten Island where Manneh and other African immigrants once packed the pews to practice a religion blending Christianity and tribal customs.
One of the few worshippers left, Leona Artis, says the congregation’s appetite for monkey meat is deeply misunderstood.
Take Thanksgiving.
“Where some people have turkey, we’ll have monkey meat,” Artis said. “I’ve been eating it all my life. It’s delicious.”
Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings — all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh’s supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.
The statement was vague about how the meat is obtained, but explains that it always arrives dried and smoked. Once blessed by a pastor, “we usually prepare it by cooking it for several hours into a stew,” they said.
For them, the exotic import is more than just food.
“We eat bushmeat,” they said, “for our souls.”

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Store security agent killed during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

Store security shot, killed during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

Chicago IL. Nov,24 2007

The start of the busy holiday shopping season turned violent at a tiny, tidy clothing store on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Friday afternoon when a security guard was shot and killed.
Just before 1 p.m., a trio of thieves walked in to Get M Girlz at 2547 W. 63rd, announced a robbery, and started to unload racks of clothing.
One of the robbers began struggling with the store’s security guard, and in a matter of seconds, the guard had been shot several times in the chest, according to Chicago Police.
As the thieves bolted from the business, Harold D. Long Jr., 22, of the 800 block of North Sacramento, lay dying.
He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Long’s family said he had worked at the store for about 1½ years and was going to school in hopes of one day opening his own business.
“He was very dedicated to his job,” said his sister, Shauntamika Friley, 25, adding that her brother had planned to start his own security service.
Friley said her brother, who she thought was supposed to be off Friday, was a generous and loving uncle. “He was the type of person when he loved you, he really loved you,” Friley said.
A second person in the store, a female sales clerk, was uninjured in the holdup.
“There are witnesses,” said Chicago Lawn District police Cmdr. Leo Schmitz. Police said they’ve received some helpful leads.
One shopkeeper in the area said the clothing store had been targeted by robbers before. Police said store owners need to be especially careful during this season.
“This is the time of year where if you’re selling a lot, these bad guys know you’ve got a lot,” Schmitz said.
Harvey Hobson, who owns the What’s Poppin’ popcorn and candy store across the street, said he’s concerned about his own shop. He said he thinks the clothing store had been robbed at least two other times and that thieves tried to hold up a nearby dry cleaners in recent weeks but left after learning cash receipts had been deposited.
The slain security guard “was a nice young man,” Hobson said. “I hated to hear that happened to him — he was just a real good guy.”

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Jewel Thief Hits Mall Twice www.privateofficer.com

Jewel Thief Hits Mall Twice http://www.privateofficer.com

Kahala Hi. Nov. 23 2007
Prosecutors are expected to seek an extended sentence for the second time in three months against a career criminal charged yesterday with the alleged theft of more than $22,000 of jewelry from Macy’s at Kahala Mall.
Dean Mitchell Gouveia, 48, of Waimanalo, already is facing a five-year sentence for felony second-degree and misdemeanor third-degree theft stemming from an October conviction unrelated to the Kahala Mall theft.
A judge in October denied an attempt by prosecutors to empanel a jury to hear motions on extended sentencing for Gouveia as a repeat offender. The judge deferred sentencing for Gouveia to allow him to have surgery for a medical condition.
Gouveia, who has 66 prior convictions dating to July 1981 and 153 arrests, was to have been sentenced yesterday for the October convictions.
Instead, he was charged by information with first-degree theft for allegedly stealing a display case containing 72 to 80 pieces of bridge diamond jewelry valued at $150 to $390 each from Macy’s fine jewelry store at Kahala Mall on Nov. 13.
Charging by information bypasses the probable-cause charging process, which requires an initial appearance and preliminary hearing at District Court. Gouveia’s bail was set at $20,000. He will be arraigned at Circuit Court on a date to be determined.
Gouveia can be released if he makes bail; otherwise he will be sent to O’ahu Community Correctional Center.
Gouveia was identified as a suspect in the Macy’s case by surveillance videotapes, police said.
The tapes showed Gouveia entering Macy’s and distracting a salesperson, who was looking for a jewelry piece for him in the stockroom, according to a court affidavit. He allegedly cut the cable on a display case with a utility tool and walked out of the store while the salesperson was still away.
The videotapes appear to show Gouveia placing the jewelry case in the bed of his pickup truck, parked near the entry/exit glass doors to the store, and driving off.
The surveillance tapes provided police with the license plate number of the truck, which is registered to Gouveia.
None of the stolen jewelry has been recovered, police said.

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Store employee busted for theft with friend www.privateofficer.com

Store employee busted for stealing with friend http://www.privateofficer.com

Tempe Az. Nov,23 2007 A Wal-Mart employee was arrested Tuesday after police said she stole two gift cards from the store, valued at $1,000 each, and used them at other Wal-Mart stores around the Valley.The store manager of the Wal-Mart in the 6100 block of East Southern Avenue told police that on Saturday the cash register that 21-year-old Veronica Villa was assigned to was $3,100 short. According to a police report, Villa rang up several items to an unknown male customer along with two $1,000 gift cards.

The manager told police one of the gift cards was used at a Wal-Mart in Tempe, and the security video shows Villa shopping with the same unknown man who she sold items to on Saturday. The video also shows Villa paying for $898 worth of merchandise with the gift card, police said.Villa also went to two other Wal-Mart stores in the Valley and purchased items there, according to the report. When contacted by police, Villa said it was her boyfriend, Jorge Gutierrez, who came to purchase items from her. Villa said during the transaction, she decided to purchase two $1,000 gift cards for herself. Villa said Gutierrez gave her $30 to $50 for all of the items and said she believed Gutierrez when he told her she would not get in trouble.Villa told police she went to the other Wal-Mart store to buy household items and a birthday present for Gutierrez.

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Hospital police sue ailing 78 yr old man after melee www.privateofficer.com

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hospital police sue ailing 78 yr old after melee www.privateofficer.com

Chicago IL. Nov. 20 2007

More than a year ago, a 78-year-old stroke victim said he was yanked from his car and beaten by Stroger Hospital police while waiting for his wife.
Hospital workers said they videotaped parts of the melee before recording devices were ripped away by the same officers.
Now, one of the cops is suing Agustin Sotomayor and his family, saying they tarnished his reputation.
Officers say they were simply reacting when Sotomayor drove over a cop’s foot after police approached to ask Sotomayor to move his car. Sotomayor says he was parked legally.
Remoh Robert filed suit last week in Cook County Circuit Court, demanding more than $150,000 from those he says wrongfully accused him of taking part in injuring Sotomayor.
Battery charges dropped
Robert has since left the scandal-plagued police force for a suburban department, but his lawyer said he’s suing to salvage his “good name.”
“A police officer’s reputation is everything,” said attorney Zane Smith. “He feels very strongly about his reputation and he intends to protect it.”
The lawsuit claims the Sotomayor family publicly identified Robert as one of those who caused injuries to the elderly man during the September 2006 incident.
Sotomayor — who has since suffered other health troubles, including another stroke — said officers demanded to know his ethnic status, ripped him from the car and threw him to the ground. Charges of battery against Sotomayor were dropped, the FBI investigated the incident and the County Board issued a formal apology.
A hospital worker who documented the incident on his phone said officers took away the phone and, when it was later given back, all documentation was deleted.
Robert is the target of two lawsuits, including one by the Sotomayors, alleging he has violated people’s civil rights.
Sotomayor’s daughter, Karen Salasblancas, said after all her father’s been through, she’s sickened to know Robert is now targeting him again.
Probe clears officers
“[Robert] definitely knows what he did. No one can change that,” she said. “To step on someone’s dignity, who’s already down — what kind of human being even does that?”
An internal Stroger Hospital investigation turned up no wrongdoing by officers.
Stroger Hospital officers have repeatedly been accused of improper use of force over the years, and the County Board voted to abolish the force in favor of private guards, though that was later reversed after heavy pressure by the officers’ union.

footnote; Stronger hospital has it’s own fully authorized full status police force and operate as any other police agency.

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Security shoots cooper thief wielding saw www.privateofficer.com

Security shoots copper thief wielding saw www.privateofficer.com

INDIANAPOLIS In. Nov. 20, 2007 — An apartment complex security guard shot and killed a man who lunged at him from a closet with a power saw, police said.
According to Indianapolis Metro police, Nicholas B. House, 22, of Greenfield, appeared to be acting in self defense when he shot the intruder inside an empty apartment at the Spanish Oaks apartment complex on the east side of Indianapolis Monday night.
Police said House found two men hiding in a bedroom closet. One man rushed at House with the saw and House fired about four times.

As the man collapsed with a gunshot wound to the chest, the other man fled and was not immediately found.
House told police that he saw an open door at a vacant unit in the 10300 block of East Governours Lane, near 38th Street and Post Road, at about 9 p.m.
Police said they think the men may have been stealing copper pipe.

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Father bites baby’s lip off www.privateofficer.com

Father Bites Baby’s Lips Off by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Lowell Ma. Nov. 20, 2007

A Lowell toddler was leaning in for a kiss when his lip was bitten off by his drug-addled father in a sickening attack Saturday, according to a police report.
Police said yesterday that the 22-month-old boy’s condition was improving, and efforts to reattach the lip at Boston’s Children’s Hospital were initially successful, the Lowell Sun reported.
Prosecutors allege that Thy Chan, 26, was high on ecstasy when he bit down and severed his little son’s lip at their Middlesex Street apartment Saturday morning.

The tot’s horrified mother, Karolyn Ung, 25, wrestled her son from Chan’s jaws, took him and her daughter to another room, locked the door and called 911, the Lowell police report said.
Chan was arrested and hospitalized at Saints Medical Center in Lowell, where he was arraigned yesterday.
“Many of the most troubling cases that we deal with involve the abuse of young children,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone Jr. said. “This is a deeply disturbing case in which we allege that the young child was savagely injured by the defendant.”
Ung told cops that Chan returned home at 9:30 a.m. Saturday after being out all night. She said Chan was “tripping on ecstasy” and that he had been pacing back and forth all morning, grinding his teeth and drinking a lot of water, the police report said.
She told cops that Chan had a history of abusing the drug ecstasy.
At about 9:15 a.m., Ung told cops that Chan was playing on the couple’s bed with their son and daughter. Her son leaned forward as if to kiss his dad when she saw Chan bite down on the boy’s lip, the report said.
“She jumped up to try and separate them, but he refused to let go,” the reportsaid. “He then bit the child’s lip off.”
Cops arrived to find the little victim wrapped in a blanket and bleeding profusely from his mouth.
Chan was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery on a child and mayhem. Lowell District Court Judge Neil Walker ordered Chan held on $25,000 cash bail and barred him from contact with any children.

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Boston cops roll in the dough; some paid 200k last year! www.privateofficer.com

Boston cops roll in the dough; paid 200k last year www.privateofficer.com

Boston Ma. Nov. 20 2007 As the city struggles to rein in spending and hold down property taxes, some 25 cops raked in more than $200,000 in 2006 while another 25 nearly cracked that figure, hauling in more than $190,000, a Boston Herald review of city payroll records has found.
In all, 126 Boston police officers made more than the $166,000 salary paid to Mayor Thomas M Menino and 121 earned more than Commissioner Ed Davis’ $167,500 annual salary, records show. Only one other city employee, interim School Superintendent Michael Contompasis, made more than $200,000 in 2006. He earned just a portion of the $270,000 for the part of the year he served in the post.
“These salaries are really a kind of insult to the taxpayer,” said Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “This whole issue seems to have mushroomed in recent years. To have 126 police officers make more than the mayor is a dramatic statement.”
By comparison, the Boston Fire Department had just three employees earn slightly more than Fire Chief Kevin MacCurtain, who had a gross pay of $163,163.
The lucrative police overtime and detail shifts have scores of city cops doubling and even tripling their base salaries.
Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said managing the city’s public safety needs while controlling payroll is “always a challenge.”
“Fiscal responsibility has always been a priority of the mayor,” Joyce said. “Our bond rating and our budget management has always been in the elite class. That should be a testament to the mayor’s fiscal restraint while at the same time making sure that basic city services are met.”
All 50 of the highest paid BPD officers have the rank of sergeant or higher. At the top of the list of Boston Police Department employees is Lt. Timothy Kervin, who earned $240,183 in 2006.
The top earning rank-and-file officer is patrolman Joseph Leeman, who made $186,609 in 2006, records show.
BPD union officials didn’t return a call for comment. BPD spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said the figures represent base salaries plus overtime and detail pay. She called it a “delicate balance” to budget overtime and maintain public safety.
As for the staggering salaries, she noted that detail pay “doesn’t come out of the city’s pocket.”
But Widmer shot down that argument, claiming that lofty police detail bills are passed onto taxpayers in the form of utility rate hikes.
“We’re ratepayers or we’re taxpayers. Whether it comes out of our left pocket or our right pocket, we’re all paying the bill,” Widmer said. “Utilities are not underwriting these costs, they’re passing them on to us.”
The Herald reported yesterday that state troopers working on the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority racked up $8.3 million in overtime last year and that troopers earned up to $58,000 in detail pay alone. The payouts resulted in 23 Pike troopers making more than $200,000 in 2006.
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires police officers instead of civilian flagmen at road jobs, a practice Gov. Deval Patrick has said he intends to target.

TOP PAID OFFICERS:

Officer Kenneth Conley*
$55,141 base pay
$702,517 gross pay

Officer David Williams*
$53,149 base pay
$548,617 gross pay

Lt. Timothy Kervin
$78,436 base pay
$240,183 gross pay

Lt. Haseeb Hosein
$78,436 base pay
$239,447 gross pay

Sgt. Martin Kraft
$67,299 base pay
$237,724 gross pay

Capt. John Kervin
$91,379 base pay
$226,179 gross pay

Lt. Ghassoub Frangie
$78,436 base pay
$224,447 gross pay

Capt. Paul Russell
$95,383 base pay
$222,094 gross pay

Lt. Detective Eric Eversley
$82,502 base pay
$220,168 gross pay

Capt. William Evans
$95,383 base pay
$215,157 gross pay

Sgt. Michael Wosny
$67,299 base pay
$214,459 gross pay

Sgt. Detective Mark Vickers
$71,354 base pay
$213,846 gross pay

Lt. Steven Ciccolo
$78,436 base pay
$213,152 gross pay

Lt. Matthew Spillane
$80,516 base pay
$212,832 gross pay

Lt. Edward Roake
$78,436 base pay
$210,880 gross pay

Lt. Frederick Conley
$78,436 base pay
$210,504 gross pay
Sgt. Detective Daniel Keeler
$71,354 base pay
$208,044 gross pay
Capt. Pervis Ryans
$97,463 base pay
$207,889 gross pay

Capt. Bernard O’Rourke
$95,383 base pay
$206,745 gross pay
Sgt. Sean Smith
$67,299 base pay
$204,910 gross pay

Sgt. John Fitzgerald
$67,299 base pay
$203,987 gross pay
Capt. Michael Broderick
$95,383 base pay
$203,773 gross pay
Capt. Robert Flaherty
$95,383 base pay
$203,308 gross pay
Capt. Edward Wallace
$99,367 base pay
$201,920 gross pay
Sgt. John McBrien
$67,299 base pay
$201,361 gross pay
Capt. James Claiborne
$95,383 base pay
$201,228 gross pay

Sgt. William Robertson
$71,354 base pay
$200,321 gross pay

Lt. Detective Robert Merner
$82,502 base pay
$199,856 gross pay
Capt. Christine Michalosky
$95,383 base pay
$198,916 gross pay

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Shoplifter is wanted fugitive www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifter Wanted Fugitive www.privateofficer.com

Milford Ct. Nov. 20, 2007 — A New Haven woman accused of shoplifting at the Marshall’s store in the Milford Crossing shopping center was found hiding in the men’s room of another store on the other side of the Boston Post Road plaza.
Nadine Cameron, 41, of Sheffield Avenue in New Haven has been held on $10,000 bond since her arrest Saturday afternoon, because there is an outstanding arrest warrant for her in Georgia, police said today.
Cameron was charged with being a fugitive from justice and with third-degree robbery and sixth-degree larceny for the incident at the clothing store.
Police said she attempted to leave Marshall’s with $139 in merchandise without paying and scratched a security guard who tried to stop her.
She later was found trying to hide in the men’s bathroom at the Staples store in the same shopping complex.
Local police did not release what type of charges were pending against Cameron in Georgia and are waiting to be notified whether Georgia would seek extridition against her.

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Pecan thieves warned in Georgia www.privateofficer.com

Pecan Thieves Be Forwarned; You Will Be Arrested In Georgia www.privateofficer.com

Atlanta Ga. Nov. 20, 2007 –Frank Funderburk, a University of Georgia agricultural county extension coordinator, feels a 1950s poster featuring a tough-looking sheriff at the Department of Agriculture building in Byron says it all: “If you steal pecans, we’ll shoot you.”
The act of folks sneaking into orchards and stealing pecans has always pestered growers, said Funderburk, who is based in Fort Valley.
But this year, which the Georgia Pecan Growers Association heralds as the state’s best pecan crop in the past 10 to 15 years, thievery seems to be more pronounced, Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said.
Pecan thieves are picking the pockets of growers not only in Middle Georgia but across the state, Deese says.
“We got three to four complaints a day in the last week,” the sheriff said recently.
While Deese has no plans to shoot pecan thieves, he vows to aggressively arrest and prosecute illegal nut nabbers.
In Georgia, it’s a minimum $500 fine, or up to 12 months in jail, for stealing pecans, Deese said.
“We started enforcing it because it’s become such a serious problem,” the sheriff said. “We don’t pick up grandmas and haul them off for picking up pecans by the side of the road. … But we do tell them what the law is.”
And if Grandma persists?
“They can’t say they weren’t warned,” Deese said.
If the value of the pecans stolen is $500 or more, then the crime is a felony punishable under the state’s general theft statutes, said retired state Rep. Robert Ray, a pecan grower in Peach and Crawford counties.
Ray, who authored the $500 minimum-fine legislation of 1994, said the state law hadn’t been enforced much because many growers didn’t want to take the time out from farming to prosecute the thieves.
But that’s changed, he said.
“So many farmers have been hit by it, we want to prosecute people to the fullest extent of the law,” Ray said.
The law applies to all unharvested agricultural crops, including peaches, apples and watermelons, not just pecans, he noted.
“On Evans Farms’ behalf, we’re going to prosecute anybody we catch stealing,” said owner Chop Evans. His pecan orchards are located in 10 Middle Georgia counties – Peach, Houston, Crawford, Macon, Dooly, Dodge, Wilcox, Crisp, Turner and Lee.
“How else are you going to stop it if you don’t prosecute it?” Evans suggested. “It’s going to cost them (farmers) some time and money. But I’ve always thought that once word gets out that this particular farmer is going to prosecute, the problem will diminish.”
Evans and Ray are particularly concerned with thieves who sneak into orchards, often under the cover of night, toting burlap bags, coolers and even plastic shopping bags to scoop up and carry off a passel of pecan profits.
Evans recently caught thieves red-handed in one of his orchards with nearly 800 pounds of pecans in burlap bags.
“That’s hardly somebody picking up something to eat,” the grower said.
Another time, Evans said, he had a sheriff’s deputy open the car trunk of an intruder nabbed in his orchard. The trunk was full of pecans, he said.
The grower said he sometimes gets anonymous calls tipping him to folks spotted picking up pecans in one of his orchards.
Troubling to Evans and other growers who invest lots of money into nurturing pecan crops is the perception that it’s somehow not stealing to go into an orchard and take pecans.
“If you do the same thing in a jewelry or clothing store,” he said, “everyone knows you are going to be arrested.”
Funderburk agreed that’s a big a part of the problem.
“We have people pull off to the side of the road with a sack and pick up pecans (and they) don’t see that as theft,” he said. “They don’t see that the same as picking up a can of beans at Wal-Mart without paying for it.”

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Mall thief steals expensive rings www.privateofficer.com

Charlotte N.C. Nov. 20, 2007 — A man claims to be shopping for an engagement ring for his girlfriend, and steals two diamond rings.
The robbery took place at a jewelry store in Carolina Place Mall last Tuesday night. Pineville police released surveillance video of the suspect, hoping that someone will recognize him.
Mall surveillance video shows the man wearing a baseball hat and leather jacket, scoping out the inside of the mall for about a half hour before going out to his car and coming back into the mall. Officers say he asked the store clerk to show him two diamond rings. When the clerk took out the rings, the suspect grabbed them and ran off. Police say the suspect was in and out of the store in less than two minutes and was gone before mall security could track him down.
Police say the suspect knew what he was after. He made three trips to the jewelry store, and stole the rings on the third visit.
The store’s owner describes the suspect as clean-cut, and a cool operator. He even asked for the clerk by name.
The two diamond rings are worth a combined value of $18,000. Pineville police say this type of a jewelry theft is very rare. The last time they had a case like this was a year ago. If you have any information call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

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Elderly guard chases armed robbers www.privateofficer.com

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Elderly guard chases armed robbers www.privateofficer.com

HIALEAH, Fla. Nov. 20, 2007 — Authorities are looking for two men who tried to rob a Hialeah restaurant early Monday morning but were stopped by a quick-thinking security guard.
Police said the security guard in his 70s fired gunshots at the men and chased them away after they approached him in the Zoe’s Juice Palace parking lot.
He says that he tried not to hit them. So he probably was more trying to scare them away than trying to actually fire at them,” said Detective Carl Zogby of Hialeah police.
The owner of the store said he has 16 surveillance cameras on the property and the attempted robbery was caught on video.
One video shows the security guard sitting in a chair outside the building. Two men walk up to the guard and one points a gun at him.
The video shows the guard kicking the gun away from the man’s hand, and then firing at least two shots at the men.
“Believe me, he could kill but he doesn’t want to kill anybody,” said storeowner Jose Gutierrez. “He told me that somebody was trying to kill him and I see the video and the guy pointed at him. He reacted real good.”
Gutierrez said the security guard has past military experience and has dealt with attempted robberies at his previous jobs.
One of the robbers on Monday wore a Halloween mask and black clothes. The other had a red bandanna covering his nose and mouth, and a white T-shirt on his head.
Police are also looking for a third man who they said was driving a dark-colored getaway vehicle. No one was injured in the incident.
Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

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Detective shoots shoplifter who runs him down www.privateofficer.com

DELRAY BEACH FLA. Nov. 18, 2007 — A Delray Beach police detective shot and wounded a fleeing shoplifter Friday morning and was injured himself when the shoplifter drove her car into him as she made her escape, police said.
After Darlene Rawls, 37, shoplifted a $40 bathrobe from Linens ‘n Things, she refused to give up peacefully when a detective cornered her on Linton Boulevard and Southwest Fourth Avenue, police said. Rawls reversed, then drove forward, striking the detective and injuring his knee. He got off one shot, which struck Rawls’ left forearm before entering her abdomen.
Rawls sped off in a gold, late-model Mitsubishi Galant, a rental car, as the detective got off the ground and pursued her in his car. She eluded him, but when she got out at Bethesda Medical Center, police caught up with her, said officer Jeff Messer, police spokesman.
Rawls’ wound was not life-threatening. She was taken to Delray Medical Center before doctors released her and police took her into custody. She admitted to the crime, Messer said.
The detective, whose name was not released, may have sustained ligament damage to his right knee when the Galant hit him, police said. After quitting the pursuit, he returned to the police station and was taken to Delray Medical Center for treatment. He was later released.
The detective believed his life was in danger when he opened fire, Messer said.
He was placed on paid administrative leave, a routine move whenever an officer fires a weapon.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is leading an investigation into the shooting.
The incident began when Rawls, of West Palm Beach, and at least one man and one other woman were seen shoplifting a $40 bathrobe from Linens ‘n Things in The Plaza at Delray in the 1600 block of South Federal Highway, Messer said.
Rawls, who has been arrested 18 times in Florida on charges that include shoplifting and larceny, made off with the bathrobe, but she and the other shoplifters didn’t get far, police said.
Store workers called police, and the detective spotted Rawls turning out of the parking lot onto westbound Linton Boulevard. He pulled his car in front of the Galant near the intersection of Linton Boulevard and Southwest Fourth Avenue, and it stopped. The lights on his car were flashing. He stepped out and identified himself as a police officer, his badge visible, Messer said.
Rawls’ eyes met the detective’s, Messer said, and then she turned and said something to the other people in the car.
That’s when she reversed, pulled forward and tried to drive around the detective, hitting him, and taking a bullet before she could get away.
Authorities were looking for the other people in the Galant, believed to be as many as two men and one other woman. Police believe one of the men in the car may have shown up after the shoplifting incident. They also were searching for the Galant, which probably has a broken windshield from either the bullet or the impact with the detective, Messer said.
Rawls already had a warrant out for her arrest on a charge of uttering a forged instrument, police said. She was expected to be booked into the Palm Beach County Jail.
The shooting, which caused authorities to shut down westbound Linton Boulevard from Southwest Fourth Avenue to Old Dixie Highway, also resulted in a second arrest.
As the incident unfolded, Delray Beach police sent out an alert to other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the Galant.
Boynton Beach police officer Rachel Loy spotted a silver Mitsubishi Galant and tried to pull over the car, but the driver, Kashus Davis, 22, of Boynton Beach, did not stop, police said.
He drove off, tried to run away and was finally tasered before police found crack cocaine in his car and took him to jail on various charges.

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Gum thief faces robbery charges by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Staten Island N.Y. Nov. 18, 2007

A Staten Island man went wholesale shoplifting at a CVS in Great Kills yesterday, walking out of the store with over 100 packs of gum stuffed down his pants, police said.
But his half-witted crime took a serious turn when he pulled a steak knife on a pair of employees who followed him into the parking lot, then led police on a chase down Arthur Kill Road, and into a shed in the backyard of a Brookfield Avenue home, according to court documents.
Now, instead of just petit larceny, 34-year-old Esh McIntosh, a Stapleton resident, faces a first- degree robbery charge — which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. McIntosh was also charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, second-degree criminal trespass and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.
According to criminal records, McIntosh has no recent arrests in Staten Island, and would have likely been facing a fine and probation had he just admitted to a shoplifting charge.
Police sources said they are also stumped by the crime.
“What exactly was he going to do with all that gum, anyway? That’s a lot of chewing,” one said.

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Shoplifter steals car with children in it www.privateofficer.com

Greece, N.Y. Nov. 19 2007– Police have apprehended a shoplifting suspect wanted for stealing a car with two children inside from the parking lot at the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Bellwood Drive in Greece.
Greece Police said, shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, store security confronted Geraldine Motzer, 41, of Brockport, in a car after she left the store with a television set.
As the car’s driver spoke to security, Motzer got in a mini van that was running as the owner was loading it with groceries. She then took off in the van with two children inside.
Motzer dropped the children off on a porch at a home in Rochester. The homeowners called 911 to report that the children were there.
Rochester Police helped find the mini-van and Motzer was arrested.
Motzer faces several charges including robbery, grand larceny, kidnapping, and reckless endangerment.
She is currently on parole for grand larceny and has been remanded to Monroe County Jail without bail.

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Target has their own crime lab! www.privateofficer.com

MINNEAPOLIS Mn. Nov. 19 2007― When people talk about Target, most people think about the retail stores festooned with red bull’s-eye symbols. But did you know the Minnesota retail giant is also known around the world for its focus on solving crimes?
Target’s crime lab and forensic experts often provide the missing link to connect killers to their crimes.Their lab, which was designed to conquer more petty crimes committed in their own stores, is not run by law enforcement. However they now provide help solving crimes to police.To date, Target has offered assistance to more than 100 different agencies.
They don’t charge a dime. All they ask for is a department patch in return.The Dru Sjodin case was one of the first Target was consulted on. Some of her last moments were caught on tape. So were the movements of her convicted killer.”There’s no way of knowing what’s actually inside of his mind, but obviously he makes some observation towards that camera that’s up in the ceiling,” said a crime lab employee. “Not all the cases we work on have happy endings.”
This proved to be the case with Sjodin, whose body was found in a ravine months after she vanished. The surveillance video was a key piece of evidence in the prosecution of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.”This was very important because it showed Alfonso in close proximity to the area of the disappearance,” said the employee.Rick Lautenbach, who manages the Target Forensic Service Lab here and in Las Vegas, said “When there’s a serious crime that perhaps we can help with and we have the means to do it, it’s important for us to be able to do that when we can.”
Most of the people running the lab are former law enforcement. Brent Pack is a former special agent with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command. Earlier this year, he helped police put Anthony Albert Gomez behind bars.”One of the best things I like about the job is finding that one piece of evidence, that one thing that ties in a criminal to the crime,” said Pack, now a senior investigator with Target Forensic Services.Gomez had recorded images of himself beheading a girl’s dog, before he left it on her doorstep in a box. When police arrested him, they called Target to get the images off his phone. Faced with the evidence, Gomez pleaded guilty.”It was gratifying to see his face in the paper not too long ago,” said Pack.
Target doesn’t limit their scope to simply cracking cases in Minnesota. The impact of its crime lab spans the globe. Take, for instance, the murder of Kamila Garsztka, whose body was found floating in a marina in England. Her purse was found in her boyfriend’s apartment.Using video of Garsztka from cameras positioned all around the city, Casey Cottle spent over 80 hours enhancing and analyzing shades of color on her coat.”This light area goes all the way up over the shoulder. So it couldn’t be just a part of the jacket,” said Cottle. “There’s definitely something on the shoulder and to the investigation and in trial, that was a huge part.”Amilton Bento got a life sentence.Target estimates law enforcement cases make up about 30 percent of the lab’s case load, and the rest focus on issues closer to the core of its business. Occasionally there is crossover.”If we can offer the same level of scientific ability to answer the questions that are before the court, or the questions investigators have, we want to be able to do that,” said Lautenbach.That is a mission statement Target plans to validate far into the future.”I know from being here 12 years that Target is sincere. If all companies did what we do, that would be really powerful,” said Lautenbach.With all the sophisticated technology, some customers might wonder if Target is collecting information on its shoppers. While Target has security cameras, like everyone else, they emphasized to us they only use their lab to focus on criminal activity, not people’s buying habits.

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Kasey Kahne Scuffles With Security www.privateofficer.com

NASCAR DRIVER INVOLVED IN INCIDENT WITH SECURITY www.privateofficer.com

HOMESTEAD, Fla. Nov. 18 2007 – Police are investigating an incident that took place Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway involving NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne and an unidentified security guard.
A spokesman for Kahne said the Nextel Cup star was rushing to his motorhome in a secure lot at the track following Friday’s final practice when he was stopped by the guard, who refused to let Kahne through the entrance without a credential.
Kahne, still in his driving uniform, attempted to walk around the guard and, according to the spokesman, the two bumped and, when Kahne turned around, the guard was on the ground.
Police were called and Kahne spent several minutes in handcuffs before being released. The security guard was checked and released at the infield medical center.
A police spokesman said the incident is under investigation by detectives and he was not at liberty to talk about specifics.
Kahne took part in Saturday’s Cup practices and will start today’s season-ending Ford 400 third in the 43-car field.

This incident remains under investigation by police, track officials and Nascar and could develope into a further story. http://www.privateofficer.com/ will be watching this story and as it developes we will send you breaking news!

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