Grenade carrying hospital visitor charged with terrorism www.privateofficer.com

Grenade carrying hospital visitor charged as a terrorist www.privateofficer.com

Detroit Mi January 12 2008

A Detroit man was charged in 36th District Court tonight with several counts, including one count of terrorism, after Detroit Police said he threatened to detonate two grenades in the Detroit Receiving Hospital emergency room this past weekend.
In addition to the terrorism charge, James Waddell Williams, 44, was charged with two counts of assault with attempt to maim; five counts of possessing an explosive device with intent, and one count of possessing explosives and volatile target.

Police said Williams set off metal detectors when he entered the DHR emergency room Jan. 5. Hospital security guards took the grenades from Williams, wrestling him to the ground. No one was injured.
Williams, who reportedly has a history of mental illness, has a military background. Police said they found additional explosives in Williams’ Detroit home.

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Hospital employee shoots at security www.privateofficer.com

San Diego CA Jan 12 2008

A Kaiser Foundation Hospital employee was arrested Friday for allegedly opening fire on a security guard behind the Allied Gardens medical center, missing the victim but damaging the car he was in. San Diego police took 24-year-old Christopher Baladad into custody outside his Encanto-area home about 90 minutes after the 10:30 a.m. shooting in the 4600 block of Zion Avenue, SDPD spokeswoman Monica Munoz said. The crime apparently resulted from a recent “run-in” of some kind between the assailant and the guard, Munoz said. The dispute may have begun earlier this week, when the guard chastised Baladad for using a handicapped parking space in a lot outside a Vons store near the medical center, according to broadcast reports. After firing at least two shots, one of which shattered the driver’s side window of the victim’s vehicle, the gunman drove off, possibly fleeing to the east on Mission Gorge Road, police said. The weapon may have been a high-powered pellet pistol, Munoz said. The victim, whose name was not released, told police he believed the attacker was a gang member. The nature of Baladad’s employment with the hospital was not immediately clear.

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Housing Officer Shoots At Trespasser www.privateofficer.com

Tulsa Okla Jan 12 2008

A man is lucky to be alive after he says a security guard fired several shots at him. It happened late Thursday night outside the Comanche Park Apartments off 36th Street North.

Waylon Dumas was backing his car out of Comanche Park when police say the security guard fired a gun at him six times. Several shots struck Dumas’ car. Dumas says he went to Comanche Park to visit his grandmother. He says he had stopped by earlier that day and the guard had let him through. But, he says when he came back Thursday night, things didn’t go as smoothly.

I gave him my identification. They held me up for twenty minutes. I told him give me my ID or let me through. They didn’t want to do either, so I was going out heading towards 36th and Peoria when I heard a couple of shots.”

Police say the guard fired six shots at Dumas. “I saw him standing, but I didn’t expect him to shoot,” Dumas says. “He was just standing there and I mean he just started shooting.” The bullets hit the side of the car and shattered his passenger side window. Waylon sped away and drove to Uniform Division North to tell police. “I was just angry,” he says. “I mean, he shot at me. I mean, that was my life.”

Today, the big question remained why? Why would a guard shoot at a visitor? The security company, Wackenhunt Security, would not comment. The Tulsa Housing Authority is responsible for the complex. Chea Redditt is the Chief Operations Officer. She says she doesn’t know what provoked the guard, but she admits it appears he was out of line. “

I know what I have seen so far, it was outside the scope of policy for him to draw his weapon and fire his weapon,” Redditt says. Waylon is on the complex’s ban list. He says it’s because of a family dispute that was resolved. Even so, ban or no ban, Waylon says when he pulled in last night, he didn’t have a weapon, so he doesn’t understand why the guard would shoot at him. “He needs to be punished. That’s all. The same way if I was shooting at someone. It’s no different.” Police have questioned the guards. Now, detectives are investigating the case and Waylon is working with a lawyer. No arrests have been made.

All Tulsa Housing Authority security guards go through extensive state certified training. They also get background checks to make sure they don’t have a violent history. The Tulsa Housing Authority says they have never had an incident like this at one of their complexes and that the guard will no longer be working on any of their properties.

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Shoplifter Charged With Murder Attempt Of 2 Security Agents www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifter Charged With Murder Attempt Of 2 Security Agents by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. January 12, 2008 — Two Wal-Mart employees were stabbed Friday afternoon in Bloomington while trying to stop a suspected shoplifter.

Around 1:00 p.m., shoplifting suspect David Barnes was seen stealing items off store shelves inside the Wal-Mart at 715 East 78th Street and stuffing them inside a backpack. When he headed for the door, a loss prevention officer stopped him. Barnes then took out a four-inch blade and stabbed the employee.

When a second loss prevention officer stepped in to help, Barnes stabbed him in the leg. A Wal-Mart employee said she held one of the bleeding employees until help arrived. The officers were treated for their injuries at the scene.

Barnes left the Wal-Mart and fled the scene in a car. Police caught up to him in Richfield, near Old Cedar Avenue and Bloomington Avenue. Barnes is in police custody, facing charges of attempted murder and first degree assault.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman released the following statement:

“The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority. We can confirm that two associates were injured while attempting to stop an alleged shoplifter at the Bloomington Wal-Mart. Out of respect for our associates, we will not comment on their condition at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families.

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Duck hunter finds body of child thrown from bridge www.privateofficer.com

MOBILE, Ala. January 12, 2008 – A duck hunter Saturday morning found the body of one of four children allegedly thrown from a coastal bridge by their father, raising hopes that the other bodies will be recovered, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran announced.
The father, Lam Luong, has been charged with capital murder in the deaths. A search of waterways around Dauphin Island for the children – ranging in age from a few months to 3 years – began Tuesday after prosecutors said Luong confessed.
About 9 a.m. Saturday, a duck hunter found the body of an infant about five miles west of the bridge in a marshy area called Point of Pines, near Bayou La Batre, home of the Luong family.
Cochran said the discovery gives hope that the other three bodies will be recovered. He said a chaplain informed the children’s family of the discovery Saturday morning. Their mother, 23-year-old Kieu Phan, had gone with Luong to report them missing Monday evening.
Cochran said searchers using sonar technology saw images Friday that they believed were three bodies, but divers were forced out of the water by a three-foot rise in tide.
“Currents were so strong divers were unable to get to the location,” Cochran said. The search was discontinued until Saturday morning, when divers were able to enter the water beneath blue skies. Saturday’s search zone was expanded westward to Pascagoula, Miss.
Luong, 37, a shrimp boat worker, was denied bond Thursday in a court hearing in Mobile on four charges of capital murder. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said Luong on Tuesday had confessed to investigators that he had thrown the children – Ryan Phan, 3, Hannah Luong, 2, Lindsey Luong, 1, and Danny Luong, 4 months – off the bridge after an argument with his wife.
Luong later recanted, saying police had coerced him into giving a false confession, and claimed two Asian women took the children Monday and never returned them.
But Cochran said Friday two witnesses provided authorities with accounts that placed Luong at the three-mile-long bridge around 9:15 a.m. Monday when the children are believed to have been tossed from the highest point of the span, about 80 feet above the main channel of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The announcement that the infant’s body was found also undermines Luong’s claims.His appointed attorney, Joe Kulakowski, was meeting with Luong on Saturday and not immediately available for comment.
Prosecutors have said they believe Luong drove the children to the top of the two-lane bridge, stopped and threw them off after a fight with his wife. It wasn’t known what the fight was about.
Luong was arrested in Hinesville, Ga., on a charge of possessing crack cocaine in October. The family had lived there about two years. Luong advised authorities in the coastal Georgia town that he had moved Nov. 1. The family returned to Bayou La Batre and moved in with his wife’s mother.
Luong’s appointed defense attorney had his first meeting with Luong on Thursday and said Luong told him authorities should be searching Asian communities for two women who left with the children in a van. The Alabama coast has a substantial number of Asian immigrants working in the seafood industry.

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Tow truck driver steals cars to sell for scrap www.privateofficer.com

Tow Truck Owner Steals Cars To Sell For Scrap by; Rick McCann www.privateofficer.com

Robertsdale AL. January 12, 2008

Authorities say they may be able to tie the owner of a Robertsdale towing company to as many as 60 car thefts in Baldwin and Mobile counties.
Lloyd Christopher Carlee, 37, of Robertsdale, has been charged with first-degree theft of property following the recovery of a stolen Mercury Grand Marquis that investigators said was taken with his own tow truck.
While Carlee faced only one count as of Friday, investigators said they could link Carlee to at least six stolen cars, which he towed and sold for scrap metal in Mobile, and that he admitted to a number of thefts so significant that he “cannot recall
Authorities believe that Carlee, who owns CJ’s Towing and Road Service in Robertsdale, might have been plucking vehicles off the side of roadways and from private properties for years, according to Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Maj. Anthony Lowery.
“It’s probably just a crime of opportunity,” he said Friday.
A woman who answered the phone at the towing service number and identified herself as Carlee’s wife would only say, “He has no comment. I have no comment.”
Investigators started looking into the rash of car thefts back in November, when a sheriff’s deputy stopped a 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis in the Mills community near Foley.
The driver told the deputy that he bought the car from a “Chris Miller” at the towing service. The Sheriff’s Office linked the theft to Carlee, and he was arrested this week.
“Carlee claimed that the Grand Marquis is the only vehicle that he sold rather than scrapped,” Lowery said. Carlee told the Sheriff’s Office that “his business was suffering,” Lowery continued, and “he began to tow cars which he deemed to be abandoned.”
Investigators believe Carlee received between $110 and $875 for each of the junk cars.
Through police reports and paperwork from companies that may have purchased the vehicles from Carlee, investigators think they can account for at least 60 thefts in Baldwin and Mobile counties.
“We think that number will grow significantly,” Lowery added. “Until we can get some of these VIN (vehicle identification) numbers verified, we won’t have a better account.”
While some of the vehicles stolen were “junk cars” that may never be claimed, others were reported stolen, Lowery said.
Lowery said that Carlee told investigators he was running a legitimate towing service.
Authorities “have no reason to believe” that anyone else might have been involved in the thefts, according to Lowery.

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Woman sets fire to underwear during shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

ELYRIA OH Jan 12, 2008 — When fire trucks rolled up in front of Target just before 3:30 p.m. Friday, they weren’t looking for the hottest prices of the year.
But firefighters did find the smoldering remains of a rack of lingerie.
Police say Tabitha Bozman, 19, of Elyria, lit the underwear as she attempted to shoplift from the West River Road store. As a result, she was charged with aggravated arson, vandalism, inducing panic, theft, criminal tools and criminal damage.
Security cameras caught Bozman toying with the inside of her jacket as she wandered through the shoe department, according to a police report. There was nobody in the lingerie section near her when a rack holding 155 flannel undergarments —worth $2,168.45 —went up in flames, according to the report.
A Target security guard stopped Bozman on suspicion of shoplifting before police arrived, the report said.
Elyria fire Lt. David Street said store employees grabbed fire extinguishers and put out the flames. No one was hurt, but the store was evacuated and closed for more than an hour while the ventilation system cleared away smoke that hung over the aisles.
Management declined to comment on how the fire started or how much damage it caused.

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Car theives leave their pictures behind www.privateofficer.com

Mobile Al Janaury 12, 2008

When a local woman picked up her snapshots at a Wal-Mart last week she was shocked to find photos of an unknown man and woman posing with her recently stolen 2006 Toyota 4Runner sport utility vehicle, authorities said.
Police are calling the couple “persons of interest” in the case, Nancy Johnson, spokeswoman for the Mobile Police Department, said Friday.
Johnson said the SUV was recovered Jan. 1. No arrest had been made Friday afternoon

For her protection, the victim’s name is not being released, Johnson said.
In a message e-mailed to the Press-Register, the victim said, “I was very shocked at the pictures, obviously.”
The woman said she was so surprised that she “cried out,” scaring the man at the Wal-Mart that handed her the pictures.
Mobile Police Deputy Chief James Barber said Friday that he and the detectives investigating the case were “intrigued” by the photos.
“I think that at the moment that we realized some of the photos had people with the vehicle that had been reported stolen, that it certainly amused a lot of the detectives,” the deputy chief said.
Barber said it’s not all that unusual to find photographs or video tapes of people committing crimes, and the photos and tapes are used to track them down.
Typically, the images are taken to document the crimes for “bragging rights” and the criminals don’t think the images will end up in the hands of police, he said
I would like to see all criminals take a camera with them and leave it for us, when they commit the crimes,” Barber said.
Johnson said the car owner had left a disposable camera in her SUV and the man and woman in the photos apparently found it and began clicking away.
After her SUV and camera were recovered, the woman used the camera to take pictures of minor damage to the vehicle for insurance purposes, the spokeswoman said
When she took the film in to be developed, she not only had photos of the damage but the man and woman with the SUV, Johnson said.
She said the SUV was taken during the Dec. 26 break-in of the victim’s home in northwest Mobile. It was parked in the driveway, and the keys to it had been left inside the home.
“The camera used in this case is one the victim had stored in her (SUV) for use in the event of a traffic accident,” Johnson said.
She said the man and woman “struck various poses for their pictures” during the four-day period the SUV was missing and reported stolen.
“There before her disbelieving eyes were photos of an unknown couple,” the spokeswoman said.
The owner of the SUV was vacationing in Florida when it was stolen, Johnson said.
“The victim’s neighbor then noticed that the (SUV) was missing from the driveway and called the young mother in Florida,” Johnson said.
Mobile police recovered the SUV at Lacey and Donald Streets in the Toulminville area of north Mobile near the border with Prichard, she said.
Johnson said Prichard police had spotted the stolen SUV and chased it into the area where the two men in it jumped out and fled.
The victim’s employer is offering a $1,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the thieves, along with any reward offered by CrimeStoppers, the spokeswoman said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 208-7000.

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Police chief arrested for shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

Assistant police chief arrested for shoplifting www.privateofficer.com

COLUMBIA, S.C. January 12, 2008 Authorities say Liberty’s assistant police chief has been charged with shoplifting after he walked out of Wal-Mart with several items without paying.
Investigators say 38-year-old Eric Todd Rampey turned himself in to the State Law Enforcement Division on Thursday after learning of a warrant for his arrest and was released on bond.
Liberty Police Chief Leland Miller says Rampey is on paid suspension.
Authorities say Rampey purchased a DVD at a Wal-Mart in Central but then went back and put several items, including a flat screen television, ceiling fan and several toothbrushes in his cart and walked outside. Loss prevention agents at this point tried stopping him but he fled the store and they later obtained a warrant.
Incident reports say Rampey told authorities he had paid for the items with gift cards in the electronics section but security agents say different.

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