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Security officer breaks up casino cheating ring www.privateofficer.com
Security officer breaks up casino cheating ring http://www.privateofficer.com
A security officer at the Clearwater Casino Resort may have broken up a cheating ring Thursday before it had a chance to bilk the casino.
A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy was called to the casino at 15347 Suquamish Way NE at about 7 p.m. after the security guard recognized the suspects from an alert from another local casino, according to sheriff’s reports.
Three men in their 20s were detained, although a fourth man fled when security guards spoke to the group, the report said.
Two of the men had New York City addresses, and the third was a Spanish national.
Investigators found a Ford van in the parking lot of the casino linked to the men. Inside were “gaming papers” from other local casinos and several suitcases.
A security officer from the Emerald Queen Casino in Pierce County had warned Clearwater employees about the men and a scheme to cheat at the roulette table.
The scheme involved sneaking betting chips under other betting chips already placed on the table “to make it look like the bet was worth more,” the deputy wrote.
Puyallup Tribal Police in Tacoma reported to deputies they did not have enough evidence to have the men arrested at that time, but said they would like their identities recorded.
The three men, ages 27, 28 and 29 were released and told not to return to the casino under penalty of trespassing.
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Mall security nabs shoplifters www.privateoffcier.com
Mall security nabs shoplifters http://www.privateoffcier.com
Kyle T. Greene
NTL. ASSOC. PRIVATE OFFICERS
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Security officers were alert in a Sunrise mall.
A ”known shoplifter” was seen pushing a stroller containing a ”booster bag” through the Sawgrass Mills mall, 12801 W. Sunrise Blvd., about 6 p.m. Oct. 3.
The bag is an shoplifting device containing plastic, masking tape and aluminum foil used to defeat store sensors.
After the suspect was followed by loss prevention officers he abandoned the stroller and made a run for it but was stopped by a police officer as he tried to exit the mall.
The 22-year-old Opa-locka man was charged with possession of a shoplifting device and trespassing.
Also at Sawgrass Mills, a juvenile thief was seen by a security officer as he selected a pair of shoes valued at $60 at Saks Fifth Avenue about 10 a.m. Oct. 4.
He placed the shoes in an American Eagle shopping bag and left without paying. Outside he was stopped by the loss prevention officer, dropped the bag and ran.
The bag also contained shoes from Timberland, shoes and shorts from Bealls and a polo shirt from TJ Maxx. The items were valued at $108.
The thief was found hiding under a car and charged with retail theft.
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Houston security officer shot, police kill suspect www.privateofficer.com
Houston security officer shot, police kill suspect http://www.privateofficer.com
NTL. ASSOC. PRIVATE OFFICERS
http://www.privateofficer.com A Houston police officer shot and killed a man he saw shooting at passing cars.
Police said Officer Michael J. Glover was on patrol when he spotted the man running along a Houston street early Sunday, in the overnight hours at around 3a.m., shooting at several cars. Police said Glover confronted the man and fired two shots as he saw the man preparing to shoot at an oncoming car.
Authorities said that minutes earlier the man had tried to enter the Susana’s Place Nite Club in the 6300 block of Telephone Rd in southeast Houston area.
The security officer was transported and is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said that four cars were struck by the man’s gunfire.
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Alanta police win million dollar overtime battle www.privateofficer.com
Alanta police win million dollar overtime battle http://www.privateofficer.com
It’s bonus time for a large group of Atlanta police officers.
The city is on the verge of paying $7.5 million to more than 600 current or former police officers — a settlement for those who filed a federal lawsuit in 2004, alleging they weren’t paid for working overtime.
“They’re pretty happy, of course,” said Atlanta police Sgt. Scott Kreher, president of the Atlanta police union that pushed for the suit. “I think in these economic times, they’re certainly going to be able to help their families and themselves.”
The officers consider the settlement a victory. The city is not admitting liability or wrongdoing. A federal court judge formally approved the deal in late September.
The city has until mid-November to pay the officers, Kreher said. Minus about $2.4 million for attorneys’ fees, the plaintiffs are getting $5.1 million total.
The payout doesn’t worsen the city’s current financial crisis because officials already had put aside the money when both sides agreed to the settlement amount in 2007, Atlanta City Attorney Beth Chandler said.
The city is satisfied with the resolution because it could have faced greater financial exposure defending the lawsuit, she said. “We felt like the settlement was in the best interests of the city,” she said.
Spread among 632 officers, investigators and sergeants — some of them no longer with the department — the average payout is $8,000 per person, said Mitchell D. Benjamin, one of the officers’ attorneys.
But dozens of officers will collect between $30,000 and $80,000, Benjamin said.
“That’s a pretty good recovery,” said Benjamin, a labor and employment attorney in Decatur. “We think it worked out really well.”
As the settlement was slow getting approved, scores of antsy officers phoned Benjamin, asking when they’d be getting paid. Some, he said, had wrecked cars and needed to buy new ones; some need money to pay their taxes; one had medical bills from a sick child, and another was getting a divorce.
“Any day now,” Benjamin would tell them.
Now that their payday is near, Benjamin has nothing but good news.
“That’s the best thing to say: ‘I have money for you,’ ” he said.
Kevin Knapp, an eight-year Atlanta police officer, is expecting a check for $12,500.
“It’s almost going to turn out to be a little bit of a bonus,” said Knapp, 32.
But it’s bittersweet because officers still are not taking home as much money as they would like in their paychecks due to frozen pay raises and rising health care costs, he said.
Knapp is going to use his settlement money to pay off credit card bills, he said.
“It’s going to be awesome to knock that out,” he said.
The city and police reached a verbal settlement in March 2007, but a federal court judge didn’t sign off on it until late September.
The lawsuit contended that the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and claimed officers were owed overtime money dating back to 2001. Nearly 2,000 current or former officers were eligible to join the suit, but less than one-third signed on.
The city now has an electronic timekeeping system in place to track hours worked by officers.
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Airplane cleaner takes girlfriend onto plane www.privateofficer.com
Airplane cleaner takes girlfriend onto plane http://www.privateofficer.com
Detroit Metro Airport police arrested a 22-year-old Dearborn Heights man hired to clean planes after he brought his girlfriend with him to work early today.
The pair got on a Delta plane just after midnight using his badge from Prospect Airport Services, which provides cleaning, skycap and wheelchair escort services for the airline, airport spokesman Michael Conway said.
“He swept himself in with his badge and swept her in too,” Conway said. “The problem is, cameras watch everything.”
Metro police verified the 18-year-old girlfriend from Taylor did not have a visitor’s badge before arresting her and her boyfriend, Conway said. They’re both being charged with a misdemeanor security breach and also may face fines through the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security at U.S. airports as part of the Department of Homeland Security, Conway said.
“There’s no indication of terrorism at all,” he added.
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Armed robbery suspect flees into busy office, library before arrest www.privateofficer.com
Armed robbery suspect flees into busy office, library before arrest www.privateofficer.com
Winston-Salem NC NOV 3 2008
A man was arrested Monday morning after an armed robbery of a pedestrian on Fifth Street led to a dramatic public chase though Centenary United Methodist Church and the Central Library.
Keith Obrian Dawkins, 21, of 4301 Grove Avenue Apt. B, is charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm on school property. He was being held in the Forsyth County jail under a $30,000 bond.
Police Capt. David Clayton said the incident started shortly after 9 a.m. when a man with a handgun approached a woman on the third floor of a parking deck at the corner of Poplar and 4 1/2 streets.
The man demanded the woman’s purse, then fled. The woman told a security guard at GMAC Insurance building next door what had happened, and he notified two bike patrol officers who were on routine patrol on 4 1/2 Street, Clayton said.
The officers had shortly before passed a man matching the description of the robber, and started chasing him after he came out of the church, Clayton said.
“This was a situation where the officers were at the right place at the right time,” Clayton said.
The robber ran into the lower level of the Central Library, which houses the periodicals department.
Natalia Tuchina, a supervisor in the library’s periodicals department, in the lower level, said she saw a man run into the corner of the building. A group of police officers chased him. She said the man fled to an opposite corner, then ran up the staircase that leads to the main level of the library.
Police then surrounded him, drew their guns and ordered him to the ground, Tuchina said.
They handcuffed him and led him through the library’s main entrance into a waiting police car.
The periodicals section has a maze of stacks and no exits or windows in the back, where the man had run to, Tuchina said.
“I guess the guy didn’t know where to run,” she said.
She said that most patrons had been working on computers when the man ran through and that they remained calm when the police arrived and chased him.
“Nobody screamed or anything,” she said. The police officers responded very quickly and professionally, she said.
Clayton said a .22 caliber handgun was recovered on a shelf on the lower level of the library.
No shots were fired and no one was injured, Clayton said.
The charge of possession of a weapon on school property was based on the fact that there is a day care in the church, Clayton said.
The children at the church’s daycare went to their classrooms with their teachers. All doors leading into the daycare were locked, said B.J. Williams, the assistant director for the daycare.
“Everyone is fine and doing good,” she said shortly after the incident ended.
Al Dobson, operations and security supervisor for the church, said few people inside saw the man run through.
“It just happened so fast,” Dobson said. “Once we found out he was in the building, we locked everything down.”
The man’s image was captured by the church’s security camera, Dobson said.
Dobson said the man stashed a jacket, knife and a woman’s wallet in a closet next to an exit onto Four-and-a-Half Street before he fled toward the library.
Clayton confirmed that some things had been found in the closet, including the victim’s stolen property.
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