Wal-Mart and Lowe’s Parking Lot Scam

On 07.24.10, In blogging, Crime, By Dan Calloway

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 24 July 2010

WEAVERVILLE, NC - Women often receive warnings about protecting themselves at the mall and in dark parking lots, etc. This is the first warning I have seen for men. I wanted to pass it on in case you haven’t heard about it.

A heads up for those men who may be regular customers at Lowe’s and Wal-Mart. This one caught me totally by surprise. Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don’t be naive enough to think it couldn’t happen to you or your friends.

Here’s how the scam works:

Two nice-looking, college-aged girls will come over to your car or truck as you are packing your purchases into your vehicle. They both start talking to you while wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It’s impossible for older men  not to look. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say “No,” but instead ask for a ride to McDonald’s. You agree and they climb into the vehicle. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet. I had my wallet stolen May 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th, & 29th. Also June 1st & 4th, twice on the 8th, 16th, 23rd, 26th & 27th. July 1st, 9th, 20th, and very likely again this upcoming week.

So tell your older male friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of us older men. Warn them to be vigilant.

Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for $2.99 each. I found even cheaper ones for $0.99 at the dollar store and bought them out in three of their stores. Also, you never get to eat at McDonald’s. I’ve already lost 11 pounds just running back and forth between Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to McDonald’s.

So please, send this on to all the older men that you know and warn them to be on the lookout for this scam. By the way, the best times to be in the parking lot are just before lunch and around 4:30 in the afternoon.

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Sex Offender to be Charged in Chelsea King Case

On 03.03.10, In Crime, By dancalloway

by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published 3 March 2010

SAN DIEGO  —  Criminal charges will be filed Wednesday against a convicted sex offender suspected of murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, authorities tried to confirm that a body found in a lakeside grave was that of the San Diego County student who has been missing for nearly a week.

Chelsea King

District attorney’s spokesman Paul Levikow did not immediately specify the charges planned against John Albert Gardner III, saying the complaint was still being written. The counts will be disclosed at an arraignment later in the day, he said.

The 30-year-old Lake Elsinore man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of murder and rape.

As prosecutors prepared their case, the county medical examiner’s office worked to confirm King’s body had been pulled Tuesday from a shallow grave on the south shore of Lake Hodges.

An investigator was meeting with King’s parents at their Poway home, said Lenore Aldridge, a medical investigator.

It was not clear if fingerprints, dental records or other methods of identification were being used. County Sheriff William Gore said the body was likely King.

Thousands of people joined the search after the teen failed to return from a run near the lake on Thursday.
Mourners held a candlelight vigil Tuesday night for the popular straight-A student at Poway High School.

“What bothers me most is the kids don’t feel safe anymore,” Traci Barkerball, King’s teacher for three years, said between hugs of grieving students. “Their sense of security has been taken away from them.”

Brent King, Chelsea’s father, thanked supporters on the lawn of St. Michael’s Church in Poway, northeast of San Diego. Some people in the audience fought to control their sobs as he spoke.

“One of the nicknames that I’ve always called my daughter is my Angel. She’s my angel forever,” he said. “I want to thank you. Chelsea wants to thank you.”

Someone shouted, “We love you,” and Brent King replied, “We love all of you.”

Gardner was arrested after police said a piece of physical evidence tied him to King. No further details were provided.

Gardner pleaded guilty in May 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor and served five years of a six-year prison term. Prosecutors said he lured the victim to his home with an offer to watch “Patch Adams,” a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams.

The girl was beaten before escaping and running to a neighbor.

Gardner “never expressed one scintilla of remorse for his attack upon the victim” despite overwhelming evidence, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

He had faced a maximum of nearly 11 years in prison under terms of a plea agreement, but prosecutors urged six years.

Dr. Matthew Carroll, a psychiatrist who interviewed Gardner, wanted a stiffer punishment, saying in court documents that he was a “continued danger to underage girls in the community.”

Gardner was on parole for three years, until September 2008, state records show.

San Diego police said Gardner also was linked to an assault on a 22-year-old Colorado woman who managed to fend off her attacker on Dec. 27 in Rancho Bernardo Community Park on the northern edge of San Diego, where King’s 1994 BMW was found with her belongings inside.

San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins declined to describe the evidence connecting Gardner to the December assault but said a swab taken from the victim’s elbow did not match Gardner’s DNA.

A poem, dedicated in loving memory of Chelsea King, is shown in its entirety below. This poem was written by Susan Knowles, one of the people who searched for Chelsea early on before she was known to have been murdered:

Our Daughter

Beautiful daughter cherished by God,
Destined to touch the world,
Peaceful glow abound your soul,
As you walked in the footsteps,
Of Him who came before you.

Angel in your father’s eyes,
Pure joy to all who knew you,
Ever so short your life was lived,
In the hearts of so many you befriended,
Never to be forgotten.

Passion within revealed your true spirit,
Sympathy given for those without,
Light among community and home,
Love shown brightly from your azure eyes,
Your heart filled with forgiveness and grace.

The world became a better place,
On the day that you were birthed,
So precious your life to us all,
Now the world must mourn its painful loss,
For our daughter has been called home.

© 2010 Susan J. Calloway Knowles

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The Computer Stole My Homework — And Sold it Through an Essay Mill

On 11.24.09, In Crime, Educational Links, Ethics, Higher Education, Writing, By dancalloway

November 23, 2009, 04:31 PM ET
By Ben Terris; The Wired Campus

This article has been republished by DAN CALLOWAY in its entirety
Date and time of republication: 24 November 2009 @ 21:46 UCT

WEAVERVILLE, NC – Without her knowing it, a paper that Melinda Riebolt co-wrote while getting her M.B.A. was stolen and put up for sale. And, according to an article that USA Today reported last week, that same scenario has played out many times before.

The article discusses how some essay mills — Web sites that provide written works for students — surreptitiously steal work and then sell it for others to pass off as their own.

For the first time, however, those who find unauthorized postings of their work online may have a way to seek legal retribution. The article says a class-action lawsuit filed in 2006 is making its way through the courts, and one judge in Illinois has found a provider liable on six counts, including fraud and copyright infringement. That site is called RC2C Inc. and hosts at least nine sites that sell term papers.

Essay mills often provide their own written works.

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The Age of Cyber Warfare is “Dawning”

On 11.21.09, In Computer Viruses, computers, Crime, Internet, By dancalloway

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 21 November 2009 @ 20:30 UCT

BBC News | Technology newsdesk

cyberwarfareWEAVERVILLE, NC - Compiled by security firm McAfee, it bases its conclusion on analysis of recent net-based attacks.

Analysis of the motives of the actors behind many attacks carried out via the internet showed that many were mounted with a explicitly political aim.

It said that many nations were now arming to defend themselves in a cyber war and readying forces to conduct their own attacks.

While definitions of what constitutes cyber war are not shared, it was clear that many nations were preparing for a future in which conflict was partly conducted via the net.

“There are at least five countries known to be arming themselves for this kind of conflict,” said Greg Day, primary analyst for security at McAfee Europe.

The UK, Germany, France, China and North Korea are known to be developing their own capabilities.

The US is known to have an operating manual governing the rules and procedures of how it can use cyber warfare tactics. It is known to have used hack attacks alongside ground operations during the Iraq war and has continued to use this cyber capability while policing the nation.

Mr. Day said there was evidence of a growing number of attacks that could be classed as “reconaissance” in advance of a future conflict. The ease with which the tools of such attacks can be gathered and used was worrying, said Mr Day.

“To go to physical war requires billions of dollars,” he said. “To go to cyber war most people can easily find the resources that could be used in these kind of attacks.”

The targets of such future conflicts were likely to be a nation’s infrastructure, said Mr Day, because networks of all kinds were now so embedded in peoples’ lives.

In response, he said, many nations now have an agency overseeing critical national infrastructure and ensuring that it is adequately hardened against net-borne attacks.

Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer at Veracode which advises many governments on security, said cyber war presented its own problems when it came to deciding motive and finding the perpetrators.

“In physical warfare it’s pretty clear who has which weapon and how they are using them,” he said. “In the networked world that attribution is incredibly difficult.”

The same is true for cyber crime, he said, where following a trail of money can lead investigators back to a band of thieves.

“If it is someone stealing information or planting logic bombs, it’s far more difficult to find them,” he said.

Mr Wysopal said many governments had woken up to the threat and were starting to put in place systems and agencies that could help protect them.

However, he said, they still had some weaknesses.

“The thing about governments doing this is that they have a time horizon of many years,” he said. “But the criminals are doing it in a matter of months.”

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The U.S. Demands Extradition of Roman Polanski

On 10.23.09, In Crime, Issues, Society, By dancalloway

By DOREEN CARVAJAL
Published: October 23, 2009; NY Times

roman polanskiPARIS — American authorities formally demanded the extradition of Roman Polanski late Thursday, setting in motion the next legal struggle for the Oscar-winning film director over his flight in 1978 from sentencing for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The American Embassy in Bern submitted the request on Thursday to the Federal Office of Justice in Switzerland, where Mr. Polanski has been imprisoned since his arrest on September 26 at Zurich airport. With that paperwork filed, Swiss authorities will now forward the demand to the Canton of Zurich to hold a hearing on the issue, according to a statement from the Swiss federal office.

If the local authorities order extradition, Mr. Polanski , who holds French and Polish citizenship, can still appeal the decision to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court and the Federal Supreme Court.

Both of Mr. Polanski’s French lawyers, Georges Kiejman and Hervé Temime, had expected the extradition request to be filed before November. They say that Mr. Polanski could end up sitting in the Swiss jail for six months or more while the appeals process runs its course.

With the specter of a lengthy extradition fight, Mr. Kiejman said on Wednesday that all options are open, including the possibility that Mr. Polanski would agree to return, although both he and Mr. Temime say the director plans to fight the extradition demand.

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