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Tag: Theft

  • Second man accused of stealing $9,000 worth of SPAM meat in Placer County arrested

    Second man accused of stealing $9,000 worth of SPAM meat in Placer County arrested

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    (FOX40.COM) — A second man accused of stealing $9,000 worth of SPAM, groceries, and alcohol from a local store was arrested after police used his ankle monitor data to find him.

    “With his ankle GPS spamming his every move, he practically gave us a step-by-step guide to his thieving escapades,” said the Roseville Police Department. “Our suspect is now enjoying a luxurious trip back to Placer County Jail.”

    The recent arrest was of a man who was the passenger in the car when police found the stolen items, according to RPD. The driver was arrested after a foot chase at the time of the incident, however, the passenger temporarily escaped. Police said they tracked him down in Stockton and transported him back to Placer County.

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    Veronica Catlin

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  • Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter fired by Dodgers after allegations of illegal gambling, theft

    Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter fired by Dodgers after allegations of illegal gambling, theft

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    Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend has been fired from the Los Angeles Dodgers following allegations of illegal gambling and theft from the Japanese baseball star.Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was let go from the team Wednesday following reports from The Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker.“In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” law firm Berk Brettler LLP said in a statement Wednesday.Mizuhara has worked with Ohtani for years and been a constant presence with him in major league clubhouses. When Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels to sign a $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December, the club also hired Mizuhara.The team did not have an immediate comment Wednesday. His firing was confirmed by Major League Baseball.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

    LOS ANGELES —

    Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter and close friend has been fired from the Los Angeles Dodgers following allegations of illegal gambling and theft from the Japanese baseball star.

    Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was let go from the team Wednesday following reports from The Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker.

    “In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities,” law firm Berk Brettler LLP said in a statement Wednesday.

    Mizuhara has worked with Ohtani for years and been a constant presence with him in major league clubhouses. When Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels to sign a $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December, the club also hired Mizuhara.

    The team did not have an immediate comment Wednesday. His firing was confirmed by Major League Baseball.

    This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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  • L.A. smash-and-grab trio who targeted Prada, Versace and Gucci charged by AG after LAPD probe

    L.A. smash-and-grab trio who targeted Prada, Versace and Gucci charged by AG after LAPD probe

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    A Los Angeles smash-and-grab theft crew targeting Prada, Versace, Gucci and other high-end stores across California have been arrested by an LAPD task force and charged with 27 felonies, the state’s attorney general announced Tuesday.

    Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the trio is accused of stealing more than $300,000 worth of merchandise in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, the Bay Area and San Diego. Bonta said the ringleader of the crew faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all the charges related to smash and grabs from December 2022 until last month.

    “To be clear, this isn’t about a couple of one-off instances of a shoplifted Louis Vuitton wallet or swiped a pair of Prada sunglasses. This was organized. These were organized burglaries and attempted burglaries where suspects would rip the bags off the displays, even when the products were secured to displays with locks,” Bonta said, speaking at LAPD headquarters.

    Workers at Burberry, Prada, Sunglass Hut, Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, Michael Kors, Gucci, Coach, Versace, and Maison Margiela were put at risk by the bandits, who allegedly shoved aside store workers as they snatched designer clothes and accessories, he said.

    “These aren’t victimless crimes,” Bonta said, alleging that the suspects sometimes used force against workers as they ran out of a store. “Other times they overwhelmed the stores with large numbers of people in disguise brazenly ransacking high-end products,” he added. “If you steal from our businesses and put people in harm’s way, if you try to make an easy buck off of other people’s hard work, we will prosecute it as we are today.”

    Bonta said the Los Angeles Police Department organized retail theft task force identified the crew behind the smash and grabs across six counties. The charges carry the possibility of decades of imprisonment, he said, which should send a message to others doing or considering such crimes.

    A string of flash mob robberies of luxury goods stores around Los Angeles last summer drew national attention, with video clips showing group’s running out of stores. Mayor Karen Bass responded by announcing a new task force to target the culprits.

    LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said two of the trio were arrested by the task force while a third was already in custody. Although they were charged with the theft of $300,000 worth of goods across six counties, Hamilton said, evidence suggests that more than $900,000 worth of items may have been snatched by the crew.

    Isaiah Abdullah, Ishmael Baptist and Nickolas Mallory are charged with conspiring to steal with intent to sell on two or more occasions from some of the best-known designer stores. All three have multiple felony convictions for crimes including robbery.

    The run of smash and grabs began Dec. 12, when authorities allege that Abdullah ripped off nearly $3,000 worth of Burberry items from an Orange County store. According to the charges, their biggest score came at Louis Vitton in San Diego County, where Abdullah and Mallory were accused of taking more than $33,000 in merchandise.

    Bonta said that within a day or two of the smash and grab, the suspects would sell the stolen designer wares “through Instagram stories — that was their chosen platform for resale.”

    Two of the thefts involved such force that prosecutors charged Abdullah and Mallory with robbery in connection with an incident last October and Abdullah for another incident in January.

    Hamilton and Bonta said that although firearms weren’t used in the crimes, a total of five firearms were recovered during searches of places tied to the suspects; one of the weapons, they said, was a fully automated Glock pistol. One of the firearms recovered also led to charges in a separate crime case.

    Hamilton said the task force has many other ongoing cases in the works. Pushing back against a reporter’s suggestion that the department was soft on retail theft, Hamilton said there would be additional arrests, more felony charges and some suspects held on very high bail amounts, like the suspects in this case, where bail was set at $1 million.

    Bonta also took umbrage with the narrative that criminal justice reforms such as Proposition 47, which made thefts of less than $950 in goods a misdemeanor, have encouraged smash and grab thieves. The offenses charged in this case weren’t misdemeanors, Bonta said, and the value of goods stolen is well above the misdemeanor threshold, meaning that Proposition 47 has nothing to do with them.

    “We’re not turning a blind eye to these criminal schemes, whether it’s stealing hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions of dollars in merchandise,” Bonta, said. “They disrupt our economy, and they endanger the public. They endanger workers.”

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    Richard Winton

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  • Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is granted bail in a Bangladesh graft case

    Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is granted bail in a Bangladesh graft case

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — A court in Bangladesh on Sunday granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in a $2.3 million embezzlement case.

    Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, was sentenced to six months in prison in January on a separate charge of violating labor laws. He was granted bail in that case too and has appealed.

    Prosecutor Mir Ahmmad Ali Salam said the embezzlement case involves a workers welfare fund of Grameen Telecom, which owns 34.2% of the country’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom giant Telenor.

    “The charges involve the embezzlement of over 250 million takas and money laundering. The accused gave the money to trade union leaders instead of the workers. This way they deprived the ordinary workers of their rightful earnings,” Salam said.

    Yunus and seven other defendants appeared in court Sunday and six others were absent.

    Defense counsel Abdullah Al Mamun told the court that Yunus, 83, and the others were innocent.

    Last year, more than 170 global leaders and Nobel laureates urged Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to suspend legal proceedings against Yunus. His supporters say he has been targeted because of his frosty relations with Hasina. The government has denied the allegations.

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  • As Chevy Camaro thefts skyrocket more than 1000% in L.A., police unlock a secret of car thieves

    As Chevy Camaro thefts skyrocket more than 1000% in L.A., police unlock a secret of car thieves

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    The Chevy Camaro muscle car sitting abandoned at a South L.A. intersection looked suspicious enough.

    But then LAPD gang detail investigators spotted two teenagers running from the scene near Slauson Avenue and Broadway and were able to stop them.

    One of the youths was carrying an electronic device that police said provides a window into why thefts of the popular Camaros have shot up by more than 1000% in L.A. this year, with 90 vehicles stolen since the beginning of the year. Police said the spike comes at a time when there are increasing numbers of the high-powered vehicles turning up at street takeovers.

    The device is essentially a hand-held computer that enables the user to create a replacement smart key — using a new key fob — that can unlock Camaros and other vehicles, bypassing the vehicle’s existing security system, investigators said. Once the user punches in the make, model and year of the vehicle into the computer, it is then able to reprogram the car’s ignition system and generate a new or universal car key.

    LAPD investigators believe a 16-year-old suspect used the device to create cloned ignition keys to steal muscle cars. A new Camaro can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

    “This young person was stealing the Camaros and taking them to street takeovers and then selling them for $2,000 or $3,000 on social media,” Newton Division Capt. Keith Green said. “A 16-year-old was capable of stealing high-end cars.”

    LAPD’s Newton Division, which covers the northernmost section of South L.A., saw the number of Camaro thefts jump from 2 to 10 in the first two months of the year, while citywide they jumped from 7 to 90, Green said. Investigators, he said, now may have the answer to why thefts are soaring.

    The technology to clone key fobs is commercially available, and with a little bit of tech wizardry even a high school youth can become a skilled thief of technology-dependent cars, Green said. Investigators say that thieves can generate replacement keys in less than three minutes with the right program and hardware.

    Vehicles used in street racing and burnouts — the practice of keeping a car stationary while the wheels are spinning, causing the tires to smoke — suffer so much wear and tear that participants often prefer to use stolen vehicles, police said. This is why thieves often target prized muscle cars.

    The LAPD did not indicate the exact method the teenager might have used in the South L.A. incident. But in several cases documented by other jurisdictions, people used a similar device to connect with the vehicle directly or used a wireless system to download all of the car’s information to create a duplicate electronic key fob.

    Green said it was too early to say exactly how many thefts are tied to the youth, who was turned over to his parents after his arrest on Feb. 25. Detectives will refer the case to the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether to pursue charges.

    The best way to stop thieves is to employ extra security measures such as fuel cut-offs, steering wheel locks and keeping the vehicle in a more secure place, Green said. Also, detectives advise drivers never to keep key fobs inside a vehicle. Security cases are available on the market that may be utilized to prevent key fob signals from being transmitted. Improvised strategies such as wrapping fobs in aluminum foil or placing fobs inside tin cans have proved effective.

    Nationwide, American muscle cars have become the target of some large theft rings. In 2022, dealers in Michigan reported a series of thefts that investigators later tied to key fob cloning.

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    Richard Winton

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  • Arrest log

    Arrest log

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    The following arrests were made recently by local police departments. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

    BILLERICA

    • Patricia Karlson, 64, 34 Argonne Road, Billerica; operation under influence of alcohol, marked lanes violation, leaving scene of property damage accident, operation of motor vehicle with suspended/revoked license.

    • Jacob Sylvester, 25, 15 Putnam St., Somerville; warrant.

    • Carlos Gonzalez, 29, 9 Kenmar Drive, Billerica; warrant.

    • Jegsy Sanchez, 34, 7 Wyman St., Lawrence; warrant.

    • Dannielle Joyce Tibbetts-Doyle, 27, 445 Merrimack St., Apt.  18, Lowell; warrant, possession of Class A drug.

    • Unique Peters, 49, 158 Concord Road, Billerica; fugitive from justice on court warrant.

    LOWELL

    • Vladimir Cezaire, 31, 528 Chatham West Drive, Brockton; warrants (suspended license, unsafe operation of motor vehicle).

    • Eh Sher, 23, no fixed address; violation of bylaws/ordinances (knife), possession of Class B drug.

    • Rafael Canales, 51, homeless; larceny from person.

    • Dominique Rodriquez, 23, homeless; warrant (failure to appear for larceny from building).

    • Jess Gagnon, 37, 104 Meadowcroft St., Lowell; operating motor vehicle after license suspension/revocation, defective motor vehicle equipment.

    NASHUA, N.H.

    • Eliezer Rosario Medina, 24, no fixed address; criminal trespass.

    • Marion Smith, 47, no fixed address; nonappearance in court.

    • Everett Rice, 32, 9 Ridge St., Nashua; burglary, nonappearance in court.

    • Thomas Cook, 24, 73 N. Pepperell Road, Hollis, N.H.; driving under influence.

    • Nanette Gonzalez, 34, 47 Caldwell Road, Apt. A, Nashua; driving under influence, aggravated driving under influence.

    • Justyce Demani Soucie, 20, 327 Main St., Apt. 5, Nashua; simple assault.

    • Lyle Durant, 29, 132 Amherst St., Nashua; reckless driving, driving without giving proof.

    • Rebecca Brasley, 39, 19 E. Dunstable Road, Nashua; two counts of simple assault.

    • Emily Anne McCormack, 46, 18 Lorraine Road, Merrimack N.H.; theft by unauthorized taking ($0-$1,000).

    • Nicole Thiboutot, 46, 61 Marshall St., Nashua; criminal mischief.

    • Michael Bliss, 38, 59 Blossom St., Nashua; driving under influence, driving without giving proof.

    • Don Little, 40, 323 Wilson St., Apt. 2, Manchester, N.H.; warrant.

    WESTFORD

    • Jillian Emily Bleakney, 31, Princeton Way, Westford; assault with dangerous weapon.

    WILMINGTON

    • Lyndsie Olsson, 39, 77 Clubhouse Drive, Hingham; possession of Class A drug.

    • Norman Frank Kilavatitu, 26, Trowbridge St., Apt. 1, Belmont; unlicensed operation of motor vehicle, possession of open container of alcohol in motor vehicle, number plate violation.

    • Juvenile, 16, unlicensed operation of motor vehicle, failure to stop/yield.

    • Claudio Jose Araujo, 54, 109 Felker St., Apt. 77, Lowell; operation of motor vehicle with suspended license.

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  • Idaho is set to execute a long-time death row inmate, a serial killer with a penchant for poetry

    Idaho is set to execute a long-time death row inmate, a serial killer with a penchant for poetry

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    BOISE, Idaho — For nearly 50 years, Idaho’s prison staffers have been serving Thomas Eugene Creech three meals a day, checking on him during rounds and taking him to medical appointments.

    This Wednesday, some of Idaho’s prison staffers will be asked to kill him. Barring any last-minute stay, the 73-year-old, one of the nation’s longest-serving death row inmates, will be executed by lethal injection for killing a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.

    Creech’s killing of David Jensen, a young, disabled man who was serving time for car theft, was his last in a broad path of destruction that saw Creech convicted of five murders in three states. He is also suspected of at least a half-dozen others.

    But now, decades later, Creech is mostly known inside the walls of the Idaho Maximum Security Institution as just “Tom,” a generally well-behaved old-timer with a penchant for poetry. His unsuccessful bid for clemency even found support from a former warden at the penitentiary, prison staffers who recounted how he wrote them poems of support or condolence and the judge who sentenced Creech to death.

    “Some of our correctional officers have grown up with Tom Creech,” Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt said Friday. “Our warden has a long-standing relationship with him. … There’s a familiarity and a rapport that has been built over time.”

    Creech’s attorneys have filed a flurry of last-minute appeals in four different courts in recent months trying to halt the execution, which would be Idaho’s first in 12 years. They have argued Idaho’s refusal to say where its execution drug was obtained violates his rights and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel.

    A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected an argument that Creech should not be executed because he was sentenced by a judge rather than a jury.

    It’s not clear how many people Creech, an Ohio native, killed before he was imprisoned in Idaho in 1974. At one point he claimed to have killed as many as 50 people, but many of the confessions were made under the influence of now discredited “truth serum” drugs and filled with outlandish tales of occult-driven human sacrifice and contract killings for a powerful motorcycle gang.

    Official estimates vary, but authorities tend to focus on 11 deaths. Creech’s attorneys did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press.

    In 1973, Creech was tried for the murder of 70-year-old Paul Schrader, a retiree who was stabbed to death in the Tucson, Arizona, motel where Creech was living. Creech used Schrader’s credit cards and vehicle to leave Tucson for Portland, Oregon. A jury acquitted him, but authorities say they have no doubt he was responsible.

    The next year, Creech was committed to Oregon State Hospital for a few months. He earned a weekend pass and traveled to Sacramento, California, where he killed Vivian Grant Robinson at her home. Creech then used Robinson’s phone to let the hospital know he would return a day late. That crime went unsolved until Creech later confessed while in custody in Idaho; he wasn’t convicted until 1980.

    After he was released from the Oregon State Hospital, Creech got a job at a church in Portland doing maintenance work. He had living quarters at the church, and it was there he shot and killed 22-year-old William Joseph Dean in 1974. Authorities believe he then fatally shot Sandra Jane Ramsamooj at the Salem grocery store where she worked.

    Creech was finally arrested in November 1974. He and a girlfriend were hitchhiking in Idaho when they were picked up by two painters, Thomas Arnold and John Bradford. Creech shot both men to death and the girlfriend cooperated with authorities.

    While in custody, Creech confessed to a number of other killings. Some appeared to be fabricated, but he provided information that led police to the bodies of Gordon Lee Stanton and Charles Thomas Miller near Las Vegas, and of Rick Stewart McKenzie, 22, near Baggs, Wyoming.

    Creech initially was sentenced to death for killing the painters. But after the U.S. Supreme Court barred automatic death sentences in 1976, his sentence was converted to life in prison.

    That changed after he killed Jensen, who was serving time for car theft. Jensen’s life hadn’t been easy: He suffered a nearly fatal gun injury as a teen that left him with serious disabilities including partial paralysis.

    Jensen’s relatives opposed Creech’s bid for clemency. They described Jensen as a gentle soul and a prankster who loved hunting and spending time outdoors, who was “the peanut butter” to his sister’s jelly. His daughter, who was 4 when he was killed, spoke of how she never got to know him, and how unfair it was that Creech is still around when her father isn’t.

    Creech’s supporters, meanwhile, say decades spent in a prison cell have left him changed. One death row prison staffer told the parole board last month that while she cannot begin to understand the suffering Creech dealt to others, he is now a person who makes positive contributions to his community. His execution date will be difficult for everyone at the prison, she said, especially those who have known him for years.

    “I don’t want to be dismissive of what he did and the countless people who were impacted by that in real significant ways,” said Tewalt, the corrections director. “At the same time, you also can’t be dismissive of the effect it’s going to have on people who have established a relationship with him. On Thursday, Tom’s not going to be there. You know he’s not coming back to that unit — that’s real. It would be really difficult to not feel some sort of emotion about that.”

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  • Man steals over $200k from Sacramento County jewelry store, police say

    Man steals over $200k from Sacramento County jewelry store, police say

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    (FOX40.COM) — The Citrus Heights Police Department said it has identified and arrested the man responsible for stealing over $200,000 worth of jewelry from a store in the city in early February.

    On Wednesday, the suspect was charged with felony burglary, grand theft, and conspiracy, police added.

    Police said the man, 52, entered a jewelry store on the 6100 block of Sunrise Boulevard around 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 5.

    Upon gaining entrance, police said he smashed the glass jewelry cases and left the area with over $200,000 in jewelry.

    The investigation remains open, and police said that if anyone has info on this specific crime, to report their tip to the Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers hotline (916-443-HELP).

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    Aydian Ahmad

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  • Man gives stolen statues to ex for Valentine’s Day to win her back, Florida cops say

    Man gives stolen statues to ex for Valentine’s Day to win her back, Florida cops say

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    A man in Florida is accused of stealing two statues of sandhill cranes and giving them to his ex-girlfriend because the birds “mate for life,” a sheriff said.

    A man in Florida is accused of stealing two statues of sandhill cranes and giving them to his ex-girlfriend because the birds “mate for life,” a sheriff said.

    John Cobb via Unsplash

    A man in Florida gave a pair of crane statues to his ex-girlfriend in an attempt to win back her affections for Valentine’s Day, a sheriff said.

    The problem? He’s accused of stealing them from a woman’s yard.

    A woman in Lakeland called the sheriff’s office to report two statues of sandhill cranes were missing from her lawn, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a Feb. 14 Facebook video.

    They were a gift from her late husband, she told deputies, and it was very important to her to see them returned.

    “Our detectives took that personally,” the sheriff said.

    They started a search in the community for the crane statues and found them shortly after at another woman’s house, Judd said.

    The detectives explained that the statues had been taken from another home, and the woman was “mortified,” the sheriff said.

    The woman told investigators her ex-boyfriend had gifted them to her, Judd said.

    The cranes were given back to the owner “just in time for Valentine’s Day,” according to the sheriff.

    Investigators learned the ex-boyfriend, a 33-year-old man, rode up to the woman’s house on his bicycle and took the statues because sandhill cranes “mate for life,” the sheriff’s office said.

    The man has 39 previous burglary and theft charges, Judd said.

    He was charged again and taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.

    Lakeland is about 35 miles east of Tampa.

    Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.

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    Irene Wright

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  • Mark Farrell running to be SF mayor again, vows to fire police chief if elected

    Mark Farrell running to be SF mayor again, vows to fire police chief if elected

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The race to become San Francisco’s next mayor got a little more crowded Tuesday. Mark Farrell, a venture capitalist, is hoping to get his old job back.

    In 2018, Farrell – then a city supervisor – was appointed mayor after the death of Ed Lee.

    Now, Farrell joins a race including current Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Ahsha Safai and businessman and philanthropist Daniel Lurie.

    During a news conference, Farrell took direct aim at Breed blaming her for what he calls the city’s decline post pandemic.

    Farrell says if elected, one of his top priorities would be public safety.

    MORE: San Francisco mayor pushes for Prop E to broaden police powers for safety

    He vowed he would have a zero tolerance approach to crime — and would fire SFPD Chief Bill Scott.

    “We need a leader that inspires every single officer in our San Francisco Police Department. A leader of our police department that fights for the budget necessary to grow our police force once again and protect residents in every neighborhood,” Farrell said.

    Both SFPD and Mayor Breed pushed back against Farrell’s remarks, and touted their accomplishments in tackling some of the city’s most pervasive problems.

    ABC7 News reporter Tim Johns caught up with Mayor Breed at a local Mardi Gras event Tuesday night.

    “Where have they been? We’ve been through a global pandemic, uprisings, challenges in this city and many of them sat and watched on the sidelines. But I and Chief Scott and other leaders of this city – we’ve been there dealing with the challenges,” she said.

    MORE: Bay Area mayors Mahan and Breed join call for Prop 47 reform to crack down on theft, drugs

    During our conversation, Breed also highlighted the city’s latest crime statistics.

    Telling ABC7 News about the work both she and Chief Scott have done to make the city safer.

    Breed says she remains the best person to lead the city into the future.

    “We have seen in the numbers being released for 2023, the lowest numbers we’ve had in 10 years not including a global pandemic. Those things don’t just happen because you sit on the sidelines and watch. They happen because you make it happen,” Breed said.

    The San Francisco mayoral election is in November.

    INTERACTIVE: Take a look at the ABC7 Neighborhood Safety Tracker

    If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

    Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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  • Migrants arrested in citywide crime spree, NYPD says

    Migrants arrested in citywide crime spree, NYPD says

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    NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — The NYPD says it has foiled the largest robbery pattern in the city – thieves snatching women’s purses and phones out of their hands.

    Officers raided a suspected safe house in the Bronx early Monday morning. The suspects are migrants from Venezuela.

    “In recent a months a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city, but by no means are the individuals committing these crimes representing the vast number of people coming to New York to build a better life,” NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said.

    The string of 62 thefts of phones stolen from women on the street and in the subway system has been linked to a mastermind overseeing the spree from his Bronx apartment, the NYPD said on Monday.

    Victor Parra, who is still being sought, ran a sophisticated criminal enterprise of migrants predominantly living in the city’s system, police said.

    “They use social media platforms to organize and coordinate their thefts. This is how they operate. The leader of the crew identified as Victor Parra will blast out a message via WhatsApp that he’s looking for phones,” Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said.

    Video released by the NYPD shows a 52-year-old woman being violently dragged by thieves on a scooter after being mugged of her bag, phone, credit cards, keys, glasses, $60 cash and her ID. It happened last month in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn.

    To carry out their crimes, they would ride up behind their victims, mostly women walking alone on the sidewalk, and grab their phones or purses and make their getaway.

    A scooter operator would make $100 and a phone snatcher $300 to $600.

    The phones were taken to Parra’s apartment, where his ‘tech guy’ hacked into the stolen phones, accessing the victims’ financial and banking apps for fraudulent purchases in the U.S. or Central America.

    The phones were then sent to Colombia, where they were wiped clean.

    Police recovered 22 stolen phones as well as victim’s identification from Parra’s home during a search on Monday.

    Investigators said they took five people into custody on Monday.

    The following individuals have been identified and charged:

    – 20-year-old Cleyber Andrade is charged with 25 counts of grand larceny.

    – 23-year-old Juan Uzcatgui is charged with 23 counts of grand larceny.

    – 24-year-old Roxanna Sahos is charged with tampering with evidence.

    – 20-year-old Alexander Dayker is charged with criminal possession of stolen property.

    In all, seven of the 14 members of this crew have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of grand larceny.

    “They’re essentially ghost criminals. No criminal history. Not photos. No cell phone. No social media. Sometimes we’re even unclear on name or a date of birth. And on top of that these operations are extremely sophisticated.” Caban said.

    “If they’re found guilty and they do their time they should be deported. You should not be allowed to walk the streets of New York,” Mayor Eric Adams added.

    Parra is from Venezuela and entered the country last year. He was last before a judge in December on a grand larceny charge.

    The string started in November 2023 on the Upper East Side and the most recent incident was in Chinatown on Sunday night

    The thefts occurred in every borough except Staten Island. Nearly 56% of them were in Manhattan

    The news comes as criticism grows against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after just one of several migrants believed to have attacked two police officers in Times Square was put behind bars. Four others were released without bail.

    ALSO READ | Exclusive: NYPD cracks down on illegal scooters amid investigation into officers attacked

    Josh Einiger has the exclusive report.

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  • A woman stole a memory card from a truck. The gruesome footage is now key to an Alaska murder trial

    A woman stole a memory card from a truck. The gruesome footage is now key to an Alaska murder trial

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    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A woman with a lengthy criminal history including theft, assault and prostitution got into a truck with a man who had picked her up for a “date” near downtown Anchorage. When he left her alone in the vehicle, she stole a digital memory card from the center console.

    Now, more than four years later, what she found on that card is key to a double murder trial set to begin this week: gruesome photos and videos of a woman being beaten and strangled at a Marriott hotel, her attacker speaking in a strong accent as he urged her to die, her blanket-covered body being snuck outside on a luggage cart.

    “In my movies, everybody always dies,” the voice says on one video. “What are my followers going to think of me? People need to know when they are being serial-killed.”

    About a week after she took the SD card, the woman turned it over to police, who said they recognized the voice as that of Brian Steven Smith, now 52, a South Africa native they knew from a prior investigation, court documents say.

    Smith has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges, including first- and second-degree murder, sexual assault and tampering with evidence, in the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019, seven months after they last saw her.

    Henry and Abouchuk were both Alaska Native women who had experienced homelessness. They were from small villages in western Alaska, Henry from Eek and Abouchuk from Stebbins.

    Authorities say Henry was the victim whose death was recorded at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a hotel in midtown Anchorage. Smith was registered to stay there from Sept. 2 to Sept. 4, 2019; the first images showing her body were time-stamped at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 4, police said.

    The last images on the card were taken early on Sept. 6 and showed Henry’s body in the back of a black pickup, according to charging documents. Location data showed that at the time the photo was taken, Smith’s phone was in the area of Rainbow Valley Road, along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, the same area where Henry’s body was found several weeks later, police said.

    As detectives interrogated Smith about the Marriott case, authorities said, he offered up more information to police who escorted him to a bathroom: He had killed another woman, and he went on to identify her — Abouchuk — from a photo and to provide the location of her remains, along the Old Glenn Highway north of Anchorage.

    “With no prompting, he tells the troopers in the bathroom, ‘I’m going to make you famous,’” District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said during a court hearing last week. “He comes back in and says … ‘You guys got some more time? You want to keep talking?’ And then discloses this other murder.”

    Alaska State Troopers in 2018 incorrectly identified another body as that of Abouchuk, because Abouchuk’s ID had been discovered with it, for reasons that remain unclear. But with the information Smith provided, investigators re-examined the case and used dental records to confirm a skull with a bullet wound found in the area Smith identified was Abouchuk’s, authorities have said.

    Smith’s attorney, Timothy Ayer, unsuccessfully sought to have the digital memory card’s evidence — or even mention of it — excluded at trial. The woman who turned in the card initially claimed she had simply found it on the street, and it wasn’t until a second interview that she confessed she had stolen the card from Smith’s truck while he tried to get money from an ATM and she had it for a week before giving it to police, he said.

    For that reason, he argued, prosecutors would not be able to demonstrate the provenance of the 39 photos and 12 videos, establish whether they were originals or duplicates, or say for sure whether they had been tampered with.

    “The state cannot produce a witness to testify that the video fairly and accurately depicts any act that actually happened,” Ayer wrote.

    However, Third Judicial District Judge Kevin Saxby ruled late Friday that the woman can testify about her possession of the card until she handed it over to police and that the recordings can be properly authenticated.

    Henry’s family has not spoken publicly about her death and efforts to reach relatives have not been successful. Abouchuk’s family has not returned messages from The Associated Press.

    “These were two Alaska Native women,” Dunlop, then the assistant district attorney, said in 2019 after Smith was charged. “And I know that hits home here in Alaska, and we’re cognizant of that. We treat them with dignity and respect.”

    Authorities said Smith, who is in custody at the Anchorage Correctional Facility, came to Alaska in 2014 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the same month Henry was killed.

    In a 2019 letter to the AP, he declined to discuss the case. He added that he was doing well: “I have lost weight, I have much less stress and I am sober.”

    His wife, Stephanie Bissland of Anchorage, and a sister acting as a family spokesperson in South Africa, both declined to comment until after the trial.

    The trial, expected to last three to four weeks, was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.

    Prosecutors had suggested the possibility of closing the courtroom to prevent the gruesome videos from being seen by the public. The Associated Press, the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s News Source and Alaska Public Media objected to any such move in a letter to the court’s presiding judge.

    Afterward, Saxby said he has no intention of keeping the public from the courtroom, but safeguards will be in place to prevent those in the gallery or watching the trial’s livestream from seeing them.

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  • Gov. Gavin Newsom goes viral for ‘shoplifting’ at Target

    Gov. Gavin Newsom goes viral for ‘shoplifting’ at Target

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    Gov. Gavin Newsom has gone viral for shoplifting at Target. Well, sort of.

    The governor didn’t actually steal anything. But as he tells it, he did witness someone blatantly walking out of a Sacramento-area store with an armload of stolen stuff, presumably right in front of his own intimidating-looking security detail. And when Newsom asked why no one was taking action, the clerk told him it was the governor’s fault.

    Newsom has made it too easy to steal, he said the clerk told him — before realizing who he was and freaking out.

    Newsom, who was Christmas shopping with one of his children at the time, said he was outraged. It’s just not true, he said he told the clerk. California has the tenth-toughest laws against retail theft in the nation, he lectured — in a way that must have seemed super weird until she deduced his identity.

    “I said: ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ ” Newsom said he asked the clerk.

    “She goes, ’Oh, the governor’ ” — he broke off — “swear to God, true story, on my mom’s grave.” He added that the clerk had the temerity to tell him: “The governor lowered the threshold, there’s no accountability. … We don’t stop them because of the governor.”

    Newsom told the story this week to a group of mayors from around the state who had gathered on Zoom for a news conference on his mental health initiative, Proposition 1. He and the mayors were chatting among themselves while waiting for San Francisco’s London Breed and San Diego’s Todd Gloria to log on. After relating the anecdote, the governor added that he hoped the two mayors weren’t the only ones not yet signed into the Zoom. “Hopefully, all the reporters weren’t on,” he said.

    Too late. The exchange, posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) and then picked up by television and print outlets around the state, quickly went viral — catnip in the heated debate about retail theft and Proposition 47, which reduced some thefts and drug offenses to misdemeanors to reduce mass incarceration. Some critics have blamed Proposition 47 for the rise in thefts.

    Newsom himself came out last month calling for legislation to crack down on “professional thieves” without amending Proposition 47, noting that one of the wine stores he owns in San Francisco was robbed at least three times in 2021. He pointed out that Texas’ threshold for felony theft is among those that is higher than California’s.

    But those points did little to calm the viral story. The chairwoman of the state Republican Party, Jessica Millan Patterson, quickly jumped into the fray, writing on X: “Shout-out to this store clerk for saying to the governor’s face what every Californian has wanted to say: that he and his radical @CA_Dem buddies are to blame for CA’s surging crime. Sadly, Newsom still didn’t seem to take the hint.”

    Newsom’s office declined to identify which Target the encounter occurred at, to keep the media from mobbing the store. They did say the encounter took place in the Sacramento area, around Christmastime, while the governor was shopping with one of his children.

    The exchange, the governor said, ended with an attempt at a photo-op.

    As the governor was explaining how strict California’s retail theft laws actually are, the clerk, he said, “looks at me, twice. She freaks out. She calls everyone over, wants to take photos.”

    “I said, no, I’m not taking a photo,” Newsom said. “We’re having a conversation. Where’s your manager? How are you blaming the governor?”

    He added: “Why am I spending $380? Everyone can walk the hell right out.”



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    Jessica Garrison

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  • Woman arrested in theft of French bulldog that left victim clinging to hood of car

    Woman arrested in theft of French bulldog that left victim clinging to hood of car

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    Authorities have arrested a woman on suspicion of stealing a French bulldog in downtown Los Angeles last month in an incident that gained attention when onlookers filmed the victim clinging to the hood of a car as it sped away with her dog, Onyx, inside.

    Police arrested Sadie Slater, 21, of Los Angeles, in connection with the crime, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department.

    Onyx was not recovered as of Saturday afternoon, but detectives were still conducting interviews, police said.

    Ali Zacharias’ heartbreak began Jan. 18 when she was on a lunch break with Onyx at the Whole Foods on Grand Avenue near 8th Street, she told The Times in an interview. Onlookers were watching the 44-year-old interact with her dog: a black-and-white-speckled French bulldog a little over a year old with different colored eyes, the left blue and the right green.

    The next thing Zacharias knew, she said, a woman had picked up Onyx and was walking away with him.

    Onyx, a French bulldog with one blue eye and one green eye, was stolen from his owner in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.

    (Ali Zacharias)

    Zacharias said she attempted to follow the woman into a car — a white Kia Forte that held four people — before being pushed out. That’s when she stood in front of the car in an attempt to stop it, then fell onto the hood as it drove forward, she said.

    She rode atop the hood for a short way before the car swerved and she rolled off. She was bruised and cut but not badly hurt, she said.

    Video of the ordeal was posted on Instagram and widely shared.

    French bulldogs are one of the most popular small-breed dogs in the world, according to the American Kennel Club, “especially among city dwellers.” They’re known for their square heads, “bat” ears and charming disposition. Expensive and in high demand, the dogs have been a favorite target of thieves in recent years in the L.A. area.

    Two of Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs were stolen in February 2021, and her dog walker was shot and wounded during the heist. The woman who recovered them and later sued — trying to claim the $500,000 reward — was found to be involved with the dognappers. More recently, thieves stole 12 purebred French bulldogs, including a 10-month-old show dog named Roll X, from a Gardena pet shop.

    Slater was taken into custody late Friday in Inglewood by members of the LAPD gang and narcotics division and U.S. Marshals’ fugitive task force, according to investigators. She was booked on suspicion of robbery and remained jailed Saturday in lieu of $70,000 bail, jail records state.

    Zacharias has offered a reward for her beloved pet’s safe return.

    Reward poster for Onyx, a French bulldog with one blue eye and one green eye.

    Onyx, a French bulldog with one blue eye and one green eye, was stolen from his owner in downtown L.A. on Jan. 18.

    (Ali Zacharias)

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    Alex Wigglesworth, Amy Hubbard

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  • Delaware firefighter charged with stealing nearly $40K from fire company

    Delaware firefighter charged with stealing nearly $40K from fire company

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    Friday, February 2, 2024 6:41AM

    Delaware firefighter charged with stealing nearly $40K from fire company

    Delaware firefighter charged with stealing nearly $40K from fire company

    WPVI

    NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Delaware (WPVI) — A New Castle County, Delaware firefighter is charged with stealing nearly $40,000 from his fire company.

    Tyree Williams, 22, was arrested on January 16.

    Authorities said he tampered with personal banking information in the computer payroll system of the Belvedere Fire Company in order to send former employees’ paychecks to his personal bank accounts.

    Williams has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday.

    Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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    6abc Digital Staff

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  • Dying thief who stole ruby slippers from Minnesota museum will likely avoid prison

    Dying thief who stole ruby slippers from Minnesota museum will likely avoid prison

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    MINNEAPOLIS — A dying thief who confessed to stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” because he wanted to pull off “one last score” is expected to stay out of prison after he’s sentenced Monday.

    Terry Jon Martin, 76, stole the slippers in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He gave into temptation after an old mob associate told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value, his attorney revealed in a memo to the federal court ahead of his sentencing in Duluth.

    The FBI recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim a reward. Martin wasn’t charged with stealing them until last year.

    He pleaded guilty in October to theft of a major artwork, admitting to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. But his motivation remained mostly a mystery until defense attorney Dane DeKrey revealed it this month.

    Martin, who lives near Grand Rapids, said at the October hearing that he hoped to remove what he thought were real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a person who deals in stolen goods, known as a fence, informed him the rubies were glass, Martin said. So he got rid of the slippers.

    DeKrey wrote in his memo that Martin’s unidentified former mob associate persuaded him to steal the slippers as “one last score,” even though Martin had seemed to have “finally put his demons to rest” after finishing his last prison term nearly 10 years ago.

    “At first, Terry declined the invitation to participate in the heist. But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him up at night,” DeKrey wrote. “After much contemplation, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to participate in the theft.”

    Both sides are recommending that Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentence Martin to time served because he is housebound in hospice care and is expected to die within six months. He requires constant oxygen therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and was in a wheelchair when he pleaded guilty.

    Federal sentencing guidelines would normally recommend a sentence of about 4 1/2 years to 6 years, though someone with Martin’s criminal history could get an even longer term. But his health “is simply too fragile,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Another prosecution filing said both sides agreed he should be ordered to pay $23,500 in restitution to the museum, even though he apparently does not have the money.

    According to DeKrey, Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen “The Wizard of Oz.” Instead, DeKrey said, the “old Terry” with a lifelong history involving burglary and receiving stolen property beat out the “new Terry” who had become “a contributing member of society” after his 1996 release from prison.

    After the fence told Martin the rubies were fake, DeKrey wrote, he gave the slippers to his old mob associate and told him he never wanted to see them again. The attorney said Martin never heard from the man again. Martin has refused to identify anyone else who was involved in the theft, and nobody else has ever been charged in the case.

    The FBI never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the slippers. The bureau said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the $200,000 reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis the next year.

    Federal prosecutors have put the slippers’ market value at about $3.5 million.

    In the classic 1939 musical, Garland’s character, Dorothy, had to click the heels of her ruby slippers three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home,” to return to Kansas from Oz. She wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain.

    Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw had loaned one pair to the museum when Martin stole them. The other three are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.

    Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969.

    The Judy Garland Museum, located in the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia.

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  • Reformed mobster went after 'one last score' when he stole Judy Garland's ruby slippers from 'Oz'

    Reformed mobster went after 'one last score' when he stole Judy Garland's ruby slippers from 'Oz'

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    The aging reformed mobster who has admitted stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” gave into the temptation of “one last score” after an old mob associate led him to believe the famous shoes must be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.

    Terry Jon Martin’s defense attorney finally revealed the 76-year-old’s motive for the 2005 theft from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in a new memo filed ahead of his Jan. 29 sentencing in Duluth, Minnesota.

    The FBI recovered the shoes in 2018 when someone else tried to claim an insurance reward on them, but Martin wasn’t charged with stealing them until last year.

    Martin pleaded guilty in October to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum door and display case to take the slippers. He had hoped to harvest real rubies from the shoes and sell them. But a fence, a person who deals in stolen goods, informed him the rubies were glass and Martin got rid of the slippers less than two days after he took them, he said.

    Defense attorney Dane DeKrey said in his memo that an unidentified former mob associate tempted Martin to steal the shoes, even though he hadn’t committed a crime in nearly 10 years after his last prison stint.

    “At first, Terry declined the invitation to participate in the heist. But old habits die hard, and the thought of a ‘final score’ kept him up at night,” DeKrey wrote. “After much contemplation, Terry had a criminal relapse and decided to participate in the theft.”

    DeKrey and prosecutors are recommending the judge sentence Martin to time served because he is physically incapable of presenting a threat to society. Martin is in hospice care with a life expectancy of less than six months. He needs oxygen at all times because of his chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and was in a wheelchair at his most recent court appearance. Even if he were sentenced to prison, his poor health might be grounds for a compassionate release.

    Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen the movie. Instead, DeKrey said he was just looking for one last big score, and the “old Terry” with a lifelong history of crimes like burglary and receiving stolen property beat out the “new Terry” who seemed to “finally put his demons to rest” after being released from prison in 1996 and became “a contributing member of society.”

    DeKrey urged the judge to consider the major events of Martin’s life when deciding whether a lenient sentence is appropriate.

    Martin suffered under a cruel stepmother who mistreated him and his three brothers so badly for several years that he left home at the age of 16 and began drinking and stealing.

    While on parole from prison, Martin’s girlfriend became pregnant with twins, but he missed their birth after his parole was revoked. Right after his girlfriend brought the 1-month-old twins to prison to meet him, they died after a train struck her vehicle.

    “This was truly the turning point in Terry’s life — his villain origin story — and the reason he not only went down his dark path but accelerated towards it,” DeKrey wrote. “His son said it best: ‘the twins’ death made (my dad) just give up on life; he decided on a life of crime.’”

    Martin’s lawyer also said the judge should consider that Martin had not committed any other crimes in nearly a decade before stealing the slippers nor in the years since then. DeKrey said Martin didn’t even try to claim a slice of the insurance reward money when some of his former associates tried to collect.

    Garland wore several pairs of ruby slippers during filming of the classic 1939 musical, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain. The stolen slippers were insured for $1 million, but federal prosecutors put the current market value at about $3.5 million.

    The FBI said a man approached the insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the $200,000 reward being offered. The slippers were recovered during an FBI sting in Minneapolis. The FBI has never disclosed how it tracked down the slippers, which remain in the agency’s custody.

    The slippers were on loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw when Martin stole them. Three other pairs worn by Garland in the movie are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American History and a private collector.

    Several rewards were offered over the years in hopes of figuring out who stole the slippers, which were key props in the film. Garland’s character, Dorothy, has to click the heels of the slippers three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home,” to return to Kansas.

    Garland was born Frances Gumm in 1922. She lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died in 1969.

    The Judy Garland Museum, located in the house where she lived, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and Wizard of Oz memorabilia.

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  • A British postal scandal ruined hundreds of lives. The government plans to make right

    A British postal scandal ruined hundreds of lives. The government plans to make right

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    LONDON — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he will introduce measures to reverse the convictions of more than 900 Post Office branch managers wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system in what is considered one of the gravest injustices in the nation’s history.

    The announcement Wednesday follows a TV docudrama on the wrongdoing that created a huge surge of public support for the former postmasters who have spent years trying to reclaim lives ruined by the scandal.

    “This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,” Sunak said. “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own. The victims must get justice and compensation.”

    Lawmakers said they would provide compensation to those who had been convicted. Some also called for bringing those to justice who were responsible for the wrongdoing.

    Some things to know about the scandal:

    After the Post Office rolled out the Horizon IT system, developed by Japanese company Fujitsu, in 1999 to automate sales accounting, local Post Office managers began finding unexplained losses they were responsible to cover.

    The state-owned Post Office maintained Horizon was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty. Between 2000 and 2014, some 900 postal workers were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, with some convicted and imprisoned and others forced into bankruptcy.

    In total, over 2,000 people were affected by the scandal. Some committed suicide or attempted it. Others said their marriages fell apart and reported becoming community pariahs.

    A group of postal workers took legal action against the Post Office in 2016. Three years later the High Court in London ruled that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and that the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability” of the system.

    “Failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court,” Justice Timothy Holroyde said.

    To date, just 95 convictions have been overturned, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said.

    A government minister claimed this moment of reckoning has long been coming. But it was turbo-charged by a four-part TV docudrama that aired Jan. 1 and fueled public outrage that led to days of bruising headlines about the scandal and sparked a swift response by lawmakers.

    The ITV show, “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office,” told the story of branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, who has spent nearly two decades trying to expose the scandal and exonerate his peers.

    Despite hundreds of news stories over the years about court hearings and an ongoing public inquiry, the show seen by millions rapidly galvanized support for victims of the injustice.

    Police last week opened a fraud investigation into potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

    More than a million people signed an online petition calling for former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells to lose her Commander of the Order of the British Empire title she received in 2018. By the end of Tuesday, she said she would relinquish the honor.

    The Post Office is state owned with independent franchise operators. Branch owners and employees typically lived in the communities where they operated and many became outcasts when accused of stealing.

    Lisa Brennan, a former clerk at a post office in Huyton, near Liverpool, told the inquiry that after being falsely accused of stealing 3,000 pounds ($3,800) in 2003 her marriage fell apart, she lost her house and ended up homeless with a young daughter.

    “It’s scandalous, it should never have happened,” she told the inquiry in 2022. “I wasn’t the only one but that’s what I was told: ‘It’s only you, you’re the only one.’”

    Janine Powell, a former subpostmistress in Tiverton in Devon who was accused of stealing around 71,000 pounds ($90,000), said she felt broken after being sentenced to 18 months in prison after being convicted in 2008.

    She had to leave her three children, aged 10 to 18 at the time, and that strained their relationship. She harmed herself, considered suicide and struggled to get a job after her release.

    “It had a big impact. You have to declare obviously that you’ve got a criminal record,” Powell said. “When you try to explain (to employers) it’s a ‘no’ straight away, so I couldn’t work.”

    The government plans to set aside 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) to compensate the wrongly convicted and others whose lives were destroyed in the scandal.

    To date, nearly 150 million pounds have been paid to more than 2,500 victims, Sunak said.

    The legislation envisioned would quash convictions and award those who have been cleared at least 600,000 pounds ($763,000), the government said. They could receive more if they go through a process to assess their claim.

    Those who were not convicted but lost money would be offered at least 75,000 pounds ($95,000).

    The government said there is a chance some postal employees who did commit fraud or theft could end up being exonerated and receive compensation.

    “The risk is that instead of unjust convictions, we shall end up with unjust acquittals and we just do not know how many,” Hollinrake said. “But we cannot make the provision of compensation subject to a detailed examination of guilt.”

    Some members of Parliament called for bringing charges against those who had been aware of the software problems and allowed prosecutions to go forward.

    “Will the government accelerate the investigations to convict those who are really guilty of causing this scandal by perverting the course of justice?” said David Davis, a Conservative member of the House of Commons.

    Hollinrake said the ongoing public inquiry will identify the organizations and individuals responsible for the scandal.

    Duncan Baker, a Conservative who had once run a postal branch in Norfolk, said he wanted to know how much money the Post Office pocketed.

    “One question that has never been answered is just how much money was taken unlawfully from thousands of innocent men and women,” Baker said. “The Post Office took that money, we have never known that figure.”

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  • Hundreds of UK postal workers wrongly accused of fraud will have their convictions overturned

    Hundreds of UK postal workers wrongly accused of fraud will have their convictions overturned

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    LONDON — Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday he will introduce measures to overturn the convictions of more than 900 post office branch managers who were wrongly accused of theft or fraud because of a faulty computer system.

    Sunak said the scandal, which saw hundreds of postmasters falsely convicted of stealing money because Post Office computers wrongly showed that funds were missing from their shops, was “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history.”

    Of the more than 900 postal branch managers who were convicted of theft or fraud between 1999 and 2015, just 95 have managed to overturn their convictions, Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said.

    Some were sent to prison, and many were financially ruined after being forced to pay large sums to the state-owned Post Office. Several killed themselves. In total, over 2,000 people were affected by the scandal.

    The real culprit was a defective accounting software package called Horizon, supplied by the Japanese technology firm Fujitsu, which was rolled out across Post Office branches starting in the late 1990s.

    Sunak told lawmakers that a new law will be introduced to ensure that those wrongly convicted are “swiftly exonerated and compensated.”

    “People who worked hard to serve their communities had their lives and their reputations destroyed through absolutely no fault of their own,” he said. “We will make sure that the truth comes to light, we right the wrongs of the past and the victims get the justice they deserve.”

    Sunak’s office acknowledged that the blanket quashing of convictions was unusual, but argued that it was justified because of the “exceptional situation.”

    For years, the state-owned Post Office maintained that data from Horizon was reliable and accused branch managers of dishonesty.

    In 2016 a group of affected postal workers joined a group legal action against the Post Office that was key in uncovering the scandal. The High Court ruled three years later that Horizon contained a number of “bugs, errors and defects” and that it was likely that those defects caused the shortfalls in the branch accounts.

    Officials said Wednesday that the hundreds of postal workers who joined that legal action will be offered an upfront payment of 75,000 pounds ($95,500) each.

    Those whose convictions are overturned will be entitled to a 600,000-pound compensation payment, officials added.

    While the scandal has rumbled on for years, it hit the headlines again this week thanks to a hit TV docudrama on the issue. The ITV show, “Mr. Bates vs the Post Office,” charted a two-decade battle by branch manager Alan Bates, played by Toby Jones, to expose the truth and clear the wronged postal workers.

    The show, watched by millions of people, helped to refocus political attention on the victims’ battle for justice. Last week police said they opened a fraud investigation into the Post Office, saying officers are looking into potential offenses of perjury and perverting the course of justice over investigations and prosecutions carried out by the Post Office.

    So far, no one from the company or from Fujitsu has been arrested or faced criminal charges. An independent public inquiry has been ongoing since 2022.

    And on Tuesday, ex-Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells said she would relinquish the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire that she received in 2018. An online petition calling for her to be stripped of the honor had garnered more than 1.2 million supporters.

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  • Ex-celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi found competent to stand trial for alleged $15 million client thefts

    Ex-celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi found competent to stand trial for alleged $15 million client thefts

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    LOS ANGELES — Disgraced Los Angeles celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi has been found competent to stand trial on charges that he stole more than $15 million from his clients.

    A federal judge filed a notice of the brief order Tuesday under seal. Lawyers for both sides were given five days to identify any information in it that they would like the judge to keep confidential.

    Girardi, 84, is the estranged husband of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne.

    Girardi pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles last year to wire fraud on charges that he embezzled from clients, including an Arizona widow whose husband was killed in a boat accident; a Los Angeles couple injured in a car wreck that paralyzed their son; and a man who was severely burned in the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion.

    If convicted, he could be sentenced to decades in federal prison.

    The Associated Press sent messages to his public defenders seeking comment.

    At issue in the competency hearing was whether Girardi understood the charges and proceedings against him and could help with his own defense. His lawyers argued that he was unable to take part in the trial because he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which they said has left him confused and with memory problems. He currently is staying in the memory care unit of a nursing home.

    Prosecutors contended that Girardi was exaggerating his symptoms.

    As one of the nation’s most prominent plaintiff’s attorneys, Girardi took on powerful corporations, movie studios and Pacific Gas and Electric in a case that led to a $333 million settlement, which was portrayed in the 2000 Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich.”

    But his law empire collapsed, he was disbarred in California in 2022 over client thefts, and he faces mounting legal problems.

    Girardi also faces federal wire fraud charges in Chicago, where he is accused of stealing about $3 million from family members of victims of a 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people.

    The Chicago court is expected to follow the competency decision in California.

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