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I spent a bit of this week following up on Tommy Clack, a paving contractor who was accused of swindling at least 15 Triad area residents last year through a fraudulent driveway paving scheme.

The trail he has created has been a long one - from Florida, to Wilmington, to Greensboro and now Myrtle Beach.

And every step of the way, a lot of people - many of which were elderly - have said they were left embarrassed, angry and out of money.

In the reporting I did back in the fall, I spoke with many of his victims who were very passionate about bringing Clack to justice for what they (and the state) have said happened to them.

We reported. Clack left town. And that's why we wrote about what's going on down in South Carolina, for the many here still following his trail.

For those wondering why he hasn't been stopped yet for what he is accused of doing, law enforcement have told me they have had difficultly bringing charges against him because most of what he is doing falls under civil law. That's where the Attorney General's Office and the Judicial Solicitor's office in South Carolina have come in.

This is also a good reminder to not always trust door-to-door salesmen and to do your homework before allowing anyone to perform work at your home.

And most of all, it's a reminder to look out for elderly relatives and neighbors before they fall victim to a number of schemes targeting them.

For anyone interested, here are links to stories from the coast about his alleged recent activities.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach

Carolinalive.com

Despite rumors to the contrary circulating Greensboro governmental circles, Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy said Monday he has not set a solid date (yet) for his retirement.

Bellamy, who joined the department in 1983, has said his retirement could come sometime in the next few years.

“When I get ready, I’ll leave,” Bellamy said by phone yesterday.

The chief said he recently attended a retirement class offered to city employees thinking about retirement within the next few years and thinks that’s where the rumor probably started.

“That’s too funny,” Bellamy said about the speculation.

The chief has also been a bit MIA recently as well, but for good reason. Bellamy was in Sydney, Australia from June 10-20 on a training session with the FBI.

The chief said the training involved sessions on counterterrorism abroad and learning about how other countries handle counterterrorism intelligence and their domestic policies.

The trip was paid for by federal money and the city did not pay for any of his training, he said.

Bellamy is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA.
 

Fasten your seat belts. Check. Keep your clothing on. Check...say what?

One guy decided to take off his clothes on a plane from Charlotte that was on its way to Los Angeles.

So what's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you on a plane?

The FBI put out a release this afternoon with some good tips about avoiding online auction scams, which are on the rise.

For more information visit the FBI's Internet Fraud Web page.

Many of these are the same schemes that have targeted local residents - a sad story we hear time and time again.

From today's release:

ONLINE AUCTION FRAUD -Don't Let It Happen To You
06/30/09

Auction fraud
One in four complaints in 2008 to the Internet Crime Complaint Center involved online auction fraud.

Computers, sports memorabilia, rare coins, designer fashions, and even cars.

These are just a few of the items offered for sale every day on legitimate online auction sites. They’re also just a small sample of the items used to lure unsuspecting victims into online auction fraud schemes.

Most of the one million-plus transactions that take place each day on these websites are legitimate; just a fraction actually result in some type of fraud.

But even that fraction adds up. According to the latest report of the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), more than 70,000 complaints made to IC3 last year—about one in every four—involved online auction scams.

There are a variety of auction frauds, but here are some of the more common ones to watch out for:

* Overpayment fraud targets the seller. A seller advertises a high-value item—like a car or a computer—on the Internet. A scammer contacts the seller to purchase the item, then sends the seller a counterfeit check or money order for an amount greater than the price of the item. The purchaser asks the seller to deposit the payment, deduct the actual sale price, and then return the difference to the purchaser.

* Wire transfer schemes start with fraudulent and misleading ads for the sale of high-value items being posted on well-known online auction sites. When buyers take the bait, they are directed to wire money to the crooks using a money transfer company. Once the money changes hands, the buyer never hears from them again.

* Second-chance schemes involve scammers who offer losing bidders of legitimate auctions the opportunity to buy the item(s) they wanted at reduced prices. They usually require that victims send payment through money transfer companies, but then don’t follow through on delivery.

And needless to say, in all of these schemes customers never get what they pay for.

Who is behind the scams. Mostly individuals. However, there are exceptions: criminal enterprises from West Africa are especially fond of the overpayment scams, while Romanian crime groups favor the second-chance schemes.

We’re working to address the problem. We’ve had a number of successful auction fraud investigations, worked collaboratively with other agencies, including one in Virginia and one in Texas.

What to do if you’ve been victimized. Go to the Internet Crime Complaint Center or the Federal Trade Commission websites and submit a complaint. The more we know about the extent of the crime—including the specific methods being used to perpetrate it—the more effective we can be in preventing and investigating these scams. You can also report incidents to your local police and to auction companies.

So, how can you avoid being a victim of auction fraud? A few tips:

* Ask the seller for a phone number and verify it.
* Beware of buyers who insist on wire transfers as the only form of payment they’ll accept.
* For big-ticket items, use a legitimate online escrow service that will hold the payment until you receive what you’ve ordered.
* If you receive an overpayment as a seller, don't cash it but instead ask for the exact purchase price.
* Don’t ever give out your social security or driver’s license number—a legitimate seller wouldn’t ask.
* Be skeptical if the price sounds too low.

Save yourself some money (and possibly your life) this weekend by slowing down on the highways.

I know this from first-hand experience, troopers don't mess around when it comes to speeding tickets around the holidays.

And they'll be out in full force.
 

... at smuggling weed.

Today's blotter:

At least the weed wasn't inside of a corpse, which if it hasn't happened somewhere before, it likely will one day.

From The Associated Press:

DALLAS (AP) — A casket minus a cadaver yielded nearly 100 pounds of marijuana after a traffic stop in Dallas.

William Dale Crock of Cave City, Ark., was in jail Friday on a marijuana possession charge, plus traffic and seat beat violations.

Dallas police say Crock was arrested Wednesday when bundles of marijuana were discovered under the casket's cover and pillow.

Sr. Cpl. Kevin Janse told said the van turned up during surveillance on a suspected drug house. Police stopped the van in Mesquite, after noticing Crock not wearing a seat belt. Officers also said he allegedly ran a red light and did an improper lane change.

A drug-sniffing dog alerted officers to the casket in the van.

The online records of the Lew Sterrett Justice Center had no listing for an attorney for Crock.
 

We got a message from an upset reader over the weekend regarding this story in the Wilmington Star News about a crackdown on sex establishments in Brunswick County.

The story mentions that 10 undercover detectives from Greensboro were involved and the reader, who didn’t leave his name, was curious about who paid the bill for our officers to participate.

Simply put, Brunswick County did and paying for out-of-town officers to participate in local sting operations is a fairly routine practice with many law enforcement agencies.

The reason is because in many cases, officers have to infiltrate businesses under investigation in order to collect evidence.

It helps to have some unfamiliar faces involved in order not to blow the cover of the investigation.

That was the case there, Asst. Chief Dwight Crotts with Greensboro police tells me.

Plus, the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office didn’t have the experience conducting such large-scale sex investigation as Greensboro police, and asked for help, Crotts said.

Crotts said Greensboro officers spent one night in Brunswick County for the operation. Officials there paid for room and board and all meals for Greensboro detectives.

Greensboro police paid for their own gas to and from the coast.
 

Today's Blotter:

Google Street View ... invasion of privacy or new state-of-the-art crime fighting tool?

From The Associated Press: 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch police have arrested twin brothers on suspicion of robbery after their alleged victim spotted a picture of them following him on Google's Street View map application, a spokesman said Friday.

Paul Heidanus, a police spokesman in the town of Groningen, said he believed it was the first time Street View images had been used in a Dutch criminal investigation.

"For us, it is unique," he said.

A 14-year-old boy told police last September he had been robbed of euro165 ($230) and his cell phone after two men dragged him off his bicycle in Groningen, 180 kilometers (110 miles) northeast of the capital, Amsterdam.

The victim called again in March after seeing an image of himself and two men he believed were his attackers on Street View, police said in a statement.

Heidanus said prosecutors sent a formal request to Google for the original photo because people's faces are blurred on Street View.

"You must tell Google clearly why you want them," Heidanus said of the photo request. In this case, "the photo could provide an important contribution to solving a crime."

The company complied, and a robbery squad detective immediately recognized one of the twins.

Prosecutors will now decide whether to charge the suspects, whose identities were not released.

Since it was launched in 2007, Street View has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide. But it has drawn complaints from individuals and institutions that have been photographed, including the Pentagon, which barred Google from photographing U.S. military bases for the application.

A spokesman for Google in the Netherlands did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Family Fun Day planned this Sunday:

GREENSBORO - The Greensboro Safe Community Coalition and Greensboro's police and fire departments are partnering to hold a Family Fun Day on Sunday at Center City Park.

The event runs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is designed to promote a safer community through gang awareness and violence prevention, according to a news release.

Puppet shows, face paintings, demonstrations from the police department's K-9 unit and tours of police cars and fire trucks are among the events planned.

Door prizes will be raffled off to those who visit 10 information booths or more. The event is free.

It is being funded through a nearly $5,000 grant from the N.C. Governor's Crime Commission and the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods program.

Center City Park is located at the intersection of Friendly Avenue and North Elm Street.

Today's Blotter.

I'm going to blog on dumb crimes across the country as much as I can in a regular piece called "The Blotter."

Today's entry is the case of the bologna beating. From The Associated Press wire:

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man in Oklahoma City says he was attacked for his bologna and cheese sandwich.

Police say 24-year-old Roger Hamilton told them he was sitting on a bus station bench Wednesday, about to put mayonnaise on his sandwich, when another man began staring at him.

Hamilton told police that the man then punched him in the mouth and grabbed his sandwich and left.

Police say Hamilton has a swollen lip and his face was covered in blood. The police report listed the value of the sandwich at 76 cents.