When two Sacramento men decided to rob their neighbors, they made one fatal mistake: They forgot to turn off their own home video camera.
The burglars walked across the street, entered their neighbor's home, and spent two hours collecting items from the house.
At 5:30 a.m. that morning, a neighbor woke up after hearing noises in the street. When he looked outside, he saw his two neighbors pushing garbage cans full of stolen goods across the street. The man called 911 and told police his neighbors were the burglars.
Police obtained search warrants and found the stolen items and the burglars' home video capturing their own crime on tape.
The two men were arrested, but a third suspect from the tape is still on the loose.
For more on the story and to see the video, click here.
Posted by Ariel Brouillard on May 15, 20122 comments
Apparently some things do slip through airport security.
For the last 20 years, an illegal immigrant has worked as a security guard at Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
The guard, who went by the name Jerry Smith, was arrested last week at his home in New Jersey after an anonymous tipster alerted authorities.
It turns out that Jerry Smith is really Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, a 54-year-old Nigerian immigrant who came to the United States in 1989.
According to news reports, Oyewole used Jerry Smith’s identity after Smith was murdered in Queens in 1992 in order to become a security guard at the airport.
While working at Newark Airport, Oyewole supervised 30 other security guards and could access tarmac and passenger planes.
"In this case, the defendant utilized an elaborate and complex scheme of identity theft to defraud his employer, the State of New Jersey, the federal government and the Port Authority," said Robert Van Etten, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Inspector.
The incident raises obvious questions about security at our biggest airports. If the people in charge of protecting us from threats and terrorists don’t know who their own staff is, how can we trust them to keep us safe?
Interestingly, this story broke the same day the General’s Office of the Transportation Security Administration criticized Newark Airport’s TSA officials in a report, stating that TSA officials took “corrective actions in 42 percent of the security breaches shown in its records.” The report also said TSA doesn’t have a “comprehensive oversight program in order to collate information on security breaches and, consequently, cannot monitor trends or make improvements to security."
How was “Jerry Smith” able to conceal his real identity from the security staff for 20 years?
News reports say Oyewole was able to retrieve Jerry Smith’s birth certificate and social security card. He then used those documents to get a New Jersey’s driver’s license, state security guard license and credit cards. Oyewole passed background checks conducted by state police and federal government.
Is this a case of identity theft or something bigger? Do you blame the security guard or the airport?
Read the full story here.
Posted by Ariel Brouillard on May 15, 20128 comments
A group of Metro riders in Washington, D.C. stopped a man after he stole a passenger’s iPhone on the Red Line. Watch the incident unfold here.
The thief took off after grabbing the phone out of the passenger’s hand. Several passengers then ran after the man and pushed him to the ground. Soon after, Metro Police came and arrested the thief.
Metro Police said they appreciate the passengers getting the phone back, but recommend that they report cell phone thefts to police instead of taking matters into their own hands.
The incident happened in April.
What would you have done if you were on the train?
The Metro Police wouldn’t have had time to track down the stolen phone. By the time the person reporting the theft had gotten off the phone with police, the suspect would have been out of the Metro Station. It’s unlikely that the Metro Police would have then left the Metro area to try to track down a stolen phone in the city. The local police probably wouldn’t respond because it wouldn’t be a priority for them.
At least the man got his phone back.
Posted by Ariel Brouillard on May 09, 20122 comments