06-28-02

BACK TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Police in a Santiago, Chile suburb arrested a suspected armed robber when he returned to a shop to apologize to his victims. The suspect also asked for his gun back -- one of the victims had wrestled it away during a scuffle.

COPY & PASTE
31 engineering students at Carleton University in Ottawa were caught cheating on an exam by copying text from the internet and passing it off as their own work. It was an ethics exam.

TAXI-FARE SCARE
A man hopped into the front passenger seat of a woman's car in Kidderminster, England and ordered her to drive to the train station. Fearing for the safety of her two children in the back seat, the victim complied. When they reached the station, the man handed each child a 10-pound note, placed 10 pounds on the dashboard, and took off on foot.

YIPES! STRIPES!
A would-be thief at a game sanctuary near Johannesburg climbed a fence while running from the staff -- and dropped into a tiger's den. The male and female tigers killed the suspect, but, according to a police official, they played with him first.

QUIET FRIEND
After a Seattle-area woman caused a freeway crash by cutting off traffic to get into a carpool lane -- police discovered her only passenger was a mannequin. The Washington State Patrol said the dummy wore a wig, clothing and makeup, to make it appear the woman's minivan qualified to use the lane. The woman cut off a school bus, triggering a six-vehicle chain reaction that injured 16 people.

A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME
A man attempting to smuggle an exotic parrot through Ottawa International Airport was foiled when the bird began screeching from inside his briefcase. The illegal macaw was confiscated and placed in a rare bird center.

Tips to Minimize Identity Theft

In the course of a busy day, you may write a check at the grocery store, charge tickets for a concert, rent a car, mail your tax returns, call home on your cell phone, order new checks or apply for a credit card. Everyday transactions that you may never give a second thought to are an identity thief’s bread and butter. Each of these transactions requires the sharing of personal information; your bank and credit card account numbers; your income, Social Security number and name, address and phone numbers, to name a few. While there is no guarantee you can completely prevent identity theft, you can minimize your risk by managing your personal information wisely. Here are some helpful tips:

Never throw mail with personal information into trash bins at post offices.

Shred pre-approved credit card applications and any mail with social security, bank and credit card numbers before throwing it in the trash.

Review statements from banks and credit card companies each month for unauthorized activity. The Consumer Credit Counseling Service (800-388-2227) can help clear fraudulent charges on credit card accounts.

Do not leave financial or other sensitive mail in vehicles.

Pay attention to billing cycles and inquire about credit bills that do not arrive on time. A missing credit card bill could mean an identity thief has taken over your account and changed your billing address to cover his/her tracks.

Provide a new address to friends and businesses immediately. Do not rely on mail forwarding, which may put your mail at greater risk of theft. If your mail has been stolen, call the local police and the postal inspection service office nearest you. Contact your local post office for the number.

Before divulging personal information to a company, determine how it will be used and whether it will be transferred to third parties.

Keep track of credit and debit card receipts.

It is a good idea to request a copy of your credit report periodically from the three major credit reporting agencies to insure accuracy of records. Credit card fraud should be reported to the major credit reporting agencies:

Experian: 888-397-3742

Equifax: 800-525-6285

TransUnion: 800-680-7289

Do not carry your social security number or give it to anyone unless absolutely necessary. For abuse of your Social Security number, call the fraud hotline at 800-269-0271.

Keep the amount of personal information in wallets and purses to a very minimum, as well as the information on pre-printed checks.

Only carry a couple of credit cards and cancel the rest. After the cards are canceled, cut them up.

The defendant was driving a rental car on an interstate highway when he was stopped by an officer for following another car too closely. In response to the officer’s request, the defendant produced an Alabama license and a rental agreement.

After questioning the defendant about his travel plans, the rental agreement, and the identity of the passenger in the car, the officer asked the passenger the same questions. As he was questioning the passenger, who was still sitting in the car, the officer noticed an odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.

In a subsequent search of the vehicle, drugs were found, and the defendant was arrested. He claimed on appeal that the detention was unlawful because the officer had no reason to prolong the encounter after he had obtained the defendant’s license and rental agreement.

Regarding the search, the State argued that the defendant lacked standing to complain because he was not the renter of the car, and therefore lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in its contents.

Holding: An investigative detention is temporary and “must last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop.” It must be “justified at its inception” and the scope of the detention must be reasonably related to the justification.

During a traffic stop, an officer is entitled to request production of a driver’s license and insurance papers, information on the ownership of the vehicle, the driver’s destination, and the purpose of the trip. In this case, he also was justified in asking similar questions of the passenger.

It was during the questioning that the officer smelled marijuana coming from the car. The odor of marijuana created a reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal conduct, and that justified further detention.

Since the marijuana evidence was detected before the investigation of the traffic violation was concluded, the officer did not unnecessarily prolong the detention. It was justified initially by the traffic violation, and then – before the traffic stop was concluded – by reasonable suspicion to believe a drug violation was occurring.

The defendant also challenged the search of the car. A defendant may have standing to contest the reasonableness of his own detention, but lack standing to complain about a search that occurs during a detention.

Although a person has standing to challenge the search of a vehicle he does not own “if he has permission from the owner to drive the vehicle, or if he has permission from some other person authorized to give such permission, or if he otherwise has a legal right to use and control the vehicle,” this defendant did not have standing.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution are designed to protect a person’s “legitimate expectation of privacy from unreasonable governmental intrusions.” If a person has no “legitimate expectation of privacy” in the place searched, he cannot contest the search because his personal rights were no involved.

Neither the defendant nor anyone in the car was registered on the rental agreement. When the officer asked who the registered drivers were, the defendant replied that they were relatives. Even if true, the defendant did not necessarily have legal authority to drive the car simply because relatives had rented it.

“No evidence was introduced to show that [the defendant] had any interest in or right to use the vehicle.” Because he failed to show that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the car’s contents, he lacked standing to challenge the search of the vehicle. Freeman v. State, 62 S.W.3d 883 (Tex. App. – Texarkana 2001).

Cyber Space - Where From Art Thou?

While any virus can be problematic, either deliberately or unintentionally, the latest Klez variants use a variety of insidious tactics designed to give even the most patient a massive headache. Klez not only has a penchant for lifting legitimate user files from the system and sending them out with the infected mail - thereby potentially compromising sensitive data - it can also spoof the From address on the email, making it appear the virus is being sent from a completely innocent and uninfected person. One reader reports having received 9 different Klez emails in a single night, all with different From addresses. Only a careful examination of the email headers revealed the sender's true identity. Others report receiving bounced messages from various ISP's, informing them that a message they sent was rejected due to its carrying the Klez virus. The problem, of course, is that these individuals never sent the message nor did it originate from their machine. The virus had simply found their email address on the infected user's machine and inserted it in the From field.

See http://antivirus.about.com/library/blklez.htm

A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. ”I’ve gone for 10 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”

This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

When you are DOWN to nothing…God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!

Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment

Evid-Away