It’s always upsetting when someone steals your packages after they’ve been delivered, but it’s even more of a bummer when the company doing the deliveries apparently puts that package into the hands of the thief. A California shop is pretty steamed at FedEx, claiming the carrier allowed a homeless man to sign for its packages, which have now gone missing. [More]
crime
Police: Fake Dentist Made House Calls To Pull Teeth, Provide Dentures
By 12.12.16
Listen: if the dentist says he doesn’t mind dropping by your house to pull a few teeth, you might want to double check and make sure he’s a real dentist before you open wide. [More]
UPS Driver Helps Save Woman Held Captive After Spotting Note On A Package
By 12.9.16
A woman who was allegedly being abused and kept captive in her home by her husband was rescued this week when an observant UPS driver noticed the plea for help she’d scrawled on a package waiting to be picked up. [More]
Couple Claims Car Dealership Employee Stole Intimate Photos, Sent Them To Swingers’ Site
By 12.2.16 — Updated: 12.5.16
The thing about private photos is that they’re supposed to be just that: private. But a couple in Texas says not only did a car dealership employee swipe intimate photos from one of their phones, he then emailed them to a site for swingers. [More]
No Pizza Is Worth Crawling Through Ventilation Duct To Steal
By 12.2.16
Listen, I get it. Pizza is delicious, and you may be tempted to go to extremes to be near it. But it is not a good idea to crawl through a pizzeria’s ventilation system in an effort to burgle the restaurant that makes it. [More]
Foxconn Employee Accused Of Stealing & Reselling 5,700 iPhones
By 12.2.16
This sounds like something from a TV episode, or maybe even a novel or film: an employee who works with sensitive, high-value technology manages to sneak test units out of the job for years and sell them for a fat wad of cash. In a movie, he’d take the money and retire quietly to a nice tropical island where the drinks come with umbrellas in them. In reality, however, he is now being indicted by Taiwanese authorities for the theft. [More]
Thief With Impeccable Timing Grabs Bucket Of Gold Flakes Worth $1.6M From Armored Truck
By 11.30.16
He only had about 20 seconds of distraction, but that’s all it took for one thief to walk off with about $1.6 million worth of gold flakes on a busy New York City street. [More]
Guy Steals Credit Card, Uses It To Buy Home Security Camera To Ward Off Thieves
By 11.16.16
Police in Colorado say they’re on the lookout for a man accused of using a stolen credit card to purchase a home security system, which, is of course useful when trying to keep people from stealing your stuff. [More]
FCC: Don’t Be Fooled By Callers Posing As Utility Employees Demanding Payment
By 11.15.16 — Updated: 2.2.17
We’ve heard about scammers who call up consumers and pretend to be utility company workers, demanding immediate payment. And as we head into the winter, when many people might be endangered by an interruption in heat, the Federal Communications Commission is warning folks to be especially wary of such calls. [More]
Ringleader Of Canada’s Multimillion-Dollar Maple Syrup Heist Found Guilty
By 11.14.16
It’s been four years since our neighbors to the north were rocked by the theft of millions of dollars worth of maple syrup from Canada’s global strategic maple syrup reserve. Authorities recovered the stuff pretty quickly, but it’s taken some time to bring those responsible to justice. Things are one step closer to wrapping up, however, after one of the heist’s reputed ringleaders was recently found guilty. [More]
Bank Robbery Suspect Caught Eating Lunch Joins Long List Of Accused Criminals Who Were Their Own Worst Enemy
By 11.11.16 — Updated: 1.5.17
Sometimes, it doesn’t take an exhaustive manhunt or an intense investigation to catch an accused criminal. Sometimes, like in the case of a robbery suspect who was nabbed after he stopped nearby to grab lunch, bad consumers are simply their own worst enemy. [More]
Uber Driver Charged With Raping Unconscious Teenage Passenger
By 11.10.16
An Uber driver in Laguna Beach, CA has been arrested and charged with raping an unconscious 17-year-old passenger in the back seat of his car. [More]
Police: KFC Worker Pulls Gun On Boss, Returns For Paycheck The Next Day
By 10.21.16
A dispute between an employee of a New Mexico KFC and his boss escalated to the point of pulling out weapons, but that didn’t stop the aggrieved worker from showing up the next day to collect his paycheck. [More]
Police: Miami Uber Driver Admitted He Sexually Assaulted Incapacitated Passenger
By 10.20.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Police in Miami say an Uber driver has admitted to sexually battering a female customer while she was incapacitated after a night of drinking. [More]
Who Am I Supposed To Call When My Credit Card Info Is Stolen?
By 10.11.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
You just found out your credit or debit card info has been used by someone else to make a fraudulent purchase. There are so many different people you can call, each involved in some aspect of this theft. There’s your bank that issued the card, the credit card network the issuer uses for that card, the retailer or website that processed the payment, the police, the FBI… Do you need to call all of these or just one or two? What if you think your incident might be a sign of a larger breach? [More]
Walmart Worker Accused Of Setting Multiple Fires Inside The Same Store
By 9.29.16
Things got a bit heated at a Walmart in Massachusetts recently, after a employee allegedly set three fires inside the store. [More]
Uber Driver Arrested, Accused Of Raping 16-Year-Old Passenger
By 8.11.16
Uber says that it puts all new drivers through checks of their criminal and driving history, and none of what happened in a Boston suburb should have taken place. The prosecutor in Malden, MA says that a local driver had a long and sometimes violent criminal history, and he is accused of tracking down, offering extra rides to, and raping a 16-year-old passenger earlier this summer. [More]
Walmart Employees Charged With Manslaughter In February Death Of Shoplifting Suspect
By 8.3.16
How seriously should retailers take loss prevention? Back in February, a Florida man in his 60s filled a cart with DVDs in the wee hours of the morning, What was different from most incidents was that store employees chased him and pinned him to the ground until police arrived. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital, and police are done investigating the incident, charging the three employees who chased and restrained him with manslaughter. [More]
