Deputy recovering after being assaulted responding to shoplifting call [Update]
In the Monday, July 31 issue of the LP Insider, we brought you a story about a Kalamazoo County Deputy and LP Associate were assaulted by a man fleeing the store after and alleged shoplifting incident. This is an update to that story. The deputy now has multiple staples in his head after being attacked while responding to the shoplifting call. The man accused of carrying out the attack has been identified as James Collins, 24,and has now been officially charged and faces multiple charges including assault with intent to murder, and this isn’t his first run-in with the law. It was in the parking lot of a Kohl’s where the deputy was attacked. The sheriff’s office says Collins beat the deputy with his own flashlight, as he was responding to a call about shoplifting. [For more: WWMT3 News]
Bar owner admits processing $80K in fraudulent credit card purchases
A Philadelphia bar owner has pleaded guilty to processing more than $87,000 in fraudulent credit card purchases. Fifty-two-year-old Michael Hoffner Sr. acknowledged before a federal judge on Monday that he knew the charges were made using cards with stolen credit information between September and December of 2012. Prosecutors say that at least two credit card companies had warned Hoffner about a large number of disputed charges at his Brown Street Pub in the city’s Fairmount section. Hoffner pleaded guilty to 40 counts of wire fraud the day before jury selection was to begin for his trial. Online court records do not list a sentencing date. But prosecutors say he could face more than three years in prison under the plea agreement. [For more: US News]
Troy police terminate pursuit of suspects after their vehicle runs red light
Troy police terminated a pursuit of suspects who may have been involved in an attempted shoplifting and tampering with a vehicle in the parking lot of Home Depot, at about 10 p.m. Friday, July 28. A store manager told police that two men were stopped by loss prevention associates after they allegedly attempted to steal merchandise. They were ordered out of the store. The manager later observed them in the parking lot used by employees, where it appeared they were tampering with a vehicle. The manager told police he believed they arrived in a tan 2002 GMC Envoy, which a responding officer observed driving through the lot. The officer attempted a traffic stop but the driver took off, traveling 80 to 90 miles per hour, going south in the northbound lanes of Coolidge Highway. The vehicle ran a red light at the next intersection and the pursuit was terminated. [For more: Daily Tribune News]
Store’s data breach funds go to nonprofits
Home Depot’s class action settlement with customers whose personal and confidential financial information was stolen by hackers who penetrated the Atlanta-based home supply chain’s data security firewalls will provide an unexpected windfall to the Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Georgia Legal Services. Lawyers representing Home Depot and those representing the class of as many as 56 million Home Depot customers have agreed to donate $250,000 to each nonprofit organization to enhance their services to the state’s low-income and indigent populace, many of whom the organizations’ executives told the court have been victimized by thieves and fraudsters trafficking in stolen identities. The donations come from more than $3.5 million in unclaimed funds, known as cy pres money, remaining after class members received their settlement shares.
Leftover settlement funds also will go to three other organizations that combat identity theft—the Identity Theft Resource Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center. Each organization will receive approximately $900,000 to help victims of data breaches. Home Depot agreed last year to pay $27 million to as many as 56 million Home Depot customers across the nation whose personal and financial information was stolen in 2014 when hackers breached electronic checkout systems across the chain and made the information available to the cyber underworld. [For more: Daily Report]
Don’t try this: Thieves steal iPhones from moving truck [Update]
Yesterday, in the August 1 issue of the LP Insider, we brought you a story about the Dutch Police and Romanian cargo thieves. This is an update to that story, with more details. Dutch police arrested five Romanian men suspected of stealing iPhones worth 500,000 euros ($590,000) in a dangerous heist on a moving truck, a spokesman said. The five men, aged from 33 to 43, allegedly stole the iPhones in a late-night raid a week ago by driving a modified van so close to the delivery truck that one of the suspects was able to clamber across the van’s hood and break into the truck while it drove along a Dutch road, said police spokesman Ed Kraszewski. He said the suspect then passed boxes of iPhones back to the van through a hole cut in its roof. Kraszewski said police have long been investigating thefts from trucks but remained skeptical that such a heist could succeed. Not anymore.
“The truck was taking its freight from A-to-B and did not stop. Even so, (the phones) were gone,” he said. “So it must have happened that way. And now we finally have the evidence, with the van and the loot.” The men were arrested Saturday at a holiday park in the central Netherlands, where police also recovered iPhones and the van they believe was used in the theft. The suspects were to appear Tuesday before an investigating judge. Such raids have been reported elsewhere in Europe, almost always targeting high-end smartphones, but there have been no arrests in the other cases, Kraszewski said. Dutch police plan to send fingerprints of the suspects to European colleagues to check for matches in previous thefts. [For more: CNBC]
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