December 2007

Police: Boy who called prostitute called them when payment was due:
So this 17-year-old kid from the Austin, TX area decides to order a hooker from craigslist while his parents were out of town.

The next day the woman and two ‘associates’ showed up at the house demanding money. It’s unclear if the kid stiffed her or not the night before. The kid then calls the cops. In turn the cops use the information to set up a craigslist sting…

The boy’s parents were out of town when he arranged to meet Lindsey Force, 25, at his house, Williamson County sheriff’s Detective John Foster said.

The next day, on Dec. 23, Force, Bethie Coker and Allan Dehoff went to the boy’s house to sort out a disagreement over what they said he owed Force, Foster said.

Coker and Dehoff were arrested that day on felony drug possession charges, according to Williamson County jail records.

After the incident, Foster said, undercover officers used Craigslist to make arrangements to meet Force. Shortly after she showed up at the apartment they were using, Force was arrested and charged with prostitution, Foster said.

Jina Bender, who drove Force to the apartment, was arrested on a felony drug charge, Foster said.

In a separate meeting that was part of the sting operation, another woman who agreed to a meeting through Craigslist, Darlene Mullins, was arrested on a prostitution charge, Foster said. Greg Tedford, who was with Mullins, was arrested on an outstanding felony drug warrant, Foster said.

Do yourself a favor and don’t look at the mugshots.

And for any of you 17-year-old kids who may have the same idea while your parents are out of town don’t. You will be found out by your parents anjd you could be robbed or worse.

Scammed out of three grand:
Anne Knorr of Philadelphia fell for the craigslist check scam when her fiancee was trying to sell some speakers on craigslist. Someone claiming to be a doctor from California sent them a check from a Tulsa, OK company for more than 3 grand the amount they were asking. Then the good doctor requested that she wire the excess back to him. She deposits the check, the check clears, she wires the money, then the check comes back as fake and she’s out 3 grand and she’s blaming the bank.

“There is no way I can pay that back,” she said.

“Unfortunately bank is taking advantage of this consumer. The bank made its statement clear, saying money was available. There was no way for the consumer to know anything other than the bank said funds were there,” said consumer advocate Lance Haver.

The bank says otherwise…

Wachovia disagrees, saying under federal law a scammed depositor can be held responsible “even if the check hold on the item has expired and your bank has made the funds available to you.”

In true Philly fashion the commenters on the original article are less than sympathetic with Ms. Knorr.

I’m not here to cast judgment but how many more red flags do you need? An out of state doctor writing a check from a company from yet another state for 3 grand over the requested amount.

It kind of reminds me of the joke about the guy who died in a flood while waiting for God’s intervention We he got to heaven he asked God why didn’t he save him and God says, “I sent you a truck, a boat, and a helicopter”. It’s a real funny joke. Look it up.

Cops bust Realtor over raunchy dirty trick:
Mr. Bug-eyed Potato Head over there is 40-year-old Dean Isenberg. He’s a Miami area real estate agent. He was arrested last week for posting phony hooker ads on craigslist that listed the phone number of his top rival, Debbie Blasberg. I originally posted about the Miami real estate wars here at MyCrimeSpace back in July.

At the time police did not have enough evidence to charge Isenberg but apparently that has changed.

Miami-Dade Detective John Jones, of the Intracoastal station, also began investigating.

Nine of the 26 ads came back to an IP address that belonged to Isenberg. Investigators believe the rest of the ads had been done by laptop, accessing other people’s wireless Internet service.

In June, Jones raided Isenberg’s North Miami-Dade house, carting away computers.

”There is always a little bit of a trail. A little crumb and we were able to follow it back enough to get search warrants,” Jones said.

Investigators found ‘various portions’ of the ads on his hard drive, including the photos of scantily clad women, Jones said.

Isenberg is being charged with four counts of using personal information to harass and one count of using a computer in committing a crime. No word yet on what the potential sentencing could be.

37 Arrested In Craigslist Prostitution Ring:
Police in the San Gabriel Valley, which I just recently found out was a fancy term for East L.A., conducted a craigslist prostitution sting which netted them 37 arrest.

The Pasadena Star-News reported that two suspected prostitutes leapt from second-floor windows to escape as “Operation Red Light” officers raided several locations where computer-assisted brothels were operating in Los Angeles.

I don’t know why but that made me chuckle for some reason.

If you want to read more about crime in the S to the G to the V check out L.A. Crime Scene Blog.

10 charged in Internet prostitution:
Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois arrested 10 members of a craigslist prostitution ring that ran in Illinois and Indiana.

Rodney “Mook” Williams, Eddie Wells and Terrance “Big T” Greenlee Jr., all of Chicago, and Gregory Key of Evergreen Park are accused of operating the prostitution ring. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in prison.

Six women were charged with prostitution. The juveniles were questioned by police but released without being charged, officials said.

Yes you read that right, juveniles.

The ring operated in Illinois and Indiana and involved at least 11 women, some of whom were high school freshmen and sophomores, he said.

Two of the juveniles—one from Iowa—were runaways, officials said, adding the alleged leaders recruited some women from a strip club and found others at a currency exchange.

There’s that ‘victimless’ crime again.

Robbery victims attracted through craigslist ad:
22-year-old Kennard Isaiah Love of San Jose, CA was arrested in Milpitas, CA on robbery charges. Love would place a craigslist ad for a car for sale then rob his victims when they would show up. In one instance Love pistol whipped his victim.

Arrested with Love was Keith Tyler Rucker, 23, of Manteca, CA who was wanted on similar robbery charges in San Jose and Santa Clara, Ca.

Man Faces Federal Charges in a Sex Ring in Minnesota:
41-year-old Liqing Liu, a Chinese national living in Minnesota, is facing federal charges of transporting women across state lines to engage in prostitution. He ran several massage parlors, some of which that advertised on craigslist, with women that were basically slaves to him…

Sgt. Grant Snyder of the Minneapolis Police Department, a lead investigator, said the women, all Chinese or Korean, were prohibited from leaving the place of business, kept under video surveillance, and had their passports and other forms of identification confiscated.

The women’s poverty, language barriers and immigration status were used against them, Sergeant Snyder said, and the authorities said they were treating the women as crime victims and not criminals.

The authorities described the patrons as mostly white upper-middle class men between 35 and 55, including doctors and business owners. They usually paid $80 a session, which the prostitutes were obligated to hand over to Mr. Liu, the police said.

The women could negotiate with customers for more money, the police said, but their earnings were marginal at best; one illegal South Korean immigrant mentioned in the criminal complaint had to pay Mr. Liu $40 a day for room and board. He booked her airfare, later deducting it from her prostitution wages, the police said.

Even if prostitution was legal there would still be scumbags like Liu forcing women like these into sex slavery.

Ok, remember when I told you about the Illinois craigslist robbery scam? Well, one of the suspects, Dwayne W. Morrow, escaped police custody last Saturday. Not to worry however as he was recaptured yesterday in his hometown of Maywood, Ill.

Sex trade ‘evolves’ with Web, police say:
Some people just can’t catch a break.

Harrisburg, PA police arrested one 21-year-old Payonna Theresa St. Rose Williams (that’s a mouthful) in a craigslist prostitution sting. While police were in the process of arresting Williams her cell phone rang. It was potential customer 57-year-old Russell Leroy Wantz Jr. Police decided to stick around after Wantz arranged for sex for money.

What are the odds of that? Mr. Wantz may just be the unluckiest man in PA.

FW police crack down on prostitutes posing as escorts:
That lovely looker at right is one Mario Romero. That’s not a typo. That is in fact Mario Romero. He was picked up in a Fort Worth craigslist prostitution sting posing as a woman pimping herself out to men. Romero was one of a dozen arrested in the sting.

Now if a guy wants to dress as a woman I have no problem with that. But when they’re trying to trick men into having sex with them they’re just asking for trouble. Could someone explain to me what the fascination is for some of these men?

Gang members wanted for Craigslist ad assault arrested:
Last week I posted about gang members Tuan Q. Vuu and Keith E. Brakes who were wanted for the shooting, stabbing, and robbery of an Olympia, Wash. craigslist seller. Last I heard they were still on the run. That much has changed. Vuu and Brakes were picked up police sometime last week.

The attack might have been a “setup” — a retaliation by members of the True Brothers, or “Tin Bahn,” gang in Olympia who thought the victim had robbed their friends in Tacoma, police said.

Police also believe 16-year-old Jimmy Trac who was already in police custody was the getaway driver.

Three arrested in Craigslist robberies:
Not too long ago I posted about three men that were arrested for craigslist related robberies. At the time I did not have their names. Now thanks to Chicago’s ABC affiliate we now know that they are Dewayne Morrow, 21, of Maywood, Ill., Stephen Johnson, 18, also of Maywood, and Donquez Nicholson, 17, Chicago.

They would contact sellers that sold high end goods, meet them, then rob them. Police think that the trio had at least 20 victims.

The arrests of two other suspects may be forthcoming.

Craig’s List scam almost hits family at Christmas:
Dwight Lowdermilk and his son of Alabama were offering car parts for sale on craigslist. They got the usual check from Canada that was more than twice the amount they were asking. Luckily Dwight’s son did some research on the internet and was able to discern that this was a scam. As we’ve seen other people are not so lucky so I’ll remind you again.

Cash only, and only do business locally.

3 men arrested in Web-linked heists:
This is actually an article about three suspects who were arrested for robbing various people in Illinois by placing ads on craigslist seeking items like cell phones and computers. Then when the sellers would meet their would-be buyers they would get robbed.

But we get a little mention at the end of the article.

There is a Web site devoted specifically to crimes committed through Craigslist. The Web site, Craigscrimelist.org, claims no affiliation with Craigslist.org.

Thanks to the Chicago Tribune for the love.

Statesboro Couple Cracks the Craigslist Scam:
Here’s a couple that didn’t fall for a craigslist scam.

Brent Waugh and Karen McNeany moved to Statesboro, Georgia in August and needed a roommate to fill an extra room they had so they advertised for a roommate on craigslist.

They recieved a response from someone calling themself Kate Edmonton from London, England.

After a month of emailing back and forth, Kate Edmonton said she wanted the room and was sending money.

“There were three Wal-Mart money orders in the mail, each for $980 which was weird because we were only asking for $350 a month,” Karen said.

It wasn’t the only weird thing. The woman claimed to be from London and an uncle was sending money from Canada, but the envelope was from Waco, Texas and the money orders were from Clarksburg, Maryland and the name on the money order wasn’t “Kate Edmonton,” but someone named “Jane Rawlings.”

So the couple did not try to cash the money orders and basically ignored Ms. Edmonton.

When Karen and Brent stopped responding and figured out the scam, the scammer tried saying things like her mother was sick, she needed the money. Don’t fall for it. Always be suspicious.

Good for them for being smart enough not to fall for it.