Mac Phone Home Software

There have been a recent series of theft allegations against TSA employees.

One such case involves Agent Clayton Keith Dovel who was arrested last week on suspicion of stealing numerous iPads from passenger’s luggage at DFW’s airport.

It appears Dovel was stealing the iPads from his position where he screened passenger’s checked luggage by hand.

Due to the smarts of one victim, Dovel was caught because the victim had downloaded the “Find My iPhone” app onto her iPad. She was able to track her stolen iPad directly to Dovel’s house where police found at least seven iPads at Dovel’s home.

Dovel has been placed on leave until officials can further investigate the situation.

I think video surveillance cameras should be installed in the area where luggage is checked. This would catch those who are stealing, although I am sure most TSA employees are honest, hard working individuals.

Video surveillance in the screening area at John F. Kennedy International Airport recently helped catch a TSA agent who stole $5,000 from a passenger’s jacket. The surveillance video showed TSA agent Alexandra Schmid taking the money from a jacket pocket, wrapping the cash in a plastic glove and taking it to a bathroom.

The money hasn’t been recovered and police are investigating whether Schmid gave it to another person in the bathroom.

Schmid, age 31, was arrested on a charge of grand larceny and suspended pending an investigation.

It is best to never check items of value in your luggage and to check for your valuables after they have gone through the passenger screening area. If you must check your computers, there are software programs for Macs and PCs that will track your computer should it be lost or stolen.

A Wisconsin woman has been charged with theft over accusations she tried to profit from Facebook’s much-anticipated plans to go public by selling fake stock in the social media giant.

Facebook announced on Wednesday its plans for the biggest-ever Internet IPO.

In a criminal complaint on Thursday, prosecutors said Marianne Oleson told acquaintances she obtained $1 million in stock because her daughter was an acquaintance of Facebook’s founder and persuaded several people to buy fictitious Facebook stock over a four-month period.

The Oshkosh woman was charged with 31 counts of theft, forgery and making misleading statements.

One of Oleson’s victims was a contractor who did work at her house in September. Oleson paid the contractor for the work with $13,980 worth of fake Facebook stock, the complaint alleged.

The contractor, who also paid $10,000 in cash to the woman for additional stock, grew suspicious when he found she lied about her name and various oddities on documents referring to the transaction.

Oleson, 46, was also accused of defrauding a 66-year-old Oshkosh man who was suffering from a vision impairment. According to the district attorney, the man gave Oleson four checks totaling about $43,000 late last year to pay for Facebook stock.

The woman promised him she would send stock certificates in the mail. Oleson is also accused of selling fake Facebook stock to two other men for a total of $9,900.

What each of her four victims say they did receive was a document describing the private stock offering — a document Oleson had received when she contacted OM Investment Management LLC, a legitimate owner of 65,000 shares of private Facebook stock, about purchasing $1 million worth of stock from the company. She allegedly took the share subscription agreement they sent, changed a few words and offered it to her victims as proof of her good faith.

If convicted, she will not only miss the legitimate Facebook IPO, but will also face 218 years, 30 days in prison and $418,000 in fines. Her bond is set at $50,000, and she is due back in court next week.

Read story@ msnbc

Other Sources: newsfeed.time.com

Staph Infection Bug

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, someone surprises you. This incident sounds like an episode that could be written for one of my favorite dark comedy TV programs.

“Give me the money or I’ll touch you” was essentially the threat.

Police say Fred Parker, 41, tried to rob a western Pennsylvania gambling parlor by threatening to spread a staph infection. Police said he walked into Lucky’s Internet Cafe in Sharon, PA on Monday night and began touching the walls and gambling machines, claiming he has MRSA – a serious staph infection that resists antibiotics.

Parker then made his way to the cashier and told him he had a deadly and highly contagious disease and offered to walk away if the cashier gave him money. Sharon police Chief Mike Menster says Parker threatened to infect the cashier if he didn’t give Parker money. The chief tells The Herald newspaper of Sharon, “It’s our first case of robbery by threat of an infectious disease.”

Parker also gave the cashier a note identifying himself as an “officer with the U.S. gambling commission,” Menster said.

The cashier apparently didn’t find Parker’s threat of infection to be scary enough and refused to give the would-be robber the money. Parker turned around and left. I wonder what would have happened if Parker had made a move to touch the cashier. You can just see it now – the cashier running around the cafe being chased by a man threatening to touch him.  

A description was given to the police and Parker was arrested a short time later. Ironically, he was captured in a Rite Aid store. Maybe he was getting medicine for those nasty symptoms.

He remains in jail after being unable to post bond.

The police weren’t messing around. They not only charged Parker with robbery, but they also charged him with making terrorist threats.

Sources: Security Today, Huffington Post, Effingham Daily News

Talk about getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar.

A former finance director at the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York admitted on Tuesday to stealing more than $300,000 from the organization. She is Yaasmin Hooey, 35, of Manhattan.

That’s enough for more than 80,000 boxes of Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties). But Hooey wasn’t buying cookies. Instead, she was spending the money on cruises, cosmetic laser procedures and a $13,000 diamond ring. She also spent $18,000 in bars and restaurants, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Life is not going to be so luxurious behind prison bars.

She plead guilty to second-degree grand larceny. Hooey admitted stealing $311,568 between September 2008 and December 2010. “She began stealing from the non-profit as soon as she began working for them,”  said assistant district attorney Lauren Littman.

Hooey admitted forging the signature of the organization’s then-chief executive and writing 65 checks to herself from a payroll account. Nine wire transfers also moved money from two of the nonprofit’s bank accounts to Hooey’s own account.

In addition to spending the stolen money on luxury items, she used some of the money for “personal expenses” including groceries, a gym membership, clothing, and commuter train tickets.

She will be sentenced in the New York Supreme Court on March 6.

Read story@ msnbc