Fraud Investigation KY Kingdom Announces Update on Fraudulent Season Pass Scheme

Kentucky Kingdom has announced that 11 credit card numbers were stolen and then used to purchase season passes at the park’s early bird discount price of $59.95.

They say that people were then induced to buy these passes at even greater discounts.

So far, 640 passes worth $38,000 have been purchased in this manner, but officials with Kentucky Kingdom say that that number could grow as the investigation continues.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

The illegally purchased passes are invalid and will not be honored by the park.

Card holders whose numbers were stolen and used for these purchases will receive full refunds.

Anyone wishing to buy a discounted season pass should do so through the theme park’s website.

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Private Detective: Robbery Suspect Is Regular Customer

Lexington Police are looking for a robbery suspect.

Officers tell LEX 18 that a man walked into the Cash Express on East New Circle Road around 5:20 Tuesday evening. They say he implied he had a weapon and demanded cash. He ran off with some money.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Police say that the suspect is a regular customer so he was able to be identified and police are working on getting a warrant for his arrest.

No one was hurt in the crash.

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Private Detective: Man Shot, Robbed on Hollow Creek Road

Police say that a man was shot and robbed on Hollow Creek in Lexington Tuesday.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

They say that two men approached the victim and shot him before stealing his wallet. Officers say they left in a blue Chevy Cobalt.

The victim has severe but non-life-threatening injuries.

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Private Detective: Two Shootings Near Winburn Driver Area, One Believed to be Accidental

Police are investigating two overnight shootings that made neighbors nervous in the Winburn Drive area.

Police were called to an apartment on Winburn Drive just before 12:30 Tuesday morning.

Several shots were fired and officers found one man shot in the foot. Then about 20 minutes later, another man was found on the same road with a gunshot wound to the leg.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Police are now saying the second shooting was accidental. Initially, police say that the victim stated he had been walking outside, when he observed another subject in the area near him.  The victim advised the subject fired one shot towards him and struck him in the leg.  In a follow-up interview, the victim recanted his story stating he had been accidentally shot by an acquaintance and did not wish to pursue criminal charges.

Both men were taken to the hospital and are expected to be OK.

A silver car was seen leaving the area just after the shots were fired.

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Missing Person UPDATE Missing Laurel County Man Found Safe

UPDATE: Jerry Gullette was found safe in Berea on June 6.

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky (LEX 18) The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a missing person.

They say that 39-year-old Jerry Gullette of Stoney Run Road, Richmond, was reported missing on June 5. He was last seen off Ky 1223 in southern Laurel County at 7 a.m.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

He is described as 5’9”, 110 pounds with a beard, brown hair, and blue eyes.

Anyone with any information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office at (606) 864-6600 or (606) 878-7000.

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Private Detective: Alleged Transy Stabber Indicted on 10 Counts

The suspect in a campus machete attack at Transylvania University has been indicted on multiple charges.

The attack happened in April of this year and sent the university into a lockdown.

Police tell LEX 18 that Mitchell Adkins entered Jazzman’s Cafe on campus armed with a machete and a bag full of knives.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Witnesses said he yelled, “The day of reckoning is here!”

Police say Adkins then pulled out the machete and attacked a female student, according to police. She was sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Another female was struck and was treated at the scene.

Classmates identified Adkins as a student who posted a controversial Buzzfeed article two years ago. According to what witnesses say is his personal Facebook page, he wrote an article complaining about the treatment of conservative students on Transy’s campus. The article “Discrimination Of Conservatives In Liberal Arts” states, “I’m the one who’s lashed out at for being a “racist” or “bigot”, some even go as far as saying “bane of society” or “fascist Nazi”.” In the article, there is an update that says, “Dropping out of college was hard, but it made me realize that I’m here for myself, and I need to learn to ignore the occasional plagues of society so I can better myself and make sure to never stoop to their level.”

Witnesses tell LEX 18 that the attack was political and that he asked students their political affiliation before attacking them.

Adkins was indicted on charges of first-degree assault, fourth-degree assault, four counts of terroristic threatening, resisting arrest and three counts of menacing.

Adkins will be back in court June 16.

 
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Private Detective: Protect Yourself From Skimmers at the ATM

As Americans hit the road for summer vacation season, many will visit an ATM expecting quick and easy access to their cash. Yet that convenience makes ATMs an easy, year-round target for fraudsters looking to steal your money.

Romanian citizen Ilie Sitariu, 37, and a co-conspirator who has since fled the United States did just that in 2015. From August through October, the Romanians traveled along the I-87 corridor in the Albany, New York area, going from bank to bank and secretly installing skimming equipment on ATMs—often at night, when their nefarious activities could go unnoticed.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Skimming typically requires two devices to be installed on an ATM or other card reader: one piece skims, or captures, data from a card’s magnetic stripe, while an accompanying pinhole camera captures cardholders’ PINs as they’re entered. While Sitariu’s devices were considered relatively primitive—two simple pieces of metal with a skimmer hidden in one and a camera hidden in the other—they were sophisticated enough to do damage. (Some skimming devices incorporate Bluetooth technology, so criminals can access the information remotely without having to return to the ATMs and remove the devices.)

Exterior of ATM Skimming Camera
Interior of ATM Skimming Camera
Exterior and interior shots of a strip of metal containing a pinhole camera that was installed on an ATM in the Albany, New York area by Ilie Sitariu and a co-conspirator during their operation of a skimming conspiracy between August and October 2015. The camera recorded cardholders entering their PINs, while an accompanying device captured data from a card’s magnetic stripe.

The men left the skimming equipment in place at each machine for about a day before returning to collect it—along with the account numbers and PINs of those who had used the ATMs during that time. They then loaded that information onto another card and used it to pull cash out of the victims’ accounts. The money was then loaded onto gift cards to help cover their tracks.

Some banks noticed the skimming devices right away, minimizing their losses, while others had their customers’ accounts drained. At one bank, the fraudsters took $63,000. In total, they stole more than $127,000 from accounts at three banks.

Despite wearing hats and sunglasses while installing the skimmers, security footage from the various ATMs—taken during a relatively short time period at locations in close proximity to each other—helped officials identify the thieves. In these types of cases, data sharing between local law enforcement is critical to catching up to the criminals, as is alerting local banks before they are victimized.

“At the end of the day, greed gets to these people,” said Special Agent Paul Scuzzarella, one of the agents who worked the case from the FBI’s Albany Division. “They do too much at one time and eventually get caught.”

Sitariu, who lived in New York City, is now behind bars thanks to the collaborative work of the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and law enforcement partners in New York. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft and was recently sentenced to four years in federal prison.

For skimming victims who find their money mysteriously missing, it’s like having your wallet stolen without it ever leaving your possession. Though banks do typically refund the money, skimming not only causes inconvenience to its victims, it costs everyone. Experts estimate card skimming costs consumers more than $1 billion annually.

Additionally, many ATM skimming cases are linked to Eurasian crime groups, and the stolen funds can wind up overseas as a funding source for international criminal activity, Scuzzarella said.

While law enforcement is constantly working to catch skimmers, the public should take basic precautions to protect against skimming at ATMs, gas stations, and other vulnerable card reader locations.

“You really should be cognizant of where you’re using one,” Scuzzarella said of ATMs. “If it’s in a hidden area in a building, like in a gas station around the corner, who knows who’s back there. If it’s in the main area, it’s less likely someone has tampered with that.”

Also, if you notice anything unusual on an ATM, don’t use it, Scuzzarella warned. He also noted that covering the ATM keypad could have helped thwart the skimmers in this case.

“I find myself checking more and more,” Scuzzarella said of his own ATM use. “When I log in, I notice if something looks different, if it seems as if there’s something that’s attached. Sometimes it’s not very noticeable.”

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Private Detective: One Taken to Hospital After Stabbing on E. 5th Street

One person was taken to the hospital after a stabbing in Lexington.

Police say that it happened around 6:30 p.m. on East Fifth Street in the 400 block.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Police tell LEX 18 that two people who knew each other got into a fight and one of them pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed the other near the ribs.

The victim has non-life-threatening injuries.

Officers say that the other man was arrested and charged with assault 1st.

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Missing Person Jerry Gullette of Richmond

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a missing person.

They say that 39-year-old Jerry Gullette of Stoney Run Road, Richmond, was reported missing on June 5. He was last seen off Ky 1223 in southern Laurel County at 7 a.m.

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

He is described as 5’9”, 110 pounds with a beard, brown hair, and blue eyes.

Anyone with any information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office at (606) 864-6600 or (606) 878-7000.

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Wrongful Death Woman Accused of Killing Husband and Two Teens Appears in Court

The woman accused of killing her husband and two teenage daughters appeared in court Monday.

Courtney Taylor is accused of killing husband Larry, and their daughters, 13-year-old Jolee, and 18-year-old Jessie as the three slept.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

For the appearance, a special judge out of Pulaski County was brought in.

There is no official date for the pretrial conference.

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