Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Gold fever sweeps the criminal underworld

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ON GUARD: Private security guard Gus Rodriguez stands outside El Palacio de Oro jewellery store in downtown Los Angeles.

Gus Rodriguez looks more like a soldier than a jewellery store security guard, with a Beretta handgun strapped to his bulletproof vest, shades wrapped around his shaved head and pepper spray bulging from a breast pocket.

"I am not afraid," the former Ecuadorean military man says, patting his pistol. "They call me Rambo."

After a summer of brazen attacks on gold stores, parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a militarised zone than a commercial corridor.

The gold fever that has driven prices to an all-time high is also fuelling a crime spree in the precious metal. Police throughout the US are seeing an uptick in robberies and burglaries related to gold prices, which peaked at US$1891 (NZ$2293) an ounce last month, up more than US$600 (NZ$727) from a year earlier.

The FBI doesn't keep numbers for gold thefts but local police departments have plenty of anecdotal evidence of a spike. Dozens of women have had their necklaces snatched in daylight attacks, burglars are targeting gold in homes and robbers in New Jersey even cleared out a mining museum's irreplaceable collection of nuggets.

"It's really bad," said the owner of Abel's Jewellery, one of scores of gold stores lining Broadway, a grubby street through the heart of downtown Los Angeles. "You work all your life trying to have something for the family and they want to take it all in one day."

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Jewellery store owner Abel stands inside his store in downtown Los Angeles.

The beauty of gold, from a criminal stand point, is that it's easy to fence. Rings and necklaces can be melted down - destroying the evidence - and sold. Precious items such as diamonds are harder to alter and easier to trace.

Abel, the jewellery store owner, asked his last name not be used for fear of bringing unwanted attention from criminals. His store has already been robbed twice this year, most recently about two months ago when three men smashed his glass displays with hammers and made off with about US$10,000 of gold. They escaped in a getaway car.

There were at least six Los Angeles gold store robberies in June and July. On August 22, four men with hammers were arrested outside a jewellery store, Los Angeles police Lieutenant Paul Vernon said.

These thefts were suspected to have been carried out by gang members who covered their faces with hoods and hats, then rushed into stores and swiped what they could in a matter of seconds. One surveillance video shows a shopkeeper being blasted by pepper spray while robbers destroy display cabinets and grab what they can.

"Certainly the surging gold prices motivated these people to want to do these smash-and-grabs," Vernon said. "They are not trading what they steal at the market value of gold. Even if they get it half that, they are making a pretty penny."

In Oakland, police say dozens of women have had gold necklaces yanked from their necks on the street. More than 100 similar thefts have been reported in Los Angeles, a rash of robberies is taking place in St Paul, Minn., and police in Phoenix say muggers chatted up high school girls then ripped their gold necklaces from them.

"We've never seen this," said Oakland police Sergeant Holly Joshi. Most of the victims were robbed while distractedly looking at their phones.

In July, thieves smashed open a glass display in the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in New Jersey and made off with about US$400,000 in gold samples collected from mines across the globe.

Rodriguez, the LA security guard, hasn't had to use his weapon in the four months he's stood guard. The stocky 44-year-old earned his nickname from gang members who he says regularly look him over as they slowly drive past the shops he patrols.

Most of the jewellery stores on Broadway are low-end enterprises with owners keen to make a quick buck buying jewellery, melting it and reselling it. The street alternates from squalid to splendid, dotted with crumbling former theatres and refurbished art deco high rises.

Opposing forces of gentrification and homelessness play out on the street, where hustlers stand outside cheap electronics stores blasting Mexican music and drivers swoop into secured garages beneath newly renovated apartment buildings.

A couple hundred metres down the street from Rodriguez, another gold store guard pops open the leather clasp securing his .357 magnum pistol when he sees two young men walking toward him.

Oscar Quintero says he's never had to fully unholster his gun but a few weeks ago thwarted a robbery by blasting pepper spray at a man who tried to run away with a gold chain around his neck.

Lovers in Separate Planes, Meet and Collide Midair

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A pilot was communicating by radio with her boyfriend before their planes collided in the air over Alaska last week, killing him, a federal investigator said.

The two pilots took off from different western Alaska villages but met up in the air on the way to Bethel, Alaska, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News.

Kristen Sprague, 26, was flying a Cessna 207 operated by rural freight carrier Ryan Air, according to Alaska State Troopers. She made an emergency landing with one airplane wing seriously damaged and wasn't hurt.

The other plane, a Cessna 208 Caravan, crashed and burst into flames near the village of Nightmute, Alaska, about 580 kilometres west of Anchorage, Alaska, killing Scott Veal, 24, of Kenai, Alaska. Each was the only person onboard.

It was the state's third midair crash since July. A federal accident investigator has said two earlier midair collisions were marked by the same factor: aircraft that were difficult to spot amid mountainous terrain.

In last weekend's (NZ time) collision, the two pilots were travelling together to Bethel and were communicating on a prearranged radio frequency while in the air, Johnson said. It's too early in the investigation to say whether pilot error was a factor in the crash, he added.

Sprague had taken off from the Bering Sea village of Tununak, Alaska. She was headed to Bethel with about 25 kilograms of aluminum cans for a recycling program, said Wilfred Ryan, president of Ryan Air.

Veal left from nearby Toksook Bay, Alaska, in an airplane operated by Grant Aviation, an air taxi and cargo carrier. Efforts by the Anchorage Daily News to speak with a Grant representative were unsuccessful.

Sprague, of Idaho, told the investigator she was dating Veal, who reportedly was going through a divorce, Johnson said.

"They meet up in the air," Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News. "There's some manoeuvring that's done en route at about 1200 feet (above sea level). The 207 pilot loses track of where the 208 is."

Sprague remembered saying over the radio something to the effect that she couldn't see him. "The next thing she knows is his airplane strikes her right wing, and nearly severs the right wing," Johnson said.

The bigger plane passed underneath the Cessna 207 and came out on the left side of it, Johnson said. Sprague saw it spiral down, hit the tundra, and burst into flames, Johnson said. She managed to land her plane on soft rolling tundra, about 1.6km away.

Wreckage from the Cessna 208 was strewn over 800 metres or more.

Johnson said investigators still need to review data collected on the Ryan Air plane and that the other plane didn't collect similar data.

Veal was from Southern California and always dreamed of becoming an Alaska bush pilot, his grandfather, Robert Veal, told the Anchorage newspaper. "It's in the family. His father and myself are both flight instructors," the grandfather said by phone from Winchester, California.

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A rare fire tornado has been seen in the Brazilian state of Sao Paolo. A whirlwind of flame, spiraling high into the air, danced across burning fields, bringing traffic to a halt on a nearby highway. This unusual phenomenon has been caused by a combination of wildfires and strong dry winds following weeks of drought in the country. Authorities in Brazil are struggling to contain the fires and have banned farmers from burning waste from the sugar cane harvest.

JOKE: LITTLE BOBBY'S SPELLING PROBLEM


Dad," said Little Bobby, "we had a spelling contest in school today and I missed on the very first word."

"That's too bad, Son" consoled the Father. "What was the word?"

"Posse."

"Well, no wonder you couldn't spell it, shithead. You can't even pronounce it correctly."
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GOT CAPTION? 9/07

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GOT CAPTION? 9/07 v.2.0

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Library Books Late? Go to Jail

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The Iowa man, 28, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 days in jail for failing to return books and other items he checked out earlier this year from the local library.

When Anspach, pictured in the mug shot above, did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him via telephone and certified mail, Newton Public Library officials turned the matter over to police and the city attorney, according to District Court records.

Anspach pleaded guilty August 31 to a misdemeanor theft count in connection with his failure to return 27 separate items (books and other media) that the library valued at $770.67. Along with being ordered to pay restitution to the library, Anspach was fined $625.

Anspach, a Pizza Hut employee, is currently serving his sentence at the Jasper County jail.

Baby Sitter Dies, Falls on Infant Smothering it to Death

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A morbidly obese Long Island baby sitter accidentally smothered to death a month-old infant when she collapsed and died on the couch where the child was lying, authorities said yesterday.

Teresa Coffey, who was 5-foot-6 and over 200 pounds, was found on top of little Michael Baldwin III on Thursday at around 9:30 p.m. by the boy's horrified father, and both were pronounced dead at a hospital near the Greenlawn home.

"The woman was described as extremely heavy," said Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky. "She was extremely large-breasted . . . Because of the amount of flesh, it could have caused the baby to suffocate."

The boy's dad, Michael Baldwin -- a local TV personality -- ditched a broadcast when he couldn't reach the sitter by phone and raced home.
He found Coffey splayed out on the couch and looked all over for his son.
"I searched every room," Baldwin tearfully recounted yesterday. "I was saying his name, 'Michael! Michael!' "
When his search failed, Baldwin said he returned to the living room, where Coffey, 39, was "slumped on the couch, face down, her knees on the floor . . . I just had this funny feeling she was on top of him.

"I lifted her and he was underneath. He was lying on his back with his hands folded on his stomach.
"He was blue . . . I just grabbed him and called his name -- I knew he was dead."
Both were pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital.
Baldwin was taping his own show, "Diverse Long Island," when the freakish events unfolded.
Suffolk Police Detective Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said investigators believe the deaths were a "tragic accident" -- but were conducting autopsies and toxicology tests.
A bottle of prescription pills was found with Coffey, who was known to have health problems, Baldwin said.

Baldwin said he'd gotten a message three hours earlier from Coffey telling him to call her. She never picked up his return calls, and Baldwin, an anchorman for News 12 on Long Island, finally raced home.
"[Coffey] had been asking forever if she could watch my baby, because she couldn't have children," Baldwin said.
"She wanted to have kids so bad. I know she had health issues, but I thought she was OK."
Baldwin said his wife, Colby, is devastated by the death of their only child.
Coffey, who lived in Port Jefferson Station, was also married.



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