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Tuesday, 28 November 2006 14:43 |
Two children hospitalized
after hit-and-run incident
A 19-year-old driver has been charged with hit-and-run following an incident that left two children hospitalized last Saturday.
After the collision, which injured two Candler girls, ages 8 and 10, witnesses followed the driver, Tiffany Prieur, and led police to her home.
Prieur, whose license was revoked at the time, drove a 1985 Chevrolet that rear-ended the 2006 Acura carrying the girls, a police spokesman said. The two vehicles were headed west on Patton Avenue, near North Bear Creek Road. After being struck, the Acura hit a third car.
When
the Chevrolet backed up and drove off without stopping, drivers in the
next lane wrote down its license plate number and then followed Prieur
to her home on North Morgan Branch Road in Candler, police said. They
later returned to help police find her.
Prieur was released from the Buncombe County jail after posting bond.
Strangulation, vandalism
investigated at UNCA
UNC Asheville
campus police are currently investigating a number of crimes, including
an assault on a female by strangulation that took place about 3 a.m.
Nov. 19 in the schoolës Parking Lot F.
In addition, three incidents of vandalism are being investigated.
The first was
reported about 2:48 a.m. Thursday, in Parking Lot F. Furthermore, two
vandalisms were reported between 7:30 and 8 a.m. last Friday, first at
the construction site on Campus Drive and later in Parking Lot F.
Suspect sought by police
in financial identity theft
Law enforcement officials in Western North Carolina are seeking a Waynesville man on a charge of financial identity theft.
Timothy Jay
Lighthill, 22, whose last known address was on Winchester Drive, is
white, with blue eyes, stands 5-foot-5, weighs 135 pounds, with scars
on both knees and a tattoo on his right leg of "T.J."
On separate
charges, officials also are seeking James Howard Singleton, 48, whose
last known address was on Turkey Creek Court in Leicester. Singleton is
wanted on two felony counts for violating probation.
He is white,
with brown eyes and brown hair, stands 6-foot-3, weighs 225 pounds,
with a tattoo on his left shoulder of a skull and Indian head with
feathers.
Candler man, 23, arrested,
charged with car break-ins
CANDLER ÇƒÓ A Candler man was charged on Nov. 20 with 10 counts of breaking and entering vehicles.
Buncombe County
sheriffës deputies arrested Michael Anthony Chope, 23, on charges that
he was responsible for a series of break-ins Oct. 5-6.
According to warrants, the Paradise Ridge Road resident stole vehicles from residents of Asheville, Candler and Leicester.
Teenager faces charges
of robbery with BB gun
A 19-year-old man was charged with three counts of armed robbery Nov. 21 after he allegedly used a BB gun to rob three people.
Christopher Jordan Mattox, who has addresses in both Marion and Black Mountain, is accused of stealing $33.
He was subsequently taken to the Buncombe County jail, where he is being held in lieu of a $30,000 bond.
Sexual predation charges
filed against Asheville man
The Buncombe
County Sherriffës Department continued its efforts to draw out online
sexual predators by arresting a man who allegedly solicited a child
under age 16 on the Internet, officials said last week.
David
Christopher Woodcock, 27, was arrested Nov. 18 and charged with
soliciting a child by computer. He was being held in lieu of a $10,000
bond.
Stateës top court declines
to hear appeal on meetings
The N.C. Supreme
Court declined last week to hear an appeal brought by the Asheville
Citizen-Times that contested a lower courtës ruling that the City of
Asheville and Buncombe County had not broken any laws by holding water
negotiations in closed sessions.
That court had
ruled 3-0 that the governments were not in violation of state open-
meetings rules when they held negotiations about water on April 26,
2005, from which the public was barred.
During those
negotiations, Asheville City Council and the county Board of
Commissioners each sent a representative, but the meeting was not an
official meeting of either body.
Although those
representatives did meet with their respective government clients in
private during breaks, this was not a violation of the open-meeting
laws because the boards have a right to meet with legal representatives
in private, officials noted.
The Supreme Court did not give a reason for its denial of the appeal.
28 area residents graduated
at Citizens Police Academy
The most recent
class of the Asheville Police Departmentës Citizens Police Academy was
recognized for completion of the 10-week course on Nov. 16 at the
Municipal Building.
The 28 members
of this most recent class come from all walks of life in Asheville.
They include published authors, business men and women and retired
persons. All of them have been motivated to invest their time in a
learning opportunity that offers a unique insight into police training
and operations in Asheville.
The 10-week
class involved 35 hours of participation. During the weekly evening
meetings, class members received information and instruction on many
aspects of police work. Subjects such as patrol techniques, search and
seizure, use of force issues, forensics and criminal investigations
were included in the curriculum. Participants were also given the
option to attend firearms orientation held at the police range one
Saturday morning.
The class
provides a way for citizens to become more informed about the issues
facing a modern law-enforcement agency. All citizens of Asheville are
eligible to apply for the next class that will begin March 15, 2007.
Anyone
interested in participating in the Citizens Police Academy may call the
APD at 259-5834 and leave a message for Officer Allen Dunlap.
Warning on common scams
issued to Asheville citizens
The Asheville
Police Department recently issued warnings regarding two common mail
and e-mail scams that have been circulating recently.
Many residents
of Asheville received letters in the mail about "European lottery
programs." Frequently these letters use the correct name and address
for the resident.
These scams inform the "winner" that they have won a specific amount of money, according to police spokesman John Dankel.
What looks like a legitimate check for a portion of the winnings is included with the notification letter.
Instructions
direct the "winner" to contact a lottery agent for instructions on how
to remit their "tax and clearance fees" so they can receive their
lottery winnings, he said.
Typically the
recipients are directed by the "agent" to wire money ÇƒÓ after they have
deposited the fake check into their personal account ÇƒÓ to someone
outside the country.
They are told they will then receive their portion of the prize money, less a percentage for the agent or sponsor commission.
A day or so
after it is deposited into the personës account the bank will discover
the check is fake and the account will be debited for that amount.
Unfortunately, the victim has frequently already wired the money to the
scam artist and there is no practical way to get it back, Dankel noted.
"Winners" also
are warned in the letter to keep their winnings "absolutely
confidential" to avoid unauthorized persons or organizations from
contacting them about their new-found wealth.
None of the
information in the letter is true, according to police. Persons
receiving these letters are urged to discard them immediately.
Regarding
another common fraudulent scheme, the APD noted on July 15 that the FBI
is receiving renewed complaints about an e-mail scam that first
surfaced sometime in 2004.
People are receiving official-looking e-mails, purportedly from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The e-mail
claims a personës bank accounts are no longer eligible for FDIC
insurance because suspected violations of the USA PATRIOT Act, Dankel
said.
The message also
says this issue can be resolved by clicking on a link provided in the
e-mail and providing a great deal of personal information. Supposedly,
after the information is verified, the accounts will once again be
eligible for FDIC insurance. There is also an implication that failure
to provide the "required" information will result in further
investigation and possibly a visit from federal agents.
These e-mails,
and all like them, are scams, Dankel said. Persons who respond and
provide the requested information risk having their identity stolen and
misused and they place funds in their banks accounts at risk for theft.
Government agencies and legitimate banks do not request this sort of information by e-mail, Dankel stressed.
All such
requests should be regarded as scams and the e-mails should be
immediately deleted without opening any attachments. Those with any
doubts or questions may contact the bank or government agency directly
by telephone, Dankel said.
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