Sanitized for your protection
CONIFER — What a difference a click can make. On April 12, she set out to renew her antivirus software subscription online. When her “license code” hadn’t arrived by e-mail two hours later, she clicked on “www.pcsupportoffice.com” to find out why. PcSupportOffice said it was her antivirus software provider’s BFF and gave her a phone number to call. The man who answered the phone at PcSupportOffice had a “Middle Eastern accent” and said he could update her account personally for a small fee. She provided a Big Bank credit card number and told him to go nuts. With her small assistance, he quickly “took over the computer” and, she assumed, renewed her antivirus software subscription. A few hours later she got an e-mail from Big Bank informing her that she’d just changed her “online banking password.” Certain that she hadn’t, she immediately tried to access her Big Bank online account and got tossed out on her cyber-ear. Fearing that PcSupportOffice was really an unprincipled “fishing” operation, she quickly closed her Big Bank account and notified, in no particular order, TransUnion, Equifax, the FTC, the SSA and JCSO. Deputies forwarded the case to fraud investigators and recommended she have her computer professionally de-loused.
Parking plot
EVERGREEN — According to the couple’s report of April 6, somebody had it in for them and was taking it out on their cars. A total of three personal vehicles had been vandalized while parked overnight in a commercial parking lot on Buffalo Park Road. The exterior driver’s door handle of the couple’s SUV had been “forced” and its metal housing broken, and the rear passenger-side door handle had been similarly put out of commission. In addition, a two-inch screw, “held upright by a washer,” had been carefully positioned behind the right front tire, a little booby trap set to go off the instant they backed out of the parking spot. All of the oil had been drained from the second vehicle, and the skid pan had been “pulled back” to make sure the liberated lubricant would make it all the way to the ground and pool on the pavement. The third vehicle was discovered with four flat tires, none of them visibly damaged and all apparently deflated through their valve stems. Since no other cars in the lot had been mistreated, the complainants assumed they were being specifically targeted. And since there happened to be an individual of their unfortunate acquaintance who had “physically threatened” and “lied to cause problems” for them, they figured he’d be a good place for deputies to begin their investigation. Officers agreed that the guy made a pretty good suspect, but explained that there was only so much they could do with suspicion, no matter how strong. The case remains administratively open pending more concrete evidence.
Drilling for gas
SOUTH TURKEY CREEK — Performing a routine patrol of the Twin Forks Park-n-Ride lot in the wee hours of April 4, the sharp-eyed deputy noticed that a black Toyota RAV4 parked in a south-side slot appeared to be sitting squarely atop a big black bullseye. Investigating, the officer discovered the broad stain encircling the vehicle was gasoline, which appeared to be leaking from the RAV4’s own tank. The vehicle appeared to have lost its gas cap, which “fresh pry marks” on the hatch cover suggested was no accident. More suggestive still was the deputy’s discovery of a “hole drilled into the gas tank,” which appeared to be the source of the seepage. Officers dusted the car for fingerprints and called its owner, who said he’d parked there for “carpooling purposes” and had no idea who torpedoed his tank. Officers referred the case to investigators, and the owner referred his RAV to the repairman.