On Q Professional Investigations

CHICAGO (WLS) – Ten months after an ABC7 I-Team investigation of nursing home abuse, legislation was introduced in Springfield Friday that would help family members who want to keep closer watch on their loves ones.

Under the proposal, surveillance cameras could be put in the rooms of nursing home patients.

In an age when cameras are everywhere, they are not in Illinois nursing homes, but that would change under legislation proposed Friday by North Side Chicago State Representative Greg Harris.

He and family members of nursing home residents say that surveillance cameras would help keep elderly patients safe and might improve the state’s nursing home care ranking, which is near the bottom nationally.

“Contusions on the head. Broken hip, hospitalizations. Every single symptom of nursing home abuse, she endured,” said Mary Howard.

Howard’s grandmother entered a west suburban nursing home with dementia. Annie Herron’s loved ones moved her out that facility after continuously finding her injured.

“To see her in the position she was in was really hard,” said granddaughter Audrey Saunders.

Herron’s family thinks cameras in their grandmother’s room would have answered questions about her care.

“Cameras don’t lie,” Howard said.

The latest Department of Public Health report cites 106 Illinois nursing home residents were victims of theft, abuse and neglect.

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Two men from Chicago suburbs and a Florida man were arrested over the past week for trying to bring firearms onto airplanes at Midway and O’Hare airports, police said.

In the latest case, Leo M. Kurylo, 44, was charged with boarding aircraft with a weapon after he was arrested around 9:45 a.m. Saturday at Midway Airport, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department’s Office of News Affairs.

Kurylo, of 700 block of East North Broadway Street in Lombard, was going through screening at a security checkpoint at Midway when Transportation Security Administration officials discovered an unloaded .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol inside his carry-on bag, according to the statement.

Police were called to the airport, and Kurylo was taken into custody.

On Sunday, Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil set bail at $10,000 during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The gun was spotted in a zippered pocket of Kurylo’s computer bag as he was on his way to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas, according to a prosecutor.

When asked about it, Kurylo confirmed the gun belonged to him and said that when could not find his weapon, he reported it missing to Lombard police Feb. 7.

The prosecutor said Kurylo has a valid firearm owner’s identificaition card.

Kurylo’s attorney said he is an environmental engineer who graduated from Somonauk High School and has degrees from Northern Illinois University. He is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 20.

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When director of security for Danville Public Schools Dave Cochran began his demonstration of Bonner Middle School’s new security system, school security officer Melissa Miller was in the midst of catching a couple of troublemakers in gym class.

She was looking for a few students who were apparently pulling up the tape on the basketball court while waiting for class to start.

With a click of the mouse, she opened up the gymnasium camera to fill the 42-inch monitor, one of six screens in the station.

Sure enough, a couple of students were messing with the floor. Brower zoomed in with the mouse, and the students’ faces were clearly visible on the HD screen.

Bonner’s security system was upgraded last August, after a year of increased discipline issues and police activity at the middle school.

A similar system is set to be installed soon at George Washington High School, after the school snagged nearly $100,000 in grant funds from the state of Virginia.

“It’s time to update them now,” Cochran said.

At the high school, Cochran and security officer Betty Brower demonstrated the old system, installed in 2006.

Four small 11-inch monitors scrolled through the school’s camera feeds.

The only way to record vid-eo was from VHS tape, so only a few days can be stored on the cameras at a time.

“There’s just a better product out there now than there was in 2006,” Cochran said. “These have done amazing for all these years.”

At Bonner, the difference in image quality is immediately clear. Miller said she could almost instantly indentify a student almost anywhere on campus.

Bringing up one of the school’s two outside pan-and-zoom cameras, she zoomed in across the street to the café and fire station on Piney Forest Road, and pointed out the legible signs around the properties.

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MUSKOGEE OK Jan 8 2015 — Authorities are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who committed a jewelry theft Dec. 26 inside Arrowhead Mall.

Muskogee Police Sgt. Michael Mahan said a white man entered Zales about 1 p.m. and asked to look at wedding rings. The man was shown a ring valued at more than $4,000, which he took and then began to walk toward the register, Mahan said.
Store personnel asked for the ring for payment purposes, at which point the man fled the store and got into a white automobile driven by a second unknown person, Mahan said.

Anyone with information regarding the crime may contact the Muskogee Police Department at 918-683-8000 or Muskogee Crime Stoppers at 918-682-COPS.

Crime Stoppers offers rewards up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

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Woodinville police officers and booked into the King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle on 30 counts of suspected theft from his employer, SportsArt of Woodinville.

According to King County Superior Court documents, King confessed to the embezzlement and to stealing up to $30,000 from a local high school booster club that is not identified.

The 49-year-old King is a self-described active Mormon church member and local sports booster. He posted a photo of himself with Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll on his Facebook page.

King County Sheriff’s Sgt. D.B. Gates told KIRO 7 that King, while working in the accounts receivable department at SportsArt, created a bogus company and bank account with a name similar enough to SportsArt that “he was able to take some of the checks that were coming in to the business and deposit them into the fake account.”

In a jail courtroom Wednesday, SportsArt employee Anne Devney told Judge Mark Chow that King replaced her when she left the company, but that she was recently re-hired to uncover King’s alleged theft.

Devney asked Chow to set a high bail, arguing the amount King allegedly stole is enough to skip town with and “he’s licensed to carry a firearm, and we worry about that because he could take that against people at SportsArt.”

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RIVERDALE NJ Dec 26 2014– A Target cashier allegedly canceled out thousands of dollars worth of transactions and let shoppers leave the store without paying for items, police said.

Authorities did not say whether Zariah Lozada was granting the deep discounts to people she knew or if she was doing as a nice gesture for for strangers doing their holiday shopping at the Target in Riverdale, but police said the 18-year-old is now facing charges for reportedly voiding out $3,830.96 worth of transactions over the past week.

On Wednesday evening, Riverdale Police Officer Joe McDermott was dispatched to the Target on Route 23 after the store’s security personnel contacted authorities regarding an employee theft, Lt. James Macintosh said.

McDermott met with security officers who reported that one of the store’s cashiers, Lozada, “had been involved in a scheme where she would allow people to pretend to use a credit card, then void out the transaction and let the people leave with the merchandise,” Macintosh said.

Authorities did not say whether she was canceling out entire transactions or just knocking a few items off a total bill.

Subsequently, Lozada, who resides in the Haskell section of Wanaque, was arrested and transported to Riverdale Police Department, where she was charged with theft and conspiracy to commit theft, he said.

She was also charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance after officers discovered she had four Oxycodone pills, Macintosh said.

Lozada was released with a Dec. 24 court date at the Morris County Central Judicial Processing, he said.

When asked whether Lozada was still employed at the Riverdale Target, an on-duty supervisor – who declined to identify herself – told NJ Advance Media she could not comment on matters involving the store’s personnel.

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ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has confirmed federal charges for a Delta employee.

He’s accused of helping to put 18 firearms on a plane at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Channel 2 Action News is the only station to get a hold of the criminal complaint before federal court closed.

In a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit obtained only by Channel 2 Action News, we learned that agents believe a current employee working in Atlanta helped another man smuggle the guns onto a flight.

The affidavit names Eugene Harvey, a bag handler, as the suspected smuggler who was a Delta employee.

The flight originated from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and went into New York’s JFK airport on Dec. 10, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, the former Delta employee was using a “buddy pass” and he worked in collaboration with a current delta employee

According the complaint, Harvey, the employee, bypassed TSA security and brought the smuggler the guns.

The FBI believes a total of 18 guns bypassed security and ended up on a carryon baggage aboard a Delta Airlines flight to New York.

The complaint alleges that the undercover officer was supplied a total of 129 guns, including and AK 47 and an AR 15.

It is not yet clear if all those guns were also smuggled onto a flight.

The breach is one of the biggest security breaches in recent years, according to affidavit details.

Delta sent Channel 2 Action News the following statement Monday:
“Delta is cooperating with authorities in this investigation. We take seriously any activity that fails to uphold our strict commitment to the safety and security of our customers and employees.”

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From a bland Toronto office filled with large television monitors, Sean Sportun keeps an eye on 560 Mac’s stores in Canada.

The live video streams randomly from the locations. Most of it shows honest customers at counters, plunking down merchandise, paying and leaving.

Then Sportun, manager of security and loss prevention for the convenience store chain for central Canada, loads a recorded clip. It shows a slim woman in a head scarf, sweater and floor-length skirt, sneaking into the back room of a Mac’s in Parry Sound.

The store’s walk-in safe is open and the woman heads straight for it. She stuffs merchandise into laundry-sized bags concealed beneath her skirt. The bags are latched onto a belt around her waist.
There is a name for her garment: It’s called a booster skirt.

After stuffing the bags to capacity, she hobbles out of the backroom. She is no longer slim.

Her skirt has ballooned out and she knocks merchandise onto the floor in her wake.

Stepping out of the back room, she is engulfed by accomplices who shield her from view of the lone clerk as they exit.

At the counter, the clerk is distracted by two more gang members asking about products hanging on the wall behind her. They make a small purchase and leave.

The clerk, sensing that something has gone wrong, darts into the back room to urgently replay the surveillance tape. She calls police.

Total take: $30,000 of tobacco products in five minutes.

That next day the gang was at work in the GTA. They were arrested at a Winners in Thornhill after police were alerted by Sportun.

“They work off the highways. They’re very transient. They will jump from place to place, from province to province, wherever they feel they can get the biggest bang for their buck,” says Sportun.

“For the most part, these folks are really good at what they do. They train for it.”

The Mac’s incident was an example of sophisticated, organized retail crime — the kind that is costing Canadian retailers an estimated $4.67 billion a year.

According to a social media campaign last year, consumers paid 20 per cent more for goods as a result of retail theft.

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A woman who allegedly drove a U-Haul truck around a San Diego neighborhood stealing mailed packages from peoples’ doorsteps was arrested after surveillance cameras identified the rented truck, police said today.

Martha Lampley, 37, began cruising the East County neighborhoods starting on Nov. 21, swiping packages until she was arrested on Nov. 29, the San Diego County Sheriff’s department told ABC News.

Lampley was tracked down when one of her alleged victims gave police a home surveillance video of a theft and footage included a U-Haul trailer in the background. Police were able to identify the rented vehicle and trace it back to Lampley, police said.

“One of the deputies did a great job using the video to identify the suspect,” said Lt. Chris May. “She was using a rented U-haul truck to drive through the neighborhoods to commit the thefts.”

The truck ID led officers to Lampley’s storage unit where some of the stolen packages were found, authorities said.

“Yesterday we returned packages to several of the victims. Many of the packages were still unopened with the delivery and packaging labels with the victim’s information,” said May.

The spokesman said similar thefts involving a U-Haul trailer were reported elsewhere in Southern California.

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NORTON SHORES, Mich. (WZZM) - A mother-daughter team suspected of stealing hundreds of cans of baby formula across Michigan to resell are being charged with recent thefts from a Meijer store in Norton Shores.

Sue Surian, 55, and her 29-year-old daughter Lisa are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Muskegon District Court on felony charges of first-degree retail fraud and organized retail crime.

The two have quite a bit of experience in shoplifting, according to court records.

Both were convicted in Montcalm County of shoplifting from a Walmart store in Greenville and sentenced to six months’ probation. A week after the Oct. 27 sentencing, Norton Shores police released surveillance photos of two women suspected of stealing more than $1,000 worth of baby formula.

It did not take long for investigators to identify the Stanton women as suspects in the Norton Shores thefts.

Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Tim Maat said the pair stole between 15 and 30 cans of baby food formula at a time, often concealing it in garbage cans. Surveillance video from a theft at the Meijer store in Norton Shores helped lead to their arrest. Maat says the thefts are part of a disturbing national trend.

“The attempts have been to get baby formula and to sell it nationwide,” Maat said. ” And this is not a situation where a young mother is struggling to find enough formula for their infant child. It’s being stolen in volume so that it can be resold for criminal reasons.”

Maat says the pair sold the formula stolen in Muskegon County for $2,000, charging $5 for the smaller cans and $8 for larger sizes.

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