Revere DPW worker arrested for sign thefts

REVERE - Police say veteran city employee Michael Ferragamo admitted to stealing street signs from the Charger Street city yard over the last two weeks and selling them to an Everett scrap metal dealer.

Ferragamo, 47, 65 McKinley St., is slated to plead innocent in Chelsea District Court to breaking and entering and larceny charges.

Police Sgt. Thomas Malone in a report filed Friday stated Ferragamo admitted being paid $500 to $700 for the signs valued by Public Works Superintendent Donald Goodwin at $2,000 to $5,000. Between 1,000 and 1,500 signs are missing.

A call to Ferragamo's listed telephone number Friday afternoon found it disconnected.

A public works employee returning to work Wednesday after a week off noticed the signs missing from the sign shop in the Charger Street yard. Police reviewed security camera videotape with DPW officials and observed Ferragamo getting out of a city van and entering the shop on May 28. Video taken May 29 and June 1 shows the van leaving and entering the Charger Street yard.

The GPS device installed in the city van tracked the vehicle traveling on May 28 and on May 29 to a residence abutting Ferragamo's house and to Everett. The GPS also tracked the vehicle traveling to Everett on June 1.

The theft is the latest source of unwanted attention for Goodwin and his department.

A confrontation last week with City Councilor at Large John R. Correggio prompted both men to file criminal complaints set for review June 25 in Chelsea District Court.

The missing signs also raise the specter of another city theft a half year after city auditors documented misspending in the public library. Former Library Director Robert Rice resigned after the spending discrepancies were found and the probe into library accounts continues with the Suffolk District Attorney's office spearheading it.

Lynn Item

Phishers harvest Facebook passwords for profit

Thieves assume people use the same password for most online identities

Computerworld - Identity thieves that hit Facebook last week with a new round of phishing attacks are harvesting passwords for profit, a security researcher said today.

"It's not surprising that they're targeting Facebook," said Kevin Haley, a director on Symantec's security response team. "Facebook has, what, 200 million-plus users? The bad guys always go where's there's a lot of people."

The newest Facebook attacks resemble previous phishing rounds in their tactics: A compromised account sends a malicious link to friends. That link leads to a site that mimics the legitimate log-in page. But users duped into entering their usernames and passwords are likely giving away more than just their Facebook credentials, said Haley.

"Certainly this isn't new," he said, "but we think that what you're seeing is an attempt to shake out every last dollar they can get."

The criminals are operating on the assumption that the Facebook password they acquire from any given user has a good chance of being the same password that person uses on other sites, such as online shopping services or even bank accounts.

"Get one password for the right person and it's like having their wallet handed over," Symantec researcher Marian Merritt in the post to Symantec's security response blog said on Friday.

Computerworld - Complete Story

Revere man charged with using toy gun to rob club

BOSTON — Authorities say a Revere man robbed a local social club with a toy gun and ordered a bartender to give a 71-year-old customer a drink before grabbing the man in a headlock and using him as a human shield.

James Parker was held on $100,000 cash bail following his arraignment Tuesday on several charges related to the incident the previous day at a Sons of Italy hall.

Prosecutors say Parker took money and bottles of liquor before a woman who asked to use a bathroom called police on a hidden cell phone.

A police officer disarmed Parker as he held the 71-year-old man in a headlock, pointing what turned out to be a toy gun at the man’s head.

Parker’s attorney, Michael Capone, did not immediately return a message left after business hours.

Boston Herald

Cache of electronics recovered after teens arrested on car theft charges

Saugus - Officers have arrested two teenagers they believe are responsible for a rash of motor vehicle break-ins that occurred in East Saugus.

Patrolman Matthew Donahue was conducting a patrol in an unmarked cruiser during the early morning hours on April 28 when he noticed a white Ford Contour with no headlights on that came back stolen out of Malden, according to Police Lt. Michael Annese.

As soon as Donahue approached, the Contour sped off and turned onto Serino Way. The officer rounded the corner to see the vehicle with two open doors crash into a parked car.

“They jumped out of the car and ran for it,” Annese said.
While searching the area for the suspects, officers located several vehicles in the area that appeared to have been burglarized.

Inside the damaged Contour patrolmen found a cache of electronics including numerous GPS units, iPods, DVDs, cell phones, a wristwatch, car starter and other mobile devices, Annese said.

Officers Paul Vansteensburg and Matthew Vecchio encountered a male matching one of the suspects’ descriptions on Bristow Street — identified as Mayco Martinez, 17, of 23 Russell St., Everett — and detained him following a brief foot pursuit.

Annese said Martinez was carrying cell phones, GPS systems, jewelry and cash on him when the officers apprehended him.

Moments later police saw the male walking down Bristow Street who drove the Contour, Barry Smith, 18, of 141 Washington Ave., Revere and arrested him without any resistance.

In addition the electronics officers recovered screwdrivers, wrenches and other items in the Contour that are frequently used to break into motor vehicles, Annese said.

Police arrested Smith and charged him with leaving the scene of property damage, receiving a stolen motor vehicle, receiving stolen property of more than $250 and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Martinez was arrested and charged with receiving a stolen motor vehicle, receiving stolen property of more than $250 and resisting arrest.

Altogether Smith and Martinez are suspected of breaking into at least four vehicles in East Saugus. Annese said the duo could be the culprits behind additional crimes in Saugus and other communities based on the items discovered in the Contour.

Annese credited the officers involved for identifying the suspicious vehicle and apprehending the two suspects.

“It was a good piece of police work all around,” Annese said.

Saugus Advertiser

Kids can be easy prey for identity thieves

This is an interesting story.
It happened to someone I know of, and it was the parents who ran up the debt.

NEW YORK — Among the people Linda Foley is currently working to help are a 3-year-old whose Social Security number is being used by someone for work purposes. And there’s a 5-year-old whose identity is linked to driver’s licenses, arrest warrants for drunken driving, and a warrant for unpaid child support.

These stories may sound unusual, but Foley has heard of many such situations since she started the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center in 1999, and she’s convinced that the poaching of children’s identities is more common than anyone knows.

Because identity theft is typically associated with financial matters like the misuse of credit cards, most people don’t consider the possibility that their child’s personal information could be stolen and misused. But more than 34,000 reports of identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission from 2005 to 2007 concerned children under age 18.

“I think we just see the tip of the iceberg, we don’t know how deep this problem goes,” says Foley.

One reason there is no clear figure for the number of children affected is that the crime often goes unnoticed for many years, explains Scott Mitic, chief executive of TrustedID, a Redwood, Calif., company that offers ID protection services.

Usually, there’s a narrow time gap between the discovery and the theft, Mitic says of identity theft in general. “But in this age group, you’re much more likely to see a lag.”

Because children don’t have complex financial lives, there is less opportunity to notice that something has gone awry than for adults who try to access loans, mortgages and credit cards — one major factor that plays into child identity theft going undetected for years.

A second major reason is that frequently, the thief is a parent or other relative of the child.

“In excess of 50 percent of all child ID theft, involves a perpetrator who is one of the parents or someone who is close to the family,” estimates Foley, basing her figure on counseling experience and work with law enforcement agencies.

That was the case for Randy Waldron Jr., now 27, who has spent the last decade trying to clean up his reputation.

“My father began using my Social Security number in 1982,” says Waldron. But his father was not a part of his life as a child, and it wasn’t until 16 years later, when Waldron was applying for college, that it was discovered he had run up a total of $22.5 million in debt in his son’s name.

Cape Cod Times - Full Story

Meredith Police log

Article Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008
MEREDITH — Local police responded to 235 calls for service and made nine arrests during the seven-day period ending Nov. 17. They also made 57 traffic stops, issued 50 warnings, seven summonses and investigated four motor vehicle accidents. They also took two adults into protective custody for drunkenness. Those arrested will be arraigned in the Meredith Session of Laconia District Court on December 3.

— Lovering Volvo reported a theft of a vehicle. A number of days later, police received a call from Revere, Mass., to advise the vehicle had been recovered.


(The Citizen of Laconia-Police Log)