gdp's Comments

WDTN.com | 2 News : Man lashes out at former girlfriend

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 15:29:22 +0000

The good news is that his anger was taken out on property rather than his ex. Ugly stories like this are all too prevalent. A good friend of mine was caught up in one that thankfully had a happy ending -- at least for her: A good friend of ours, Sally, had not been herself for several weeks. She seemed distracted, even frightened at times. She was receiving a lot of phone calls and they always seemed to put her into a deep funk. I thought it was time to broach the subject and to find out if there was anything I could do to help. At first Sally was very reluctant to discuss the subject. Finally, she asked me one day if we could talk. I of course agreed and the story began to unfold. It seems that she had an ex-boyfriend who she thinks is “connected” and he is extremely upset that she broke off the relationship they had. He had warned her that it was “not a wise decision” and that she should “rethink things in order to prevent any distasteful happenings.” The warning concerned her, but she thought it was simply the comments of an embarrassed suitor who wanted to sound like a big shot. She was wrong. It turns out the man was connected and he had a lot of “friends” who were more than willing to help him make his point. The first part of the process involved phone calls with messages that sent shivers down her spine. They suggested the possibility of many “distasteful” happenings. She reported them to the police, but since she had no recording of them and they were made from untraceable numbers, that led to nothing. But the campaign of terror really picked up after that; there were broken windows, scratches on the car, even a dead family pet on the front porch of her home. Then the most frightening part of the campaign began. She started noticing a car following her each day, everywhere she went. When she reached her destination, it would just go on. It seemed to be a different car each time. It was obviously an attempt to intimidate. And it was working. Then they began calling her car phone, which was a hands-free speaker phone. Different voices, coming from the car following her, from time to time warned her of what kinds of things could happen to her; what “accidents’ could befall. The police tried to corroborate her story, but each time they attempted to catch someone in the act of following her, the “bad guys” were careful not to get caught. When she told me about the vehicles following her something came to mind. At my recent daughter’s wedding out of town I had rented a high-end vehicle that included a device I had never seen nor heard of before. It was a rearview mirror hidden camera that not only provided a great view of what was going on behind you, it could also record the activity, including any sound that was within range, such as a voice coming from the car’s speaker phone. I suggested to Sally that she get the device, which I found installs extremely easily onto your current rear view mirror. I researched it and found that she could see it at www.yoursecurityandsafety.com/rearview-mirror-hid... She could then get on film videos of the cars that were following her, including clear license plate numbers, over a several-days period. The camera was capable of recording day and night. She could also get on the record the messages coming from the drivers. They would often make comments such as “I am close enough to you to give you a hard jolt that could force you to have a bad accident,” comments which helped corroborate Sally’s claims that the reign of terror was real. With the videos obtained from the car’s rearview mirror hidden cameras, Sally was finally able to convince the police of the reality of the threats. And they could trace the license plates to several unsavory characters, all of them with records, all of them “friends” of her ex-boyfriend. When they were all rounded up and shown the evidence, suddenly the campaign against Sally was a thing of the past. Hopefully you aren’t being followed by people who mean you harm, but you will still be wowed by the versatility and the intriguing options the device offers. See it at www.yoursecurityandsafety.com/rearview-mirror-hid...

BakersfieldNow.com : Police release photos from attempted home break-in | Bakersfield Now - News, Weather and Sports | Ne

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:00:04 +0000

Who would think that there would be a video camera hidden in a bedside alarm clock? Certainly not the intruder who was quickly captured and convicted because he never realized he was the “star” of a late night video. This story began in the home of a Chicago widower who had taken to adding home security devices in recent years to make him feel safer, now that he lived alone. Unfortunately, the alarm system he bought to alert to a break-in did not perform, or was cleverly over-ridden by the intruder one recent cold night in the windy city. The break-in artist was a professional, that was pretty evident. He moved around stealthily on the first floor, knowing where to look for valuable items. After exhausting his search there, he headed upstairs, recognizing that he may encounter the homeowner. He was prepared; he was packing a handgun,. The homeowner, let’s call him Tom, is a light sleeper and woke up when he thought he had heard something downstairs. Tom didn’t own a gun. But he did think to make sure that the camera hidden in his alarm clock at his side was running. Minutes later the intruder burst into the bedroom and shouted at Tom to turn on the light and pay attention. Since he wasn’t satisfied with his haul thus far, he was certain there was a mother lode somewhere in the house and he needed Tom to point him to it. What he didn’t realize is that Tom was pointing the hidden camera to him. Intent to stay alive, Tom turned over everything valuable that he had in the house, hoping that with any luck some or all of it would be returned if the thief could be apprehended with the help of the camera. But regardless, Tom valued his life more than the valuables. Satisfied that he had all that he could get his hands on, the intruder made a hasty exit, but not before pistol whipping Tom. While he was bleeding and feeling faint, Tom was still able to dial 911 and alert police immediately. As soon as they arrived, Tom informed the police of the hidden video camera, and officials pounced on it to get a lead on the perpetrator. Sure enough, he was recognized as a “person of interest” in previous burglaries, but this time they had him cold. Within days the police had the bad guy and retrieved virtually all of Tom’s belongings. They also found plenty of other items reported missing from previous break-ins. The radio alarm clock, an excellent product in its own right, proved that the addition of the hidden video camera made it a priceless addition to the bedroom in a critical situation. Tom found the alarm clock hidden camera at www. yoursecurityandsafety.com/alarmclock-hidden-camera.htm

WWLP 22News : Break-ins leave risk of unhappy holiday | WWLP.com

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:21:52 +0000

Connecticut News, Weather and Traffic | WTNH.com : Man rescued from car crash into water | wtnh.com

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:48:30 +0000

This is the story of John Stone, a widower who moved to Florida in his late 60’s to spend his “golden years” in a warm climate. Before leaving the Cleveland area, his friends and neighbors held a “Survive in Florida” party to wish him farewell. The “Survival” party invitation said for guests to bring John a gift that either pokes fun or a serious gift that will fit his needs for life in Florida. John left the party loaded down with gifts, including a big straw hat, a fan, suntan lotion, a toy alligator, an umbrella for the daily summer showers, a snakebite kit and many other things, including something called an auto emergency tool kit, which he threw into his glove compartment without examining it closely. After settling in, John began putting down some roots. He joined a church, he joined the local American Legion Club, he volunteered to deliver bags of food to local needy families and he gradually began to develop a circle of friends and become active. One day John read in the local paper than a couple that he had met at church had been killed in an automobile accident. It was a one-vehicle accident that the newspaper article reported was “all too familiar an occurrence in Florida.” It seems that for whatever reason, the husband had driven off the road and into one of the many canals that criss-cross the landscape throughout the state. In this instance, the canal was unfortunately a fairly deep one and the auto quickly sank beneath the water completely. When rescue workers got to the car, the doors were locked, all of the windows were shut tight, and the elderly couple was dead in the front seat. The article quoted the rescue workers as conjecturing that the couple could not get out of the car because of the water pressure, so they were trapped in the vehicle. The incident haunted John’s memory for some time. He attended the funeral, then went on with his life. But as fate would have it, about 18 months later, John was driving down a road near his house, a road alongside an adjacent canal. Out of nowhere, a car sped through a stop sign to his left, hit his car broadside, and sent it right into the canal. It sank quickly. His mind flashed back to his friends’ accident awhile back and he feared the worst. But he knew he must not panic. It flashed in his mind that he had to wait until the car filled up with water inside to equal the pressure on both sides of the door so that he can open them. So he calmly sat there, keeping his head above the water level as long as possible. When he felt the pressure must be evened out he started pushing on the door to open it. The door would not budge. He tried and tried, to no avail. Then he remembered the emergency tool kit he got at the going away party up north that he threw into the glove compartment. He retrieved it, opened it, and there was a hammer, which gave him hope. He started banging on his car window as hard as he could and it gave way. When there was enough weakness in it, he put his legs up and pushed the rest of the window away. Quickly, he crawled through the opening and darted to the surface. Though he felt close to drowning, John survived. That evening, he called his friend back in Cleveland who had given him the gift to thank him. “You saved my life,” John told his friend. “No, his friend replied, the emergency tool kit saved your life.” John asked his friend where he got it, because he wanted to buy several to give out to some of his new friends in Florida in case they ever need it. He was told to go to www.yoursecurityandsafety.com/emergencytool.htm