False Alarms

The hardest part of this story was getting the data.

The WPD gets a big high 5 for handing it over the fastest. They also figured out how many hours those alarms equate  to (41,664 hours) and about how much money they cost each year ($572,308).

But remember THIS: those numbers are based on ONE officer responding. The WPD says that most calls…especially if it’s a bank alarm…require more than one officer. In some cases…they send out the chopper and the dogs ( = $$$$$).

Costs really start to add up when they respond to the same location multiple times in one night. Captain Williamson says that sometimes, after a few calls, they can’t even get the owner to come out and shut off the alarm…even though its THEIR responsibility.

I asked the WPD for names…who are the “worst offenders”…whose business or residence do you have to go to multiple times a night, or multiple times throughout the week? I wanted to ask those people why they can’t better maintain their alarms…and do they feel any responsibility for wasting resources? Unfortunately, the WPD says that they can’t provide any names…due to how their data system operates. That was frustrating but deadline came before I was able to pursue it further. After the ordinance comes out next spring, if there are still “worst offenders” for false alarms…I’ll be pressing for a list of names and addresses.

Each year, the number of false alarms in the city keeps going up. Captain Williamson says that’s likely because of the growth our city has seen (i.e. annexation). Still, if you own an alarm system…its your responsibility and that means making sure everyone in your family knows how to arm and un-arm the system, notifying your alarm company if you will be testing it, educating ALL of your employees about your company’s device and making sure that deliveries are made in a way that does not accidentally trigger the alarm (oh…and STOP BURNING THE POPCORN!).

The purpose of the ordinance is to cut down on these high false alarm rates by penalizing repeat offenders. However, I’ve heard mixed reviews from both city and county staff as to whether or not it will actually come to fruition. Apparently they’ve been working on this ordinance for 3 years. The WPD says that it’s now on their lawyer’s desk and with approval from City Council…it will soon be in effect.

Here are more of the figures:

From the New Hanover County Sherriff’s Office

	2005	2006	2007	2008
Total  Alarm Calls	4545	4586	4278	5059
Total Reports	39	30	26	30
False Alarms	4506	4556	4252	5029
Percentage False	99.14191	99.34584	99.39224	99.407

From the Wilmington Fire Department:

38,642 total alarms in the past 4 years…5,705 false alarms. That means that 14.7% are considered false. OF THOSE….there are two types of alarms: manual (you pull the red trigger on the wall) and automatic (hanging in your ceiling and set off without your control). When its an AUTOMATIC alarm….96% of the time it’s false.

The WFD says it’s very difficult to estimate how much those false calls are costing them because different trucks go to different calls and its hard to estimate fuel and maintenance costs on those trucks. Whatever the case…we’ve all seen a fire truck…its NOT cheap to get it out of the driveway.

The WFD already has an ordinance that fines for false alarms but this new one is a joint project with the WPD. There is a very interesting follow-up I have for this piece…but I can’t tell you about it now…because I am OUT.THE.DOOR to Africa tomorrow!

See you in December.

 

 

False Alarms…TONIGHT

“False Alarms” will air tonight at 11pm on WECT and again tomorrow on CIM. This will likely be my last investigative report this year…I’m leaving tomorrow for Africa and will be gone until mid-December.

I asked both city and county public safety offices for data on how many false alarms their teams respond to each year. The WPD gets a big pat on the back for giving me data from the last FOUR years.

I don’t like it when newscasts tell their viewers that something will “surprise” them (the phrase tends to be overused)…but I was genuinely surprised to see these figures. 99% of all alarm calls the WPD goes on are false alarms.

We looked into how much they’re costing public safety departments and ultimately, *you*, the tax payer. We also found that it’s not just the WPD that’s affected by false alarms.

I hope this story draws attention to an issue that drains money from our county and city public safety budgets each year. This is something that alarm owners can change with a little more personal responsibility and accountability.

I may not be around after this story airs to field responses and emails from this story…I will be stuck on a plane for 24 hours. But you are always welcome to shoot me an email (croman@wect.com) or leave a comment here and I will do my best to find a computer out in the African wilderness!

A Break In The Levy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the images sent to me by a viewer who was out behind the ports fishing yesterday. He says there is a ‘dredging pond’ there where the sediment brought up from the bottom of the Cape Fear River is held. Well…that’s where it USED to be held because it looks like all that muck has flown right back into the river.

The “State of the Ports” is being held today so I hope we’ll be looking into this. If you have any extra information…please get in touch!

Carolina Beach Drowing: October 10th

A friend told me to take a look at an ad posted on craigslist.com: Witness To Drowning. This is the second time I’ve seen someone in our community reach out for help on this website….someone who feels like public safety officials have not done enough to investigate. This could be something we see more of in the future…people taking crime solving into their own hands, doing their own research?

Her name is Cindy Marshall and her father, John David Midgett, drowned on Saturday October 10th in Carolina Beach. We did not cover this. Probably because we have only 1 weekend reporter and again, we only find out about things if people call the station and report them.

Cindy is looking for anyone who can help her find more information about what happened that morning, she’s looking for closure and says she’s not getting what she needs from local public safety officials. She also lives in Florida know which compounds her ability to make much headway here.

She says her father and his friend were boating near the 1st set of  buoys in the Carolina Beach inlet when a large wave hit the boat and knocked them overboard. Apparently, 2 jet skiers responded and another boat assisted by calling out a Mayday. The boat loaded her father onboard and brought him to the boat ramp.

She says that a deputy came and loaded her father into the bed of his truck (I guess this is what witness told her…) and took him to a location off-site to be picked up by an ambulance. She says that emergency vehicles never came to the scene to try to revive him but says that witnesses told her he had a pulse and was murmuring when they pulled him to shore.

She says her father was in good health and only had an issue with arthritis in his shoulder.

She says she’s concerned over a lack of formal investigation into what happened that day and says that someone has “dropped the ball.” She also says her family was never notified by officials. They heard it through a family friend.

The boat that brought him to shore was called the “Fish Bucket”…ever heard of it? Maybe you know the names of the jet skiers?

I’m going to try to find the police report and see what information the Coast Guard and Carolina Beach police may have. In the meantime, she’s hoping that someone can offer her more information about what happened that day.

Send me an email: croman@wect.com.

Talking About Movies…And Race?

Fran pitched yesterday’s story about Sadie Winfrey, the Wilmington woman who was upset about the lack of showtime for movies with black producers (specifically: “Good Hair,” Chris Rock; “Precious,” Oprah Winfrey). This story did not get approval because she was bring up a question about racism…it got approval because of the questions it generated during our morning meeting: “How do our movie theaters select what’s shown?” “Why do some films (even ones that bomb…) get 4 screens while others are never shown?”

Admittedly, we couldn’t answer either of those questions, which is why I spent yesterday trying to find out.

The general manager at Mayfair Cinema explained that both “Precious” and “Good Hair” are limited release films. They are first shown in the big cities.  If they meet a certain revenue expectation (he did not say how much), they are released nation-wide.

I asked him how film distributors (Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., etc.) decide which films get limited release? He said he didn’t know (in his defense…these decisions are handled by corporate movie theater booking agents and are conversations he is probably NOT privy to).

If you look at the demographics of movie-goers…you might be able to hypothesize why. According to Medialifemagazine.com, 70% of the people who go to the movies are adults between 18-49 years old. The median age is 32. Females make up 54% of the audience.

A research article published in the Journal of Media Psychology titled “Favorite Films and Films Genres As A Function of Race, Age, and Gender” concludes that “Whites show a rather overwhelming partiality for White-congurent movies. Indeed, only seven movies (3%) were cited which dealt with interracial themes.” They also say that “relatively few Black films are released (approximately 10% of all films after 1970), the race congruence preferences of Blacks is exceptionally strong, in fact dramatically disproportionate to that for Whites.”

In so many words…the majority of people who go to see films are adult, educated women…and of those seated in the theater…they prefer to see movies with actors and a production team that are of the same race. ( Film Preferences.)

Film distributors are like any private enterprise…they seek profits. If these are the statistics they follow, it may be reasonable to hypothesize that they will try to produce…and promote…movies that are going to be agreeable to the majority of their demographic. Perhaps they feel that a film about african american hair…will not be a big hit with the masses…its one guess for the limited release decision.

The GM at Mayfair says that corporate booking agents are looking for films with big names. That could be the reason why romatic comedies with popular stars are highly promoted (again…even if they bomb), whereas films with new faces (i.e. Precious) are more to prove.

Sadie seemed most upset that there was a group of people in a corporate office somewhere deciding what her community got to see.

I asked the GM at Mayfair how a community could voice their interest in a particular film if they wanted it shown locally. He didn’t have a definitive answer but he did say that some movies are now being released along with a website where you can vote to have it shown in your hometown (i.e. Paranormal Activity). Well…that’s news to me?!

Last night, Fran received a rather acidic email from a man pontificating that he felt that the story accused and “convicted” him of being racist. That is FAR from the point of the story and, quite frankly, if we can’t occasionally open up dialogue about how people in our community feel about these questions…we aren’t going to get very far.

Whether you agree with the film gods who decided to hold back on this film …or whether you think the decision is racially motivated or not…that is your opinion…and should be respected. The bigger picture here is HOW media is delivered to you…who decides…why do they make those decisions…and how does that affect our social dynamic?

If you DO want to see “Precious” you can catch it at the Cucalorous film festival this week. I asked the GM at Mayfair if both “Hair” and “Precious” would ever make it to our theaters…he didn’t know.

3 Hours Of Un-Edited Yankee…

If you tune in tomorrow to 107.5 from 6 am to 9am…you’ll have the unfortunate opportunity of hearing Foz and I argue and banter. Its not very often that they allow me to appear somewhere..unedited..(probably for good reason…), so here’s your chance.

I’m not sure what Foz has in store but I bet there will be some discussion of whats going on around town. Is there anything in particular you’d like to hear more about??

Beef Recall: Food Lion

This will be on tonight…but lucky you if you are reading this now…before dinner.

The Food Lion’s in our area have issued a recall of their 93/7 low fat ground beef. They were notified Monday afternoon (11/2) by Fairbank Farms, their supplier. The recall applies to stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. 

Check your freezer/fridge…look for the Food Lion label (it came from Fairbanks but was packaged as “Food Lion” brand). If the “Sell By” date is between Sept. 21 through Oct. 8…RETURN IT and you’ll get your money back.

The media rep at Food Lion told me that the beef on the shelves now is O.K.. She also told me that there would be no interviews and I could not go inside the store to get video (shocking). When I asked her WHY the beef was being recalled…she told me to call Fairbanks. Fairbanks just returned my call…but they did not answer my questions and said they would call me later…

According to Fairbank’s website…they’re asking customer’s to “check their freezer.”

They say they recalled about 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef on October 31. THAT recall has the product “Sell By” date of Sept. 14 through Sept. 16, 2009 (so…were there two recalls?). They say that beef is possibly linked to E.coli O157:H7 .

In an effort to gross you out more….Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an enterohemorrhagic strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli. It causes bloody diarrhea and possibly kidney failure. 

We first heard about this outbreak in New England where lawsuits are reportedly being filed against this Fairbank Farms.

I’ll let you know what Fairbanks says….

Broker Background Check

Here is a resource you can use to check the employment history of your broker: FINRA.

FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is an independent regulator of securities firms in the US. If you click on the link above, you’ll be directed to the FINRA BrokerCheck where you can search the name of your broker or broker agency for professional background information.

Note that this is just ONE part of the research you should do when deciding whether or not to work with a specific broker or agency. In the case of Kenneth C. Waters (“Pinetown”) his report lists a “Customer Dispute” and “Termination.” That should be enough reason to inquire further.

Pinetown

For whatever reason…this post did not publish to the web last night. Here’s a bit more about Pinetown:

You’ve probably heard Ken Waters’ commercials here on WECT or maybe his show on The Big Talker F.M.. Ken Waters was a familiar and trusted face here in Wilmington. In fact, that’s how all of the investor’s I spoke with described…. “a friend”… “a buddy.” Some of the Pinetown investor’s had worked with him for years. Because of those longstanding relationships, many deals made with Ken were made on a handshake.

From what I understand, these clients were represented through his company, “Heritage Investments.” Heritage was formed in 1997 but dissolved by the state in 2003 for failure to file annual reports. The company was never reinstated with the State, but continued to do work out of an office complex near Landfall (and later inside Ken’s home). Jim Springer told me that his office set-up was somewhat peculiar. He never met Jim inside an actual office…only in a board room that was used by the entire complex.

If you look at the documentation from some of the investors…it looks like Heritage had a couple identities: Heritage Investments, Heritage Investment Advisors, LLC; and Heritage Investment Services, LLC. Attorney Martin Ramey says that when companies start to mix and mingle names like this, it can remove the protection provided to them as a limited liability company.

Ken Waters also seems to have had a varied past. According to public records, he’s been affiliated with IFG Network Securities, Merrill Lynch, Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, FSC Securities Corporation of Wilmington and H. Beck, Inc.. People change jobs all the time, so these switches might not be relevant EXCEPT that some of the investors that have now filed claims say that when Ken jumped companies, their money was moved around and they often lost the ability to track historical transactions and financial performance.

Jim Springer says he first heard about Pinetown last winter. “There was a special deal that only his closest buddies had opportunities to,” Jim says. Ken sold him on exclusivity and on the high return – 20%. Ken also pitched it as a guaranteed money making opportunity. If the deal crumbled, the investors would have rights to the property so no matter what, they’d all walk away with something. Of the investors I’ve talked to, all were promised a similar deal although the rate of return varied from about 6.5% to 20%.

Some of the investors had been in Pinetown for years before Jim came into the picture. According to documents from the Secretary of State, Pinetown was formed by David A. Sneed and Kenneth C. Waters in May of 1997 for “investing in real estate and securities.” Pinetown did not file annual reports in 1999 and 2000. In 2003, the State dissolved Pinetown for failure to file appropriate paperwork. The last formal filing I found was in August of 2009, Rick E. Graves, the registered agent for Pinetown resigned from the company. I contacted Rick about Pinetown but he denied my request for an interview.

During the years that Pinetown was in operation, Ken Waters was actively signing up investors and some of them even saw a return on their money. One of Martin Ramey’s clients had been with Ken for years and were relying on his expertise to get them into retirement. They had suffered severe financial setbacks but Ken told them that Pinetown was their answer for recovery. The couple agreed and gave Ken $50,00. Months later Ken wrote them a check for $10,000…a 20% return on their investment. Ken then suggested they put in ANOTHER $50,000 and were then promised a July 31^st payout date. Attorney Martin Ramey: “Naturally if you receive money back from your investments you’ve got to be thinking, ‘Well, there’s nothing wrong with this, this is a good idea let’s do it again’…That strategy invites people to trust.”

Jim Springer says he trusted Ken fully, but there was just something about the Pinetown deal that didn’t sit right….too good to be true? He started asking Ken questions…would there ever be any paperwork to sign? Where was this land? Who ARE these people? Ken delayed and finally Jim just asked him to pull the plug on his investment. As you heard in the story, Ken wired Jim about $183,000 to Puerto Rico where he was on vacation (principal plus interest). Jim took the money right out of his account and closed on a new home there.

While he was on vacation, he got the news that Ken had committed suicide. It seems that everyone was under the impression that it was because of personal reasons. In fact, I’m told that many of the investors went to Ken’s funeral, thinking that days later on July 31^st, the payout day would still come. Jim says that he was sad to hear about his friend, but relieved that the Pinetown fiasco was over. EXCEPT…when he came back to Wilmington there was a letter from Multi-Financial that said that his “wire” was actually a loan against his own assets. The financial terminology for this is putting someone’s account “on margin.” So not only did Jim lose $150,000 in Pinetown…he now owes this “loan” for the same amount.

Jim has challenged Multi-Financial (an ING company). The company sent him a letter dissociating themselves from Ken, who at one time represented them. Jim says he wants people to read the fine print of their investment paperwork.  Jim says the case with many of these national firms, is that you cannot arbitrate against them. Martin Ramey is representing 5 of the claims against Ken Waters’ estate and he will also be in arbitration with Multi-Financial. Martin Ramey says there should be accountability with these firms. If Ken was a “Representative” of Multi-Financial someone should have been monitoring his business.  Pinetown was a deal constructed outside of Heritage. Who was supervising his projects and if they were done outside the framework…is that even allowed?

That piece of property known as “Pinetown” was indeed owned by Ken at one time. The land has nothing on it but a dilapidated house. Its believed that Ken had made money on a timbering deal in the past and that was the inspiration behind Pinetown. There is no evidence of any “group of land owners” that needed money for timbering. On June 11^th 2009 he sold that property to 3-B Farms Inc which his uncle owns. None of the investors (from my understanding) were aware of this. The selling price: $65,280.

Ken’s ending is what takes this story to a most unusual place. The detective who investigated Ken’s suicide said that Ken had reserved a condo at in Atlantic Beach from Realty World. The first condo they put him in did not have a garage and Ken asked to be moved to one that did. Police came to the condo on July 17^th, 2009 when Ken failed to check out. They found the grill inside of a tent in the garage.  Ken and the book “Suicide” were laying just outside of it. Also found on site: a firearm, drugs, alcohol and a note that mentioned his money troubles.

The book “Suicide” by Geo Stone is basically a manual on suicide. It describes every possible way to end it. I obviously wanted to get the book so I could have video of it but its over $200 online! I was surprised to find it for check-out at New Hanover County library.

Ken departed along with all the details about Pinetown. His estate lawyer would not go on camera but you saw the letter she sent to Jim Springer…they can’t find any money of evidence that proves Pinetown was a viable company.

Also not wanting to go on camera…the other investors I spoke with. They are being represented by another law firm here in town and they told me their attorney specifically told them to NOT talk to the media.

If you are an investor…you only have a small window of opportunity to file a claim against Ken’s estate…November 1^st. It seems that people are coming out of the woodwork from all over the country now.

Jim Springer would also like to speak with any investors. He asks that you contact him at: doyouhaveinformation@gmail.com

Pay Your Dues…Now Pay Up

Last week a man called me, rather adamant about doing a local story on the ‘evils of socialized medicine.’ He says he’s fighting for his life because of what he went through while fighting for this country. Now he’s *also* fighting our health insurance system to get the care he needs.

He now lives in Wilmington but spent his younger years in Vietnam where he was exposed to Agent Orange. He says it’s because of that exposure that he developed a particularly deadly and aggressive form of cancer that requires intensive oncology treatments to fight.

When he was first diagnosed, he ran his health insurance claims through the Veterans Health Administration. They denied his claim and he spent years appealing it. During that time, he used his Blue Cross Blue Shield benefits to cover the cost of his cancer treatments. With all of the co-pays, he says he’s racked up about $70,000. All of those treatments have been through Hanover Medical Specialists in Wilmington.

He recently was told by the VA that they *would* pay his claims…in FULL. Thrilled…he called his oncologist at Hanover Medical Specialists who told him that they would not accept the VA plan. Of note, they do except other forms of government-funded health coverage (i.e. Medicare, Medicaid).

He was livid. He couldn’t believe that he had risked his life fighting for our freedom…and now he couldn’t get the help *HE* needed.

I called Hanover Medical Specialists who told me that the VA is slow to pay and its their choice as to what plans they would take. From what I’ve now read…the VA has a history of health care headaches. While it is certainly the right of any private facility to choose who they receive their income, this veteran felt it unfair that they would accept some government funded programs and not others. He also didn’t think “slow pay” was an acceptable reason for not helping a patient out. His exact response: “They HAVE a choice…because of the war WE fought for them.”

Hanover Medical Specialists did not want to do an interview…I wasn’t surprised. They repeated that they would get in touch with this man and “work something out.”

The next day, when I was getting ready to head out the door to interview this veteran…he called and said that Hanover Medical Specialists had had a change of heart. They WOULD take his VA coverage. He was happy that he wouldn’t have to leave his oncologist and that he now wouldn’t be saddled with astronomical health insurance bills.

He THEN said that he ALSO had had a change of heart…and didn’t want to go on camera anymore. While I’m glad those phone calls I made seem to have lit a fire under this guy’s case and helped get things moving…I’m very disappointed that he took that help and then bailed.

Still…I wanted to share what happened simply to make that point that with enough pressure and persistance…you CAN get the coverage you deserve and have paid for. Ask questions, know your plan and put them on the spot…it gets things done (obviously). Just please dont do it by confusing your local reporter with a patient advocate….