Dana_Fowle's Blog

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We get countless emails and calls from folks who thought they were making a legitimate buy on eBay or other garage sale sites like Craigslist but who were really about to get ripped off. As soon as you think you can figure out what is a real deal and what isn't, the bad guy has already reinvented himself.

So, every once in a while we re-visit the topic. Wednesday and Thursday nights I'll do two more reports on the subject.

This case though is particularly sad: a family struggling to make ends meet after adopting a child with severe disabilities loses it all. Sure, there were a couple of red flags they should have noticed, but as newbies to eBay and just trusting people, they were taken. And how were they.

Catch it if you can. Perhaps one of our viewers has a way to help them out.

eBay Policy

ic3.gov

Remember that story about dirty hotel room glasses?  Well, it really hit a national nerve.  A few months back I taped a segment about this story on the Tyra show.  
Check it out.  It airs Monday on Fox 5.  
By the way, she really is nice and she's more beautiful in person.  

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A local dog trainer was recently found guilty of 12 counts of animal cruelty and one count of operating a kennel without a license.

Terry Fowler ran Fowl Play Kennels when someone turned him into Newton County Animal Control. When investigators arrived they found dogs living in a truck made for animals, but, according to their report, the animals had no water and some were over-heated.

But that's not the case many in the dog training industry remember about Mr. Fowler.

They remember the case of Biscuit, the family Lab who returned from Mr. Fowler's training camp severely beaten.

Fowler was charged, but the statute of limitations ran out.

Biscuit's vet, Dr. Linda Brooks, said she'd never seen anything like his injuries.

She told the I-Team, "It was real unusual to see this much trauma if he had not been hit by a car or hit by a truck.

This is just one of the pictures of Biscuit's broken teeth. He also had a fractured jaw.

Biscuit's owner, Mark Owen, remembers this conversation with the dog trainer before he pulled Biscuit from the camp.

The assistant district attorney in Biscuit's case said it was just too tough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who hurt the dog while he was at this camp learning to become a hunting dog yet remain a family dog.

"He said, 'I pulled him off, pinned him to the ground and duct-taped his mouth shut.' Duct-taped his mouth shut. And I said, 'I didn't bring my dog up here to be abused.'"

Again, the statute of limitations ran out on Biscuit's case. In the latest incident, Terry Fowler, according to his sentence, will be forced out of the dog training business for awhile.

The judge sentenced him to two years probation, a $2000 fine and 40 hours community service. While on probation he can't own any dogs other than the seven he already owns and he can't run a kennel.

But the real lead sentence is this......the judge let him go.    
Three weeks ago I came home from a long weekend.   I walked in and noticed pillowcases strewn about.  As I got into the living room I saw furniture moved, drawers emptied and the backdoor wide open.   While we were gone someone cleaned out our house.  Just about everything was gone except for the big furniture.   When I say everything I mean jewelry, electronics, linens, towels, food, even our cleaning supplies and toilet paper.  
But this isn't the real story, this is......
Within 24 hours my husband and I noticed the man walking past our house IN MY HUSBAND'S CLOTHES.  Yep, wearing his clothes.   Stupidly, I suppose, we chased him down, taking pictures of him, into the hands of several police officers who took off on foot after him.  They caught him.  Neighbors had seen this guy in our yard.  We knew we had the right guy. 
So, what happened?  APD tells me when they went to book him into  the Fulton County Jail the intake person wouldn't let them keep the clothes as evidence.  They said the police needed a search warrant.  APD was frustrated.  They told me they'd never heard of that before.  
But it gets better.  The judge dismissed the charges against a career burglar who may have been probation.   Why?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Overcrowded jail I suppose. 
So there you have it:  he's still roaming around the neighborhood and has certainly already sold my grandmother's ring and my husband's watch given to him by his grandfather.  And probably for no more than five or 10 bucks. 
So many of our viewers have called me over the years asking for help in situations like this one.   Just wanted to let you know -- you're not alone.  Crime touches us all. 

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Our I-Team hidden camera investigation found just what the Federal Trade Commission warned: some locksmiths are overcharging and playing themselves off as local when they're not local at all.

Drew and Clarissa Owen say they called Atlanta Locksmith and got a $400 estimate to have their locks changed. After the work was done they were handed a bill for more than $3,000. Geraldine Essix got locked out of the house and called State Locksmith, but her estimate and her bill were far apart.

So, the I-Team went undercover and also called State Locksmith to pick a lock. We couldn't get a firm estimate, but the state's trade organization said it was a $75 job. What were we charged? $192.

Read what else we found. Atlanta Locksmith and State Locksmith had different numbers, but both went to the same company: Reliable Locksmith in Florida. The company operates a call center in Florida, then sends sub-contractors out to do the work. What's more, the Better Business Bureau gives Florida's Reliable Locksmith an "F" rating.

A spokesman with the trade organization says companies like this are operating across the country using different names and numbers, subbing out jobs, overcharging customers, then disappearing into a maze of names. Trying to get your money back is nearly impossible.

A quick note: Our story is not about Reliable Locksmith in Dunwoody or Atlanta Lockservice, Inc.

Click Here for Tips on Hiring a Locksmith

Click Here for the National Locksmith Assocation Warning

Boy, nothing can bring folks to anger faster than the talk of child support. Well, this story has a twist. It's actually a problem that is bringing estranged parents together.

The state's Office of Child Support Services has issued a "scam alert" against a private company collecting child support for custodial parents.

A state spokesman says that Child Support Services of Atlanta, which also goes by Child Support Services of Georgia, deliberately leads parents to believe it's a government agency that collects child support when in fact it's a private agency out to make a profit.

Our I-Team investigation finds just what the state did: the company takes a 35 percent cut of the child's check; the checks are sometimes partial or they don't come at all; non-custodial parents are issued "bogus" letters that look like warrants pressuring them to sign up with the collections agency.

Check out our story online. We try to talk to the South Georgia company that has already been kicked out of Florida for its business practices. Right now they are under investigation by the Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs.

Here's a look at the scam alert:
Click Here

Like everyone at Fox 5 today I'm deliriously tired and have had too much coffee, but I still have enough wits about me to realize we dodged a bullet. 
Last night the tornado warning came across the TV.  My husband said, Don't worry.  Those things don't hit the city.   Just as he said that our lights went out and one of our dogs hid behind the closet door shaking.  
Reports indicated the Georgia Dome got banged up, but I'm not sure I grasped what really happened until I arrived at the office at 5 a.m.
Tell me your stories from the tornado. 

I knew more about Eliot Spitzer than I did about most politicians from other states.  As a consumer investigator, he set the national tone for slapping down businesses and people who take advantage of consumers.  You can be sure that if Eliot Spitzer did something the rest of the country's consumer advocates would follow.

As we've read in the past few days he apparently was supremely arrogant and not liked by many Democrats or Republicans. 

We all know the details....

1. Sex with prositutes over a 10-year period maybe spending as much as $80,000

2. Possibly breaking the laws he put into place

3. Desire for unsafe sex

4. Putting himself in a position to be blackmailed

5. Violating public trust

It goes on and on.   The Feds will decide his fate now.   But sitting at home now, watching old friends flee from you, the soon-to-be former governor has to spend his days looking at the faces of his wife and three daughters.

THAT Mr. Spitzer is your Hell.

 

In an I-Team follow-up story to Dwayne Green of  Maximus Investment group, we told you he had new businesses and a new nickname posted on YouTube.   He pitched one of them in a broadcast called  "Women are Stupid."

Since our story someone removed "Women Are Stupid" from YouTube.  Well, bloggers thanks for letting me know.  We have our own copy. 

For those of you just jumping in, Dwayne Green is accused by many of his former clients of promising them he'd help them save their homes from foreclosure for $500.  Guess what?  They say they paid and he disappeared.   There is now a warrant for his arrest in DeKalb County.

Listen in to how he pitches his new business idea to women:

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's a title that'll catch your attention.  It captured ours.  In a sec I'll tell you what this is all about. 

But first let me bring you up-to-date on our investigation into Dwayne Green of Maximus Investment Group.  (Police say he also uses the alias Kelvin Anthony.) Customers complained to the I-Team that for $500 he could save their homes from foreclosure.  Well, what they told the BBB and the police is that didn't happen and they're out the money and their homes.  

Well, it seems Mr. Green has a new nickname and a few new businesses.   Now we get back to the title:  Women are Stupid.   Mr. Green has a broadcast on YouTube titled just that.  He later says he's joking, but what he really means is still a bit unclear.

Check it out for yourself.  What do you think he means?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I8Rkn8xjBo

Listen to this one too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LittleGuyNetworkGuru>

 

 

 

Wouldn't you think after our dirty hotel glass story hit the Internet and went worldwide that major chains in America would know about what we found at big name hotels?

To review:  Last fall we took our hidden cameras to hotels ranging from the Holiday Inn Downtown over to the downtown Ritz-Carlton.   We found the same thing time and time again, hotel housekeepers using our bathroom sink as a kitchen.  They rinsed our dishes in dirty sinks, one time using a dirty toilet bowl glove, another time our dirty bath towel, to rinse and dry them off.   It was enough to make you sick - literally.

Every hotel we checked got it wrong, so we thought we'd try some new hotels to see if they clean their guestroom glasses according to health codes.

We stayed downtown and checked out The Omni and The Hyatt.  Guess what?  They hadn't learned the lesson.   Our glasses never left the hotel room, but they were put out as clean for the next guest.  One of them even wiped her face with our towel before she dried off our glasses.   The other housekeeper used our dirty wash cloth as a dish towel.

And finally, the Crown Plaza Ravinia.  Now, they should have known better.  One of their sister hotels was featured in our story last fall, but they still failed to properly wash their glasses.   Again, the glasses never left the room.

According to the health department director, practices like these can make a hotel guest sick.  

Tell me, do you find it hard to believe any big hotel chain would not be towing the line after our story?

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's just a shame that while people are at their lowest that someone is out there ready to take advantage of them.

Since the foreclosure epidemic in this nation developed, a cottage industry has formed:  foreclosure scam rescue companies.

In the piece we aired tonight a company called Maximus sent out a flier telling desperate homeowners they could "SAVE YOUR HOME."   What they did instead was drop by and take $500 from the homeowner.   Every person who dealt with Maximus says after the company got their money they never heard from them again.

Is your home threatened by foreclosure?  I'd love to hear your story.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of you expressed an interest in Dandy, the dog owned by accused hiker killer Gary Michael Hilton.  As you know, the dog was being held at the DeKalb County shelter as "evidence" for lack of a better word.

Well, today the DeKalb Police say that Dandy is no longer in the county's custody.  

"Last week the dog was turned over to a person approved by the GBI," according to Mekka Parish, a police spokeswoman. 

Now what does that mean?  Not sure.  I have left a message with the GBI, but I probably won't hear anything until Monday.   I'll keep you posted.

 

In a Meredith Emerson blog many of you wanted to talk about the issue of guns in parks.  It seemed more appropriate to move that topic away from those who wanted to pay tribute to the life of  Meredith Emerson.
There were all sorts of opinions.  One writer called a gun the great equalizer while others seemed to believe even if they could take a gun to a public park, they wouldn't.  It's simply not something they are comfortable with. 
Your thoughts?

Many of you have called or written the station about Dandy.   She is Gary Michael Hilton's dog, the man accused of killing hiker Meredith Emerson.    Mr. Hilton it seems was often seen on hiking trails around the state with his dog Dandy.

Since his arrest Dandy has been in the DeKalb County Animal Shelter and will be for a while.  She is considered "evidence" for lack of a better word.  A DeKalb PD spokeswoman tells me that Dandy will eventually be up for adoption, just not yet.

Concerned people and rescue groups have not only called us but also the shelter.

I've asked DeKalb police to let us know when they are ready to find Dandy a wonderful home.   We'll keep you updated.