Sound_n_Fury Posted May 14, 2005 Share Posted May 14, 2005 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050514/1061625.asp Couple linked to real estate scam caught By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 5/14/2005 The law finally caught up with Venere Hutchinson, with the help of some astute police officers in Tennessee and a 3-year-old copy of The Buffalo News. Hutchinson and his then-girlfriend, Dana Upcher, were cited as among Buffalo's most negligent property owners in a 2001 Buffalo News investigation. The couple fled the state shortly before the state Attorney General's Office obtained indictments against them on multiple grand larceny and fraud charges in April 2002. For years, no one could find the two fugitives. Some speculated that they had fled to the Virgin Islands. The true story is far more interesting. ..... Cleveland, Tenn., Police Officer Andy Ratcliff was doing routine traffic monitoring on Interstate 75 on a Wednesday afternoon when he pulled over a GMC Yukon with improper tags. The driver identified himself as Michael David Smith and presented Ratcliff with a valid Georgia driver's license. His passenger identified herself as Dequlan M. Jones. She gave the officer an obviously fake ID, Ratcliff said. Both passengers appeared nervous but agreed to let Ratcliff search the car. Among the many items he found were: $14,000 in cash tucked away in a small tissue box, digital scales with marijuana residue, a laptop and disk apparently used for producing counterfeit money orders, some new electronics, and a copy of The Buffalo News from 2002. "At this point, we had no idea who we were dealing with," Ratcliff said. ...... He knew the couple had kept this old newspaper for a reason. He flipped to the front of the city section. There was the headline: "Couple sought in $2 million real estate scam." And beneath it was a photo of Venere Hutchinson. Bingo. "He had to keep a trophy," Ratcliff said of the paper. "That was really stupid of him." Ratcliff walked over to Venere Hutchinson's holding cell and held up the warrants he'd pulled up from New York State. "I hope you like Buffalo," Ratcliff told him, "because you're going back." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted May 14, 2005 Share Posted May 14, 2005 I just saw that the 2005 Darwin Award for evolutionary excellence for demonstrating that the fit survive and idiots not was a criminal who pulled the trigger on a gun as part of a robbery gone bad and the gun misfired. In a seemingly logic-based effort to diagnose the problem he looked down the barrel of the gun and pulled the trigger to gather information on what the problem was. Problem solved! The gun worked. Problem solved, the criminal died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyDingo Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 Doesn't the Constitution protect citizens from being sent back to Buffalo? <Ba-dump Bump!> Thanks. Be good to your waitress. I thought I went to prison once, turned out I was only in Buffalo. <Ba-dump Bump!> I'm here all week. Try the Veal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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