The Emory Wheel regularly meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and Director of Campus Safety Communications Morieka Johnson (94C) and uses EPD’s public Crime Log to inform the Emory University community about recent crime on and around Emory’s campuses.
To report a crime, contact EPD at 404-727-6111 or police@emory.edu.
Theft by deception
On March 20 at 1:11 p.m., a health science employee received an email from an unknown individual posing as her supervisor telling the employee and her coworker to buy $400 worth of Apple gift cards and respond to the email with images of the codes on the back of the gift cards.
The employee proceeded to buy the gift cards and send the images, according to Shoemaker. The sender responded to the employee’s email and asked for additional gift cards totaling $1,500. At that point, the employee became suspicious and did not comply.
After talking to their coworker, the employee realized it was a scam and asked their supervisor, who confirmed they were not the one sending the emails. The employee then contacted EPD to report the emails. EPD is currently working to find where the emails originated and who sent them, Shoemaker said.
Terroristic threats
A student who had her iPhone stolen while visiting New Orleans in February contacted EPD on March 20 after receiving threats over text.
“An unknown party said that they know who she is, they know where she lives, and they threatened to slaughter her family and also do personal violence to her if she does not remove the phone,” Shoemaker said. “By removing the phone, they mean taking the phone off of her Apple account so that it wouldn't be locked anymore so they can get access to the phone.”
Shoemaker said the student was especially concerned about the fact that the person knew where she lived.
“Nothing thus far has happened in the way of carrying out those threats,” Shoemaker said.
When the phone was first stolen, the student contacted Apple. After Apple locked her lost phone and deactivated the SIM card, the student used Find My iPhone to figure out that her phone was in suburban New Orleans. New Orleans police officers attempted to locate the phone but were unsuccessful, Shoemaker said. The student ultimately replaced her phone.
The unknown individual texted the student’s new phone through her iCloud account, according to Shoemaker.
The case remains active and EPD is currently investigating the origin of the threats.
Theft by taking
On March 19, a parking officer put two boots on a vehicle in the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity chapter’s parking lot, which is located at 8 Eagle Row, because the driver owed several hundred dollars worth of unpaid parking tickets, according to Shoemaker. Boots are metal devices that attach to a car’s tires to make them undriveable.
The next morning, the officer discovered that the boots and vehicle were missing and reported the situation to EPD.
Removing a boot is “tricky,” according to Shoemaker.
“It’s hard to do without damaging the vehicle, but you can do it if you know what you’re doing,” Shoemaker said. “To make a long story short, the person who was responsible for the vehicle knew what they were doing.”
The individual took the two boots off, put them in the back of the vehicle and moved the car somewhere else. However, EPD ultimately located the vehicle.
“We had a heart-to-heart talk with them [making] things right with the parking office, which will decide whether or not they want to proceed criminal prosecution for stealing boots in the first place,” Shoemaker said.
