Georgia
Georgia Tech police warn of new phone snatching scam around campus and Midtown Atlanta
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Chance Corley is a freshman at Kennesaw State University-Marietta. He often drives to Atlanta. One day he made it to Midtown near the Georgia Tech campus when he said he saw a group of four to six guys at an intersection. They were asking for donations via Cash App.
“They were like no, no let me type it in, let me type it in,” he said.
Corley said regretfully, he handed the phone over.
“I’ve had to raise money for sports before so I figured might as well give a dollar or two. Before I knew it, they took off with my phone, and my student ID,” said Corley.
When he finally got a look at his Cash App account, it was drained.
“It was just emptied out. I haven’t had a savings account which is a big mistake. I’m probably going to get one set up,” said Corley.
He quickly filed a police report with Atlanta police. Georgia Tech police said these phone-snatching scams are on the rise in and around their campus and the surrounding Midtown community. The department sent this statement to Atlanta News First:
“Recent phone snatching and payment app incidents have members of the Georgia Tech Police Department warning students and people in the Midtown community to be aware. Lt. Jessica Howard advises some basic reminders to keep from becoming a victim. She says:
· Make sure to use the safety features built into your phone like facial recognition and strong passcodes for both accessing your phone and digital payment platforms within your phone.
· Don’t hand your phone to anyone to enter their own payment information on cash or payment apps.
· Be aware of your surroundings when walking and using your phone.”
Through the help of his own family and his roommate, Corley was able to replace his phone and replenish the money he lost.
“At first I was mad, but it could have been a lot worse. They could have ripped me out of my car, and taken my car. They could have beaten me. I’m just happy to be alive,” said Corley.
Although the incident put him on edge, he still will always find it in his heart, to be kind, but just more vigilant.
“If they’re willing to donate $1 to the cause, that’s enough but you shouldn’t take advantage of people’s kindness,” he said about the suspects.
Atlanta police said they have opened an investigation into the incident.
Copyright 2024 WANF. All rights reserved.
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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