News
6 October 2006
Volume 119, Issue 4
Scam
artists: one victim’s story
By: Michelle Anstett
Editor-in-chief
There have been many rumors circulating in regards to the magazine scam which was perpetrated on campus two weekends ago, but very few truths have circulated.
Junior Kimberley Gratzke, a resident of McMichael Hall and one of the victims of these men, wanted to set the record straight with her story. Gratzke, who was not present at the time of the incident, attempted to go through all the appropriate channels in order to press charges and gain restitution, but she has not heard anything as of yet.
The men gained entry to her dorm room by means of an unlocked door, and they rifled around in both Gratzke’s things, and her roommate’s, Nikki Wasilewski. At the time, Gratzke recalls being in the dorm, but believes she was probably downstairs in the kitchen cooking lunch. She is unsure of what exactly happened while the men were in her room.
She was, however, present when the two men were caught on the third floor of Winbigler Hall. One of the students with Gratzke at the time called another victim, Jenna Buechel, to identify the men. Beuchel arrived in Winbigler and asked Gratzke if she had signed a receipt for magazines, which Gratzke denied doing. “That is when we realized that one of the guys forged my signature on a receipt,” Gratzke stated.
This man, whose “goldish pants matched his gold-crowned teeth,” was named Joseph, she said. He admitted to both Gratzke and a police officer that he did not know forging someone’s signature was against the law. At this point, Gratzke had to write out and sign a statement for the police stating the man had admitted to forging her signature. She also had to sign another document in order to formally press charges.
At some time, Gratzke was told that the men who had forged her signature would be arrested for their crime, but she discovered otherwise. She and her neighbor, Lynsay Ryan, followed the police officers as they took the two men off campus.
Instead of going to the police station, the officers dropped the two men off at Ayerco gas station, where they got into a white van with a bent bumper, bearing Georgia license plates. The officers then left the gas station and returned a short time later with a third man, who also got into the van.
The officers stated “that since no money was lost based on the forgery on that specific receipt,” they could not take the men into custody, Gratzke said. Instead, they could only “turn in my reports to the state’s attorney’s office and the state’s attorney could either reject the case or put a warrant out for the man’s arrest.”
Gratzke then returned to her room to discover her financial information in her top desk drawer had been rifled through by someone. She called her credit card companies and banks to cancel all her cards and accounts, even though all her information was present, as far as she could tell. “If they forged my signature, they could have easily written down account numbers and credit card numbers,” Gratzke said. After she had completed these tasks, Gratzke began cancelling her checks. It was then that she realized one of her checks was missing from her checkbook. At this point, Gratzke and Ryan called the police to report the missing checks.
The police returned to campus to substantiate the students’ claims, noting the numbers of the missing checks. The police left the students’ rooms at approximately 9:15 p.m., and Gratzke took a trip to Wal-Mart to try and get her mind off the ordeal.
Upon her return, Gratzke discovered a note on her door from her RA stating that security also had to write down all the information about her missing check in order to file a report with the school. They came and did this, leaving McMichael at approximately 12:15 a.m.
During this whole situation, Gratzke believes the Per Mar security guards were helpful and “truly wanted to listen to students’ needs.” She also stated that the Monmouth police “were slightly unprofessional in their actions and did not organize an appropriate atmosphere for questioning of all the victims.”
Her advice to anyone who may have fallen victim to these men is to cancel checks and credit cards, especially if you were not present when the men entered your room. She also suggests filing a complete report with the police department, making sure that the numbers of any missing checks, or checks given as payment for false magazine subscriptions, are noted in the report.
