-
- Be careful who you meet on the Internet.
-
- Police said if you haven't gotten that message already,
maybe you will after learning what recently happened to two Richmond-area
men.
-
- They talked with a woman in an Internet chat room, agreed
to meet her and got robbed at gunpoint in the process. They lost their
cash, credit cards and cars. One of them was assaulted.
-
- But the good news is that Henrico County police have
arrested three suspects in the Internet holdup scheme. A woman who police
believe conversed on line with the two victims was arrested last night
near her home.
-
- Two men accused of being her accomplices were arrested
Saturday after investigators learned they purchased some items with one
of the victim's credit cards 90 minutes after he was robbed.
-
- "It's just kind of a new twist" on robbing
people, said Henrico police Investigator Rick Valentine of the Internet
holdup scheme.
-
- "You just never know who or what you're talking
to" on the Internet, Valentine added. "Just use great caution
if you meet somebody that way."
-
- Valentine, a veteran robbery detective, said this is
the first case he's encountered where the Internet was used to "intentionally
try to bring somebody into an area so they can rob them."
-
- "I just never heard of it before," he said.
-
- The first case unfolded after the victim, a 19-year-old
Chesterfield man, met a woman in an Internet chat room while using his
home computer. Their conversation became sexually explicit, and the two
arranged to meet, Valentine said.
-
- "He was going to meet her . . . I guess just like
you would anybody you meet on the telephone or wherever," Valentine
said. "I guess he was going to see where things went from there. The
conversation they were having was enticing to him."
-
- So the man drove at 3 a.m. to a housing complex off Mountain
Road in Henrico, and "the girl was there waiting for him" when
he arrived. After she got into his car, a man appeared at his window with
a gun in each hand and pulled him out of the vehicle, Valentine said.
-
- The victim said he was beaten in
-
- the head with one of the guns before being robbed of
his wallet, $115, his boots and pager. The man then drove off in the victim's
car.
-
- The victim walked about a mile before flagging down a
cab driver, who called police.
-
- The second robbery occurred four days later after a Henrico
man in his 20s agreed to meet a woman he talked with in a chat room on
America Online. The woman used the screen name SARAHBEEING99, according
to a court affidavit written by Henrico Investigator James Adkins, who
helped break the case.
-
- The man drove at 7:30 p.m. to their agreed upon meeting
place -- the entrance to the apartment complex at the corner of 1600 Winona
Blvd. A woman soon approached his car, and the two began to talk.
-
- But then two men arrived, both armed with semi-automatic
pistols, and they demanded the man's wallet and ordered him out of his
1998 Ford Contour.
-
- They took his cash and credit cards before driving off
in his car, according to an affidavit to search one of the suspect's home.
By then, the woman had disappeared.
-
- About 90 minutes later, the two gunmen went to Virginia
Center Commons and, using the victim's VISA card, made a $156 purchase
at the Foot Locker, bought $223 in clothing at Fine's Men's Shop and bought
a $79 stainless steel pewter dagger from Totally Tags.
-
- With the help of America Online, police learned the Internet
messages came from a computer at 2916 Barwood Road, later identified as
one of the suspect's homes.
-
- Investigators checked the victim's credit card account
to see what purchases were made, and that led them to the three stores,
Adkins said. Then on Sept. 17, a clerk at Fine's identified the two male
suspects from a photo spread that included their pictures.
-
- On Saturday, police arrested Cleante L. Woolfolk, 18,
of the 2900
-
- block of Barwood Road, and his brother, Charles L. Woolfolk
III, 20, of the 200 block of Carleigh Court.
-
- Cleante Woolfolk was charged with two counts each of
robbery, credit card fraud and using a firearm in the commission of felony,
and one count of grand theft-auto. Charles Woolfolk was charged with one
count each of robbery and use of a firearm and two counts of credit card
fraud.
-
- Kimberly L. Johnson, 18, was arrested last night near
the home she shared with Cleante Woolfolk. Police have charged her with
two counts each of credit card fraud and use of a firearm in a felony,
and one count each of robbery and carjacking.
-
- During a search of Cleante Woolfolk's home, police found
the pewter dagger that was purchased with the stolen credit card and a
computer system, according to court papers.
-
- Both brothers were being held without bond in the Henrico
Jail pending hearings Nov. 10 in Henrico General District Court.
-
- © 1999, Richmond Newspapers Inc.
|
