eBay auto scammer told to repay victims

August 17, 2007
Post-Tribune staff report

A Chicago man who ran an auto online auction scam from a Highland apartment was sentenced Thursday to 18 months of probation and ordered to pay $12,000 restitution.

Lake Superior Court Judge Salvador Vasquez told Donald J. Hicks, 27, he is a scammer, manipulator and thief. "If you do this again in this county and you are convicted, you will go to prison," the judge said.

Hicks pleaded guilty June 12 to theft.

In 2004, Hicks operated D Executive Motors in Highland. Hicks advertised cars for sale on eBay, but kept money from unsuspecting bidders and either didn't ship the cars or sent much cheaper vehicles than had been advertised.

Hicks is ordered to pay restitution to victims in Champlin, Minn.; Mesa, Ariz.; Spring Mills, Pa.; and Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.



iTunes is currently playing: When The Party's Over from the album Hearsay
by Alexander O'Neal.

The following comment was posted today on a blog site called "The Housing Bubble", under the entry "This Is All A Snowball". Thanks to poster "aladinsane" (who may or may not be the original author).

Comment by aladinsane
2007-08-14 14:11:00

Ode to Glen Campbell…

By the time I get to Phoenix, foreclosures will be rising

They’ll find the N.O.D. note on her door

She’ll laugh when she reads the part about leaving

‘Cause I’ve heard this story so many times before

By the time the news reaches Albuquerque, the market stopped working

A Realtor will beg me @ lunch, to give me a call

But i’ll just hear that phone keep on ringin’

Off the wall that’s all

By the time the housing bubble falls in Oklahoma, rather steeply

It’ll turn swiftly and a Realtor will call my name out loud

Tho’ time and time I try to avoid him so

He just didn’t know, how low it could really go



iTunes is currently playing: Pop! Goes My Heart from the album Music and Lyrics by Hugh Grant.

You clearly need a writer who has read every issue of People Magazine ever published.



UPDATE 8/14/07:

And they didn't even write back to thank me!





iTunes is currently playing: Beloved Wife from the album Tigerlily by Natalie Merchant.

It is August at the Jersey Shore, a place that gives new meaning to the word HUMIDITY. The bozo driving the car is wearing a short sleeve t-shirt and a baseball cap. His significant other is dressed like a mummy.

I don't think God wants women to sweat to death.

... and not "to whom was it done?"

Breitbart.com has an AFP story today with the headline "Nearly half US murder victims are black: report". The article starts out by telling us:

"African-Americans are victims of nearly half the murders committed in the United States despite making up only 13 percent of the population ... Around 8,000 of nearly 16,500 murder victims in 2005, or 49 percent, were black Americans, according to the report released by the statistics bureau of the Department of Justice."

The article then gives a bunch of other statistics about murder victims, including this tidbit:

"Most murder victims -- 93 percent of blacks and 85 percent of whites -- were killed by someone of their own race."

If these statistics are accurate, blacks were responsible for 93% of murders committed in 2005 in which the victim was black (7,440) and 15% of murders in which the victim was white (1,275), or 8,715 out of 16,500 murders. That means that blacks, who make up 13% of the population, committed 53% of U.S. murders in 2005.

It is unfortunate that blacks make up 49% of murder victims in this country, but I am more interested in the fact that they commit 53% of the murders. After all, if I want to avoid being murdered, isn't it more important to know who is doing the killing (so I can avoid those people) then to know who the last victim was?

Of course the media would rather describe blacks as victims of violent crime than perpetrators of violent crime. It is so much more PC, don't you know.



iTunes is currently playing: Little Criminals from the album Little Criminals by Randy Newman.

From the Modesto Bee:

In a time when real estate stories are filled with foreclosures, loans gone sideways and homeowners on the brink of financial ruin, lending professionals say avoiding such traps requires a simple step. That step is to read through and understand every detail before committing to a home mortgage, though many consumers admit they don't.

In a recent poll of about 1,000 adults by Bankrate.com, about 34 percent of homeowners had no idea what kind of mortgage they had, said Greg McBride, a senior analyst for the financial information Web site.



iTunes is currently playing: Steal Me Blind from the album Alf by Alison Moyet.

... when you could only get a loan if you could prove you didn't really need it?

From MSNBC.com:

Washington Mutual, another big lender, in March stopped offering [no money down] loans to subprime borrowers, typically people with poor credit. It also reduced the size of loans to other borrowers.

"It used to be that we would finance a loan up to $1 million with no down payment for a first-time home buyer," said Daniel H. Aminoff, a senior loan consultant at Washington Mutual Home Loans in Alexandria. "But as of March, we will only finance a loan of $417,000 with no down payment."

AND

Many lenders now place more emphasis on job stability and low debt when writing no-down-payment loans. Almost all verify a borrower's income and employment, which was not the case during the housing boom.

iTunes is currently playing: Back Down To Earth from the album Boys In The Trees by Carly Simon.

I've been reading a number of blogs lately that document the housing crash which is going on all around us. One blog, called the Housing Bubble, includes a gallery of photos taken around the country that show the current state of things. Here are a few that I particularly like:



WHO would buy a house next door to THAT THING, in ANY kind of market?? Better yet, why did someone build a house there in the first place?



When someone says "I want a place with a view", they probably don't mean a view of a GAS STATION!!



And here is something for flippers to play while they wait for prospective buyers to show up at their open houses ... and wait ... and wait ... (Image is the creation of Aaron Erimez. Thanks, Aaron!)

iTunes is currently playing: House Of Cards from the album Stones In The Road by Mary Chapin Carpenter.

... hurry to Linens and Things and buy a SONIC SCRUBBER while they are still available.



Use it with Comet Soft Cleanser Cream with Bleach ...



... and watch what happens. This thing is amazing -- and worth every penny of the $12.99 price tag.

You're welcome!



iTunes is currently playing: Rest For The Weary from the album The Rainy Season by Marc Cohn.

My copy arrived from Amazon via UPS at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, the 21st. I finished it shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, the 22nd.

Wow. If you liked the first six books, you will LOVE #7. It was everything I had hoped for and then some. And it will make an amazing movie. I can hardly wait.

I'm sorry I didn't have time to re-read all six books before "Deathly Hallows" came out. I plan to re-read all seven one of these days. Maybe before I go see movie #7.

iTunes is currently playing: Seven Years from the album Tigerlily by Natalie Merchant.