BrickHouse Security Blog

Kidnap, sexual assault, and ransom. Sounds horrible, but Florida prosecutors contend that one woman cooked up this lethal combination to squeeze $50,000 from her wealthy husband. 37-year-old Quinn Gray has been charged with extortion for planning her own abduction, assault, ransom, and ultimate return. Prosecutors claim that the woman cooked up this action movie inspired plan with her 25-year-old Bosnian immigrant lover who helped her execute the plan.

Quinn Gray went missing on Friday September 4th from her Jacksonville, Florida home. A ransom note was left in her place, written in Quinn’s handwriting that said:

“There are three men holding me right now, and they want $50,000 cash. Stay at the house NO COPS! Keep your cell phone on you. Keep the kids with you. Please do this honey, please!”

But what lead prosecutors to believe that this was actually a scam? Authorities cited that the manager of the hotel where Gray was allegedly held against her will said that she was not “distressed at all.” If that wasn’t enough to make you think twice, police also uncovered a 90-minute audiotape of Gray and Osmanovic’s romp in bedroom and discussing the details of the fake kidnapping.

Her lawyers content that due to her mental illness and substance abuse, she became an easy target for Osmanovic. Quinn’s lawyer told Matt Lauer on the Today show that Gray is a very sick woman, “Her reaction to the kidnapping, it may seem bizarre, but it’s all explained by her mental illness.”  The lawyers contend that the audio tape is  “an audio recording of a woman who has been kidnapped, abducted and being raped.”

Gray’s husband, Reid Gray, is supporting his wife throughout this ordeal, stating “This has been an extraordinarily traumatic experience for me and my entire family. I am deeply concerned over how this incident has, and will continue to, affect our children. I love my family and will do whatever I can to make sure that Quinn receives all of the help and support that she needs.” Osmanovic on the other hand, states that he and Gray had a six-week relationship. Prosecutors are currently investigating these allegations.

(Via MSNBC)

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Blu Dot, a Minneapolis based design firm will carry out a new and never before tried way of marketing. The design firm that specializes in high end chairs, will be placing their chairs throughout Manhattan, one by one, with no promotional or sales material attached with them. The firm expects that people will take these chairs and adopt them into their homes or lack thereof.  What these people don’t know is that they’re being watched.

The chairs will be equipped with GPS tracking devices that will update their location in real-time on the company’s website, and may also be projected on the wall of the Soho Store (whose one year anniversary inspired this event). And if this wasn’t enough, each chair will have it’s own Twitter feed and report the new location every time it is moved.

“Where does great design end up in New York? What sort of a person invites these chairs into their homes?… It’s all an experiment, but in our experience consumers appreciate brands that come up with new ways of interacting.” says Michael Hart, co-founder of Mono, a Minneapolis advertising firm that developed the project with Blu Dot.

A few months from now, the video crew will use the GPS tracking devices in the chairs to track them down, in hopes to get an interview with the people who took them, no matter who it is: homeowners or the homeless. They will ask why they took them and how they are using them and hopefully learn some ways to make them better.

(Via FastCompany)

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According to the Denver Post, because of GPS tracking devices and other anti-theft deterrent technologies, there has been a major decrease in the number of stolen vehicles reported nationally. People are becoming smarter when it comes to protecting their cars and police are using the new technologies available to them to help catch criminals in the act. From car owners using glass-etching paste to burn their VIN permanently onto every window, to cops driving cars with computerized license-plate readers that can sweep an entire grocery-store parking lot for stolen vehicles in a matter of seconds, new technology is helping bring auto theft rates drastically down. [...]

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After an incident where a perpetrator stabbed an 11-year-old boy and was never identified, the municipal transit system in San Francisco performed a thorough check on all of their surveillance cameras. The startling results showed that that out of the approximately 960 vehicles equipped with surveillance devices, 22 percent didn’t work at all, and 30 percent were only partially functional. This revealed that only 48 percent of all the cameras installed were actually working properly.

The check also discovered significant problems such as blurry images, vandalized cameras, poor sound, broken data packs, bad cables and inoperable recorders. There were also some cameras found that were still operating even though they are around 9 years old, which is practically ancient compared to the surveillance systems available today. [...]

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In the wake of the recent Erin Andrews case, hotels everywhere are beginning to revamp their security policies. Until now, requests for adjacent rooms have been handled inconsistently throughout the hotel industry. If you ask for a room next to another guest, some hotels will call the other guest for consent, but many will simply go ahead and book it without confirming with the other party.

“This is a wake up call for the hotel industry,” said Peter Greenberg, author of Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective and CBS travel editor.

[...]

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Due to a poor economic climate, The City of Detroit has been forced to cut its police force by more than 25 percent. With the unemployment rate going up, the local police that remain are overwhelmed and understaffed. In areas where its residents can pay, private security companies are fast becoming one of Detroit’s most rapid growing businesses. “People put a premium on security when unemployment and crime go up,” says Larry Dusing, founder of Dusing Security & Surveillance.

Dusing Security is one of the companies that provides security for the once prosperous enclaves of Detroit like Palmer Woods, Boston-Edison and Indian Village. The company investigates the reports of suspicious activities and break- ins.

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There has been a massive meat recall in all areas from North Carolina to Maine. Over a half-million pounds of ground beef, issued Friday by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y., was recalled after concerns that the meat may have been tainted with a harmful strain of E. Coli.

Consumers are advised to look for packages with sell-by dates of Sept. 19 through Sept. 28. ”Consumers who identify these products should return them to the point of purchase for a full refund,” said Ron Allen, Fairbank Farms CEO. Originally, the recall applied to eight states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts and North Carolina. But because  some of the food chains may have redistributed packages, Fairbank Farms has expanded the range to include all Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.

The packages were sold under a variety of brand names, ranging from Acme Markets Lancaster Brand Ground Beef and Extra Lean Ground Beef to Giant Food Stores Meatloaf and Meatball Mix to Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop Fine Quality Meats Ground Beef. Consumers are also reminded that ground beef should always be cooked thoroughly to an internal temperature of 160 degrees or more to kill any bacteria mixed in by the grinding process.

(Via Philly.com)

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