St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 22

015 AUG 2 7 2032 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH U'ESDAY-L August 27 2002 SECnON IlJJNOIS clifiuclis is closing supsriwliet in Kilid GREG FREEMAN 0 Spokeswoman cites nearby competition of super Wal-Mart Pigeon drop scam goes high-tech with e-mail from Nigeria sort," Schnucks spokeswoman Lori O. Willis said. "This is a unique situation." About 50 employees work at the store. They will be offered jobs at other Schnucks locations, preferably at one of the company's 12 other Metro East-area stores, Willis said.

"It's a very emotional thing to have to go through," Willis said. Shortly after Wal-Mart opened a supercenter, including a grocery store, a year ago, Schnucks began to feel the pinch, Willis said. Executives considered closing the store then but decided to push harder for more sales over the next year, Chief Executive Craig D. Schnuck said in a prepared statement. But Wal-Mart had an edge with its lower pay and benefits, Schnuck said.

Wal-Mart typically undersells competing grocers' prices by 10 percent to 40 percent. "It is impossible for us to recover lost sales volume," Schnuck said. The Schnucks store in Highland, smaller than the chain's average 63,000 square feet, lacked enough space for profitable specialties such as a seafood department, pharmacy, food bar or nutrition and beverage centers, Schnuck said. The company wouldn't disclose financial information. The store was remodeled two years ago to provide some additional display space and update the decor, but a significant expansion wasn't feasible financially, Willis said.

"We were afraid this was going to happen, but what could we do?" asked Highland City Manager Darin Girdler. See Grocery, B3 BySheraDalin and Rick Pierce Of the Post-Dispatch The Schnucks supermarket in Highland will close next month because competition from retailing behemoth Wal-Mart squeezed profits, officials of the grocery chain said Monday. The store at 2675 Northtown Way will close Sept. 21 after seven years at that location under the Schnucks banner. The store previously had been a National supermarket.

"Closing is always a last re Deaf puppy has a long drive home r1 1 1 Minimi i i in 1 I 4 i I I a mals require special training to respond to hand signals instead of spoken commands, Gale said. It took eight months to house train Purdy, Andria said. The couple, their three children and foster daughter use six signals from American sign language and standard dog obedience signs to communicate with Purdy. Many Dalmatians are deaf because of inbreeding, Gale said. Dotty, who has brown spots instead of black, appears be a purebred who was mostly likely abandoned by a breeder because of the deafness, she said.

The pup has been at the humane society for about a month waiting for a home. Reporter Shera Daltn: E-mail: Phone: 618-659-3628 i ill -1; A "She's even cuter than I expected." Darrel Olson-Rosco and then not realize she was deaf and bring her back." Said Darrel, "That just kind of hit us right in the heart." Before the couple found Dotty on petfinder.com, the puppy's chances of finding a home appeared slim, said Dina Gale, operations manager for the humane society. "We have had a lot of people look at her," Gale said. "But when we tell them that she's deaf and she'll need some special training, they usually decide not to adopt her." Shelter officials were pleased that a couple who had experience with a deaf dog wanted to take Dotty. Deaf ani to DAVID CARSON POST-DISPATCH Lisa Iglehart (left) and Di Gilmore, of the Metro East Humane Society in Edwardsville, on Monday thank Darrel Olson-Rosco of Nine Mile Falls, for adopting Dotty, a 4-month-old deaf Dalmatian.

Do you know Tim Obaseki, who says he's the bills and exchange manager of the Eco Bank in Nigeria? How about Dr. Joshua Nmadi, who says he's the chief accounting officer of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria? Or Mike Abass, who says he's a branch manager at Zenith International Bank in Nigeria? I don't know any of them, either, but that hasn't stopped them from e-mailing me, and asking if they can put money into my bank account Their stories are all different, but they all want to deposit between $25 million and $35 million into my account temporarily, of course. Abass tells me of a civil engineer who deposited $25.5 million into the bank before dying in a grisly air crash, leaving no next of kin. If no one claims the money, it will automatically be put into a government fund for arms and ammunition "which will further enhance the course of war in Africa and the world in general." Therefore, if I want to avert war, I can step up to the plate, so the letter says, and claim to be a relative of this individual. At that point, the $25.5 million will be deposited into my account, and Abass and his associates will travel to the United States and will allow me to keep 20 percent of the money.

All I have to do is give them my bank account number so that they can transfer the money. And send them several thousand dollars "as a show of good faith." Having not been born yesterday, I've chosen to ignore these requests, high-tech variations on the old pigeon drop scam with much higher stakes. You know the pigeon drop scam: Someone comes up to you on the street and says that something really good has happened to them; perhaps they've found a bag with $2,500 in it They don't live in the greatest area and don't want to carry it around with them, and the banks are closed until Monday. Would you mind holding on to the bag until Monday? On Monday, the two of you will meet and he will give you $500 for holding on to it for him. All you have to do is to let him hold on to your purse or something of value as a show of good faith.

You know how the rest of the story goes: Turns out, there's nothing in the bag but old paper, and no one shows up on Monday. The scheme is pretty lame, really, and you would think that those perpetrating this new e-mail version would realize that most people didn't fall off turnip trucks. But apparently, they think a few did. In talking around, I learned that others have also received this e-mail. Fortunately, there's an Internet site that keeps track of hoaxes like this one.

I found the scam listed at www.snopes2.com. Their description of the hoax sounded quite familiar: "Here's how it works: Letters (or, nowadays, e-mail messages) postmarked from Nigeria (or Sierra Leone, or the Ivory Coast, or almost any other foreign nation) are sent to addresses taken from large mailing lists. The letters promise rich rewards for helping officials of that government (or bank, or quasi-government agency) out of an embarrassing situation or a legal problem. Typically, the pitch includes mention of multimillion-dollar sums, with the open promise that you will be permitted to keep a startling percentage of the funds you're going to aid in squirreling away for these disadvantaged foreigners." After you've agreed, something inevitably goes wrong: Paperwork is delayed, questions are asked, officials need to be bribed. You need to send money an insignificant amount compared with what youll get back to handle these costs.

Ultimately, you get no money and never hear from the perpetrators again. To date, it would appear that few people have fallen for the scheme. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center, which works with the FBI, reports receiving only two complaints in which the intended victim lost money. One was for the other $1,000. Even so, the federal government is taking the scam seriously.

The Secret Service is asking victims to contact its Financial Crimes Division, 950 Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. -20223, or telephone 202406-5850. Banker is charged with theft of $241,000 from clients Commercial State Bank says executive was fired, customers were repaid By Michael Shaw Of the Post-Dispatch A woman who worked at Commercial State Bank of Waterloo for more than 30 years has been charged with stealing $241,000 from dormant accounts there. In a federal indictment made public Monday in U.S. District Court in East St.

Louis, Norma F. Brandt, 52, a vice president of the institution, is accused of bank fraud. She was fired July 24, bank President David Weatherfield said. "All of the customers affected by this have been made whole," he said. According to the indictment, Brandt started targeting accounts in 1999 that had been inactive for more than 140 days and stopped statements from being mailed to the customers who owned them.

The indictment says she then transferred funds from retirement accounts into dormant savings accounts and withdrew the money. She also is accused of sending false tax documents to account holders to cover up the scheme. See Theft, B3 Ex-police chief loses private detective license State agency acts based on Romanik's convictions in Venezia investigation By Robert Goodrich Of the Post-Dispatch The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation has revoked the private detective license of Robert S. Romanik, a former Washington Park police chief, based on federal convictions in 1999. The department also revoked the license of an O'Fallon, 111., manicurist, suspended a Collins-ville dentist, restored the license of a Columbia pharmacist and put a Fairview Heights physician on indefinite probation.

Romanik, 52, pleaded guilty three years ago of lying to a grand jury investigating the video gambling empire of Thomas Venezia. He was placed on probation, but it was later revoked after he pleaded guilty of fraudulently obtaining loans for topless clubs in Washington Park and Centre-ville. See Romanik, B3 Washington state family adopts Dalmatian BySheraDalin Of the Post-Dispatch For a couple from Washington state, 2,000 miles wasn't too far to drive to adopt a Dalmatian puppy shunned because she is deaf. Andria and Darrel Olson-Rosco adopted Dotty on Monday from the Metro East Humane Society in Edwardsville. Darrel drove 30 hours from Nine Mile Falls, just north of Spokane, to adopt the 4-month old pup.

"Everyone is going to think we are insane," said Andria, who remained at home to care for their family. After driving Monday since 4 a.m., Darrel was delighted when he finally got to see the puppy. "Are you ready for a long drive home?" he said to Dotty as he stroked her back. "She's great. She's even cuter than I expected," Darrel said.

When asked whether the drive, including catnapping in his car Saturday was worth it, he said, "Absolutely." The couple, both 31, will take Dotty in as a companion for their other deaf Dalmatian, Purdida, or Purdy for short. "We realize how difficult it is to raise deaf dogs, especially Dalmatians," Andria said. Dotty "just had the sweetest, cutest face, and we were afraid that someone would adopt her tion said the association had found no violations of rules when Amber Shelton transferred to Edwardsville from Carrollton in June. Shelton, a junior this fall, led Carrollton's team to two Class A state championships in girls basketball in her freshman and sophomore years there. She transferred to Edwardsville three months after her coach at Carrollton, Lori Blade, left to become girls basketball coach at Edwardsville.

Carrollton High officials filed the complaint with the Illinois High School Association in June after they got several calls from angry area residents who believed Shelton had been recruited by Blade. See Recruiting, B3 COLLEGE LINKS FRESHMEN TO WIRELESS NETWORK Edwardsville High is cleared in inquiry over player's transfer High school association finds no rule violations in basketball star's move By Robert Kelly Of the Post-Dispatch The Illinois High School As-sociation has cleared Edwardsville High School of a complaint alleging recruiting violations in the transfer of a star former Carrollton High School basketball player to Edwardsville High. In a letter late last week to Edwardsville Superintendent Ed Hightower, Executive Director Marty Hickman of the Illinois High School Associa TEAK PHILLIPS POST-DISPATCH Trisha Smith (left) of Eldorado, and Ashley Loury of Poplar Bluff, learn how to use their new laptop computers Monday during freshman orientation at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. The college issued each of its 206 freshmen a laptop designed to communicate with the college's new wireless computer network..