Well, like all government now, it's all part and parcel of the same protect [yourselves and your ego/government/police interests] and serve [the same].
It's a shame. This is the government of we the apethic people who have allowed this nation to get to this sorry state........sigh.
Carole Crane was one of the Portland area's most prolific identity thieves, a "creeper" who rifled purses in churches and preschools. She used clever disguises, once escaped jailers by feigning a bellyache, and spent precious little time behind bars.
All that ended Wednesday, when a federal judge sentenced her to more than 10 years in prison for bank fraud.
Crane, 47, sat passively in shackles and a striped jail jumpsuit as U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown imposed the prison term and five years of supervised release. Brown denied Crane's request to be freed on house arrest for three weeks so that she could tend to her very sick mother.
"I just can't see any rational basis on which to release you today -- or in the near future -- from custody," the judge said.
Brown noted that the last time she freed Crane, in 2006, authorities in western Washington accused Crane of a new round of identity thefts.
Crane racked up 32 felony convictions in a criminal career that began with a forgery in 1983, authorities said. From 2004 to 2005, she presided as ringleader of a rogue's gallery of dopers, boozers and gamblers, who wheedled their way into the wallets of scores of victims in places where people typically let their guard down.
They hit churches, day care centers, preschools, medical offices, veterinary clinics, elementary schools, elder care facilities and other spots. Police call such thieves creepers, because they creep into buildings and make off with wallets, purses, credit cards and checks, then siphon bank accounts by assuming identities.
Crane's gang made victims of more than 50 people and 15 banks, making off with nearly $200,000, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lance Caldwell, who prosecuted the case.
"In my experience," he said, "this is one of the most longtime and prolific identity theft conspiracies plaguing the Portland area and beyond during 2004 to 2007."
Investigators and others who have come into contact with Crane describe her as tough, strong-willed and irrepressible. Her case languished before Brown for years, even after a 2006 guilty plea, because she fired three court-appointed attorneys and sought treatment for a mental disorder.
Crane's guilty plea and sentencing agreement spare her from facing other identity theft charges.
No one can deny that Crane was a cunning crook.
Several years ago, Crane, who is African American, pulled up to a drive-through window of a Portland bank carrying the ID of a white woman. She made off with the victim's money by donning a blond wig and covering her face with makeup.
(more in link)
By Bryan Denson, The Oregonian
Here is an interesting story about one woman I am happy to see go to prison for Creeper activity.