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Serving Brunswick County for 51 years
51st year | No. 4 © 2012 The Brunswick Beacon
Thursday,
December
56 pages,
4 sections,
13
Plus Inserts
75¢ Per Copy
2012
Speeding driver to 911: I’ll stop for $300,000
Curse-filled
call to 911 tells
operator to ‘call
off your dogs;’
says she’s done
nothing wrong
■ Charged with DWI,
flee and elude, more
By Rachel Johnson
Staff Writer
A South Carolina woman
who led Brunswick County
Sheriff’s Office deputies
on a high-speed pursuit
Monday night called 911
and said she’d stop—for
$300,000.
According to the BCSO,
deputy Joe Cherry attempted a traffic stop on
Monday, Dec. 10, around
11:25 p.m. The driver failed
to stop for blue lights and
a siren.
Instead,
Jeniffer Melisa Herring, 37, of
121 Misty
Pine Drive,
Surfside
Beach, S.C.,
led police
Herring
Welcome, Willie
on a pursuit that began on
Holden Beach Road and
Oxpen Road in Supply.
“The pursuit lasted approximately 15 minutes and
reached speeds of approximately 70 mph in a 45 mph
zone,” said Mose Highsmith, of legal affairs with
BCSO.
The majority of the pursuit was recorded during
the 911 call. A nine minute
and 46 second recording
begins with Herring identifying herself.
“Hi, this is Jenna and I
don’t have an emergency
See Chase, 5A
busted
Operation Christmas Crackdown
targets people with warrants
Staff photo by Rachel Johnson
Twenty-nine of 34 suspects were arrested Wednesday, Dec. 5,
with an additional four suspects charged. One additional suspect
was arrested on Thursday, Dec. 6, and charged as of press time
Tuesday.
Staff photos by Laura Lewis
Willie Nelson performs onstage Friday night at Odell Williamson Auditorium at Brunswick Community College. He is accompanied by
his son, Lukas, and Mickey Raphael on harmonica. See more photos at www.brunswickbeacon.com.
Music legend Willie Nelson breaks crowd
record at Odell Williamson Auditorium
By Laura Lewis
STAFF WRITER
BOLIVIA—The crowd
roared when Willie Nelson
hit the stage at Odell Williamson Auditorium last
Friday night to perform
his first-ever Brunswick
County gig.
Fans rushed toward the
front of the auditorium to
shoot photos on cameras
and cell phones as Nelson
strolled onstage for the
Dec. 7 performance and
immediately broke into
“Whiskey River,” his first
song of the night.
For the next hour and
a half, Nelson, clad in
black with a red bandanna under his hat, sang
and strummed nonstop on
Trigger, his legendary guitar bearing signatures and
a hole worn throughout
the years by Nelson’s con-
Staff photo by
Brian Slattery
Steve Kehrer,
left, and Karl
Miller intend to
revolutionize
the refrigerated
truck market
from the new
manufacturing
and assembly
building they
have opened in
Shallotte.
From their seats in the balcony of Odell Williamson Auditorium, Jim Aucreman and his wife,
Kathryn, of Conway, S.C., are decked out for Willie Nelson’s concert.
stant playing.
“Good Hearted
Woman,” “Funny How
Time Slips Away,” and
“Crazy” were among other
classics Nelson zipped
through before introducing his piano-playing sis-
ter, Bobbie, as well as his
sons, Micah, on drums,
See Concert, 3A
New jobs come to Shallotte
■ Refrigerated truck
builder picks Shallotte
for startup’s hub
By Brian Slattery
Staff Writer
SHALLOTTE—A new business that opened in Shallotte on Dec. 5 intends to
revolutionize the refrigerated trucking market, but
local officials are happy just
to have the anticipated 30
new jobs created in the first
year.
NEAH Transportation
Holdings chose an existing
building in Shallotte Business Park to base manufacturing and assembly of a
new Refrigerated Transportation Vehicle (RTV).
See Jobs, 5A
More than 30 people were
wanted on drug charges
■ Four still sought
By Rachel Johnson
STAFF WRITER
Last Wednesday,
Dec. 5, multiple law enforcement agencies joined
the Brunswick County
Sheriff’s Office for Operation Christmas Crackdown.
Teams of officers gathered in Bolivia at 6 a.m.
with a goal of apprehending 34 suspects wanted on
drug charges from throughout the county.
According to the BCSO,
the operation targeted
street-level drug dealers.
The investigation began in
September.
“They can expect by
now that we are coming for
them,” Sheriff John Ingram
said in a morning briefing.
Officers separated and
worked different areas of
the county, serving warrants simultaneously. The
majority of suspects were
in custody and processed
at the Brunswick County
Detention Center by
10:30 a.m.
As the officers met and
set into motion plans for
the day, safety was a top
priority.
“Officer safety is always
one of the first concerns,”
said Mose Highsmith,
See Arrests, 2A
Scam hits nonprofit
for almost $27,000
By Rachel Johnson
STAFF WRITER
SHALLOTTE—A local nonprofit has become
a victim of a telephone
scam—and no one was
even in the office when it
happened.
Smart Start of Brunswick County on Sellers
Street in Shallotte received
a phone bill for more than
$26,987 for international
calls placed from its phone
line.
“We found out when we
got the phone bill,” Linda
Gironda, executive director, said. “Our bill is usually between $127 and
$139.”
The phone calls appeared individually on the
bill and showed they were
made on a weekend when
the nonprofit organization
isn’t open.
“At first we thought
someone must have broken
into our building. There
were eight pages of calls
made to various countries
in one weekend,” Gironda
said.
The agency’s November phone bill reflected the
calls. The phone company
recommended Gironda report it to police. The matter is under investigation;
however, those involved
See Scam, 3A
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HOROSCOPES, PUZZLES 17C
OBITUARIES 4,5A
RELIGION 8C
BE SCENE 11C
SPORTS SECTION B
WEATHER 18A
FROM THE FRONT
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Scam
From page 1A
know these types of international scams are hard to
prosecute.
According to Atlantic
Telephone Membership Cooperation, this isn’t the first
time a scam like this has
hit telephone customers in
Brunswick County.
Jody Heustess, marketing
manager, said a similar type
scam was reported a few
years ago. While ATMC is
a local telephone provider,
long distance may come
from a variety of providers.
ATMC long distance took
action late last week and
is working to put a stop to
these types of phone scams
for its long distance customers.
“We took the proactive
step of placing a international toll block on all 0 plus
international calls,” Heustess said. “If you want to
make those calls, you have
to call us and say I want to
make a call to a 0 plus number. We are doing it to be
proactive and keep this from
happening to other people.”
Heustess warns, “Other
businesses with other carriers are just as susceptible.”
He recommends if your
long distance carrier isn’t
ATMC and you have a
multi-line phone system in
place, contact your long distance carrier and ask for a
block.
“We didn’t do anything.
They randomly chose our
number,” Gironda said.
“There were calls every second. This is more common
than people think.”
Gironda and Helen Gabriel, program and evaluations director, recall one
Monday in November when
voicemail wasn’t working
properly when they came to
work.
Concert
From page 1A
and Lukas, playing guitar.
The concert opened with
performances by Nelson’s
daughter, Paula, and Lukas
and his band, Promise of
the Real.
There were more than
a few Nelson look-alikes
in the audience, including
Jim Aucreman of Conway,
S.C., who wore his own
bandanna over a long ponytail, vest and claw and
Native-American necklaces
as he sat in the balcony
with his wife, Kathryn.
“We’ve been excited for
over a month,” Kathryn
said about the concert.
Tickets went on sale in
mid October and quickly
sold out—the biggest concert and sell-out in history
at OWA, according to auditorium manager Mike
Sapp.
Walt Johnson of
Wampee, S.C., another
Willie Nelson look-alike,
attended the concert with
his daughter, Jennifer Phillips, and son, Nick.
Johnson, waiting for the
doors to open in the lobby
of Odell Williamson Auditorium prior to Nelson’s
concert, said he was told
years ago he resembles
Nelson. This was Johnson’s
first opportunity to see Nelson perform live.
“I’ve been listening to
Willie all my life,” he said.
His daughter drove up to
the auditorium to buy tickets shortly after they went
on sale in October.
Nelson continued belting
out his hits, including “Me
and Paul”—a reference to
drummer Paul English in
the 1970s.
Nelson sang “Shoeshine
Man” by Tom T. Hall, his
“We didn’t connect that
then,” Gabriel said. “Any
business with multi-lines
can be at risk.”
“Those susceptible to the
scam have a PDX (phone
date exchange) or key system unit. Usually hackers
robo dial business numbers,
usually after hours or on the
weekends. If an automated
attendant comes up they can
tell what type of system it is.
They are looking for weak
mailboxes that aren’t password protected or have a
weak password,” Heustess
said. “If out-dial capability
is enabled, they can set up a
bridge to reroute fraudulent
traffic over it. Usually the
hackers are out of the country. They can call anywhere
in the world.”
The reality is that Smart
Start of Brunswick County
could have to pay the bill
just as any multi-line customer could be liable for
calls placed from their number.
“I hope not,” Gironda
said. “It is under investigation and that will be up
to the telephone company.
ATMC has been very helpful. They have checked
our phone system and we
haven’t had an incident
since.”
“As a general rule of
thumb the long distance is
a tariffed item,” Heustess
said. “You are responsible
for the charges that are made
on your service. It is incumbent on the customer to try
to work on a long distance
provider to reduce charges
or they will have to pay the
bill.”
“We just want to make
sure our phones are safe,”
Gironda said. “We are hoping for the best.”
ATMC officials say they
anticipate mailing susceptible customers a letter in the
near future.
“We’ve been very proac-
tive by putting the international toll block on the lines
that are most susceptible.
Businesses will have to sign
a waiver to get unrestricted
dialing again,” Heustess
said. “Any business who
has their own telephone
and voicemail system, any
telephone line connected
to business lines that has
ATMC long distance, has
been placed on the international toll block. We highly
recommend that you contact
your long distance provider
and have an international
toll block placed on your
lines. If you are a business
that makes international
calls maybe you can have a
pin number placed on them.
“The best thing people
need to do is to be aware of
it. It’s out there and its happening. It doesn’t take but
one instance to hurt the bottom line. A few thousand
dollars here and there can
be crippling especially when
it’s for something your not
even doing.”
Smart Start of Brunswick
County offers a variety of
services designed to focus
on quality early childhood
education to prepare children for school success.
For more information
about the organization and
their work in Brunswick its
visit www.smartstart.org.
See this story online at
www.brunswickbeacon.com
to read more about tips and
practices to protect a multiline telephone system.
CORRECTION
A story on page 3A of the
Dec. 6 Brunswick Beacon
should have read: “As (Daniel) Brennick was escorted
from the courtroom at the
conclusion of sentencing,
he turned to his mother
who was seated behind
the defense table and said,
“Mom, make sure I get that
appeal.”
Me When I Die,” accompanied by harmonica player
Mickey Raphael and a
stageful of smoke.
He also treated the audience to a rendition of Irving
Berlin’s “Let’s Face the
Music and Dance,” which
he said will be on a new album scheduled for release
in January.
Was it OK, he asked the
audience, to sing new and
old songs? The crowd responded with a resounding
“yes.”
By the concert’s end at
10:30 p.m., Nelson had
rounded everything off with
performances of “City of
New Orleans,” “To All the
Staff photo by Laura Lewis Girls I’ve Loved Before”
Willie Nelson performs onstage and a concluding gospel
Friday night at Odell Williamson tune, “Uncloudy Day.”
Sapp said Nelson’s tour
Auditorium at Brunswick
stop in Brunswick County
Community College.
was smooth from start to
own classic “Pretty Paper,” finish.
“Everyone that was asthen a festive rendition of
“Jingle Bells,” alerting the sociated with Willie Nelson
was very professional and
responsive crowd to shout
just as easy to get along
“hey!” at the appropriate
with as they could be,” he
times.
said.
His sister Bobbie was
Nelson, he said, arfeatured with her keyboard
rived at the auditorium
skills at the grand piano.
After singing Hank Wil- just before his 9 p.m. deliams’ “Jambalaya (On the but, briefly shaking hands
Bayou),” Nelson tossed out with VIPs before continuing onstage. When the conhis bandanna to a lucky
cert ended, he was whisked
someone in the audience.
away to his waiting bus.
There were plenty more
The legendary 79-yearNelson classics—“Angels
old singer had fulfilled his
Flying Too Close To the
Brunswick County gig. Just
Ground,” “On the Road
as quickly as he arrived
Again” (with the audihere, just like Elvis, Willie
ence clapping along and
Nelson had left the buildsinging on the chorus), a
ing.
couple of solos on Trigger, “You Were Always
On My Mind,” “Georgia
On My Mind,” and gospel consisting of “Will the
Circle Be Unbroken,” “I’ll
Fly Away,” and “I Saw the
Light.”
Nelson sang his classic,
“Roll Me Up and Smoke
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