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The strip search phone call scam is a series of incidents that extended over a period of about ten years before an arrest was made in 2004. The incidents involved a man calling a restaurant or grocery store, claiming to be a police officer and then convincing managers to conduct strip searches of female employees, and to perform other bizarre acts on behalf of "the police". The calls were most often placed to fast-food restaurants in small towns, located in rural areas of the United States. Over 70 such occurrences were reported in 30 U.S. states, until an incident in 2004 in Mount Washington, Kentucky (population 9,117), finally led to the arrest of David Richard Stewart,〔(Local Man to Face Phone Hoax Charges ), WJHG web site, October 9, 2004.〕 a 37‑year-old employee of Corrections Corporation of America, a firm contracted by several states to provide corrections officers at private detention facilities. On October 31, 2006, Stewart was acquitted of all charges in the Mount Washington case. He was suspected, but never charged, of having made other, similar scam calls. ==Before the Mount Washington scam== There were numerous prior incidents in many states which followed the pattern of the fraudulent call to a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky. Most of the calls were made to fast-food restaurants, but a few were made to grocery stores. A caller who identified himself as a police officer or other authority figure would contact a manager or supervisor and would solicit their help in detaining a female employee or customer who was suspected of a crime. He would provide a description of the suspect, which the manager would recognize, and he would then ask the manager to search the suspected woman. Some notable incidents were: * Two calls were reported in 1992: one in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and another in Fallon, Nevada.〔 * On November 30, 2000, a female McDonald's manager in Leitchfield, Kentucky, undressed herself in the presence of a customer. The caller had convinced her that the customer was a "suspected sex offender" and that the manager, serving as bait, would enable undercover police officers to arrest him.〔 * On January 26, 2003, an Applebee's assistant manager subjected a waitress to a 90-minute strip search after receiving a collect call from someone who purported to be a regional manager for Applebee's.〔 * In February 2003, a call was made to a McDonald's in Hinesville, Georgia. The female manager (who believed she was speaking to a police officer who was with the director of operations for the restaurant's upper management) took a 19‑year-old female employee into the women's bathroom and strip-searched her. She also brought in a 55‑year-old male employee, who conducted a body cavity search of the woman to "uncover hidden drugs." McDonald's and the GWD Management Corporation were taken to court over the incident. In 2005, U.S. District Judge John F. Nangle granted a summary judgment to McDonald's and denied, in part, a summary judgment to GWD Management.〔30 March 2005, (case 4:03‑cv‑00167‑JFN ), United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah Division 〕 In 2006, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgments.〔28 September 2006, (D. C. Docket no. 03-00167‑CV-4 ), 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals〕 * On June 3, 2003, a Taco Bell manager in Juneau, Alaska, undressed a 14‑year-old female customer and forced her to perform lewd acts at the request of a caller who had claimed he was working with Taco Bell management to investigate drug abuse〔 * In July 2003, a 36‑year-old Winn-Dixie grocery store manager in Panama City, Florida, received a call instructing him to bring a 19‑year-old female cashier (who matched a description provided by the caller) into an office where she was to be strip-searched. The cashier was forced to undress and pose in various positions as part of the search. The incident ended when another manager entered the office to retrieve a set of keys.〔http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/15/State/Supermarket_superviso.shtml〕 * In March 2004, a 17‑year-old female customer at a Taco Bell in Fountain Hills, Arizona, was strip-searched by a manager who had received a call from a man claiming to be a police officer. ==The Mount Washington scam== On April 9, 2004, a call was made to a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky. According to assistant manager Donna Summers, the caller identified himself as a policeman, "officer Scott." The caller gave Summers a vague description of a slightly-built young white woman with dark hair, who was suspected of theft. Summers believed the description provided was that of Louise Ogborn, a woman who was currently on duty at the restaurant. Ogborn had just turned 18 years of age. The "police officer" demanded that Ogborn be searched at the restaurant because no officers were available at the moment to handle such a minor matter. Ogborn was brought into an office and ordered to remove her clothes, which Summers then placed in a bag and took to her car, as instructed. Ogborn then put on an apron to partially cover herself. Kim Dockery, another assistant manager,〔 was present at that time; Dockery believed she was there as a witness to the search. Dockery left after an hour, and Summers told the caller that she needed to be working at the restaurant's counter. The caller then told Summers to bring in someone whom she trusted to assist with the investigation.〔 Summers first asked Jason Bradley, one of the restaurant's cooks, to watch Ogborn. When the caller ordered Bradley to remove Ogborn's apron and describe her, Bradley refused but did not attempt to call the police. Summers then called her fiancé, Walter Nix Jr., who went to the restaurant and took over from Summers. After being told that a police officer was on the phone, Nix can be seen obeying the caller's instructions for the next two hours. Nix removed the apron that Ogborn was wearing and ordered her to dance and perform jumping jacks while she was naked. Nix then ordered her to insert her fingers into her vagina and expose it to him as part of the "search." He also ordered her to sit on his lap and kiss him, and when she refused to do so he spanked her until she promised to do it. The caller also spoke to Ogborn and demanded that she do as she was told or face worse punishment. Recalling the incident later, Ogborn said that, "I was scared for my life." After Ogborn had been in the office for two and a half hours, she was ordered to perform oral sex on Nix. Summers returned to the office periodically, and during these times Ogborn was instructed by the caller to cover herself up with the apron. Nix became uneasy about what was happening. The caller then permitted him to leave on condition that Summers had to find someone to replace him. After Nix left, he called a friend and told him, "I have done something terribly bad."〔 With Nix having left, and short on staff due to the dinnertime rush, Summers needed someone to replace him in the office. She spotted Thomas Simms, the restaurant's maintenance man, who had stopped in at the restaurant for dessert. She told Simms to go into the office and watch Ogborn. Simms, however, refused to go along with the caller's demands. At this point, Summers became suspicious and decided to call a higher-level manager (whom the caller had earlier claimed to have been speaking to on another phone line). Speaking with her boss, Summers discovered that he had been sleeping and had not spoken to any police officer. She realized that the call had been fraudulent. The caller then abruptly ended the call. An employee dialled *69 before another call could ring in, thus obtaining the number of the caller's telephone. Summers was now hysterical and began apologizing. Ogborn (shivering and wrapped in a blanket) was released from the office after three and a half hours. The police were called to the restaurant; they arrested Nix on a charge of sexual assault and began an investigation to find the perpetrator of the scam call. The entire incident was recorded by a surveillance camera in the office. Summers watched the tape later that night and, according to her attorney, broke off her engagement with Nix.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Strip search phone call scam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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