(NEW YORK) — A federal bankruptcy court judge has dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, saying it is “in the best interests of creditors.”
The decision exposes the former New York City mayor to lawsuits, foreclosures and other measures that allow creditors, including two defamed Georgia election workers, to collect what they’re owed.
The decision followed months of missed deadlines by Giuliani, who evaded questions about his finances.
“The record in this case reflects Mr. Giuliani’s continued failure to meet his reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor in possession,” the decision said. “The lack of financial transparency is particularly troubling given concerns that Mr. Giuliani has engaged in self-dealing and that he has potential conflicts of interest that would hamper the administration of his bankruptcy case.”
Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December 2023 after a jury ordered him to pay nearly $150 million to former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss for defaming them with false accusations that the mother and daughter committed election fraud while the two were counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.
The dismissal will allow Giuliani to appeal the defamation judgment.
(NEW YORK) — Historic heat is still raging in the West, with life-threatening temperatures baking California to Colorado before the dangerous, triple-digit heat moves to the East Coast.
Las Vegas hit its sixth day in a row of temperatures at or above 115 degrees as the city soared to a scorching 118 degrees on Thursday.
Sacramento, California, reached 113 degrees and Salt Lake City hit 106 on Thursday.
On Friday, temperatures are forecast to soar to 115 degrees in Las Vegas, 116 in Phoenix and 111 in Sacramento.
This weekend, the worst of the heat will stretch from the Southwest into the Rockies and the Plains.
A heat advisory is in effect in Denver, where temperatures over 100 degrees are possible Friday and into the weekend.
An excessive heat watch has been issued as far east as Omaha, Nebraska, where the heat index — what temperature it feels like — could climb to 112 degrees.
Part of that western heat dome will then move farther east, bringing a new heat wave to the East Coast from Sunday through Wednesday.
By Tuesday, the heat index is forecast to jump to 101 degrees in Atlanta and New York City; 105 degrees in Philadelphia; and 107 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Record highs are possible next week from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., to New Hampshire.
(KAUAI, Hawaii) — One person is dead and two others are missing after a helicopter carrying three people in Kauai, Hawaii, crashed into waters about a quarter mile offshore, according to state officials.
Officials said they received a report of a helicopter crash into the ocean around 1:20 p.m. local time, after hikers along the Kalalau Trial witnessed the helicopter go down in the water and reported it to dispatch.
The crash, involving a Ali’i Kaua’i Air Tours and Charters helicopter, was reported near the Hanakoa Valley along Na Pali Coast.
“Our hearts go out to the families impacted by this tragedy. We will continue working with our partners to locate the missing individuals and provide support during this difficult time,” said Kauai Police Chief Todd Raybuck. “Our multi-agency response remains focused on the search and recovery efforts.”
The Federal Aviation Agency put a temporary flight restriction in the area as the search operation continues.
Preliminary information indicates the type of helicopter involved was a Robinson R44, according to an FAA spokesperson.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Rescue 3 aboard Air 1, personnel with the Kaua’i Fire Department, the Kaua’i Emergency Management Agency, the Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency, personnel with the Ocean Safety Bureau and the Kaua’i Police Department all responded to the incident.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB in charge of the investigation.
(NEW YORK) — Keep the air conditioners running and the sunscreen handy — the extreme heat in the U.S. is not going anywhere soon.
Portions of the country have been experiencing scorching temperatures over the past week, but significant relief from the stifling conditions will not come in the near future, forecasts show.
Heat waves are blanketing much of the country
Americans from coast to coast have been enduring dangerous heat waves over the last several days.
By Thursday, more than 60 million people in the West were under heat alerts, with some cities breaking all-time records for several days in a row.
Las Vegas saw five consecutive days of 115 degrees or higher, three of them surpassing 117 degrees, which had never been done before, records show. Other cities that experienced record highs were Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake City and Spokane, Washington.
When will the current heat waves end?
Persistent extreme heat is what’s in store for the foreseeable future across much of the country, with no significant cool-down in sight, forecasts show.
The record-breaking heat in the West is going to expand and move into the Rocky Mountains, with record highs possible in Denver by Friday and Saturday.
While much of the region will experience brief relief from the dangerous heat between Thursday and Saturday, a new heat wave will begin to unfold on Sunday along the East Coast ushering in more dangerously hot conditions into the following week.
Cities from Boston to Washington, D.C., will experience temperatures in the 90s with heat indexes near or above 100 degrees.
That heat wave will last for most of next week, with record highs expected along the I-95 corridor.
July tends to be the hottest time in the year
Brutal summer heat will increase in frequency and duration for much of the country over the coming weeks.
The contiguous U.S. is now going into the hottest part of the year, which typically occurs during the month of July, records show.
The latest forecasts indicate that much of the country will likely see above-average temperatures for the remainder of July into early August. Several significant heat waves are likely for parts of the Northeast and West.
Much of the South typically experiences its peak average temperatures during the second half of August, while for some regions of the West Coast, the warmest temperatures of the year usually don’t occur until September.
In the U.S., summer minimum nighttime temperatures are warming nearly twice as fast as summer maximum daytime temperatures, according to Climate Central.
Heat waves are becoming even more dangerous as overnight temperatures are too high to relieve people from the heat, prolonging heat stress and the associated heat risks, health experts say.
In June, approximately 24 million people across portions of the Northeast, South, and West experienced their warmest June overnight low temperatures on record, according to NOAA.
June 2024 was the warmest June on record and the thirteenth consecutive record-breaking month, according to the latest report by Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service, released earlier this week.
How extreme heat is connected to climate change
Human-amplified climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, according to climate scientists.
Heat waves are becoming more frequent, more intense and are lasting longer due to human-amplified climate change.
The average number of heat waves that major U.S. cities experience each year has doubled since the 1980s, according to the U.S. government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment.
ABC News’ Matthew Glasser, Max Golembo, Daniel Manzo and Daniel Peck contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As a historic U.S. heat wave continued on Thursday, heat-related deaths in July climbed to at least 28 in the West, while the East Coast recovered from tornadoes and flash flooding as it braced for the return of sweltering temperatures after a brief break.
More than 60 million people in nine Western states remained under heat alerts on Thursday. At least seven cities, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, broke or tied their all-time temperature records on Wednesday and several cities were poised to set new daily high-temperature marks on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Heat-related deaths reported
The Santa Clara County, California, Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner reported that 18 heat-related deaths occurred in the county in the first 10 days of July. The county – including its largest city, San Jose – has recorded a string of days in July during which the temperature rose to the high 90s and exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a statement released Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office confirmed two individuals who died from exposure to the heat were unhoused and one individual was enrolled in a transitional housing program.
“There’s going to be people who just don’t make it through this,” Shaunn Cartwright, an advocate with the organization Unhoused Response Group, told ABC station KGO in San Franciso.
Cartwright said that of the 18 who perished in the heat in the county, at least six were older than 50.
“People are just in a state right now – they’re hungry, they’re extremely thirsty, and they’re at a point right now where they just can’t help themselves,” Cartwright said of the homeless population in Santa Clara County. “[Assistance] needs to come to them, they are just so depleted and really on the edge right now.”
Elsewhere in California, a motorcyclist died from heat exposure on Saturday in Death Valley National Park as the temperature there hit 127 degrees, according to park rangers. In Sacramento, a 58-year-old man died Saturday of heatstroke as the temperature soared to 113.
In other parts of the West, two suspected heat-related deaths were reported in Arizona, including a 4-month-old who experienced a heat-related emergency on Friday while on a boating trip in Lake Havasu as the temperature reached 120 degrees, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
A 10-year-old boy also died in Arizona after falling ill on July 2 while hiking with his family in the South Mountain Park and Preserve in Phoenix, according to the Phoenix Police Department. Additionally, a hiker also died after being found unresponsive over the weekend in the Grand Canyon, marking the third death in the national park within the last three weeks.
Meanwhile, six suspected heat-related deaths have been reported in Oregon since July 5, when Gov. Tina Kotek declared a statewide emergency because of the heat. Three of the deaths occurred in Multnomah County, according to the Multnomah County Medical Examiner.
Nineteen cities in the West break all-time temperature records
At least 19 cities have broken their all-time high temperature records in the past week, including Las Vegas, which hit 120 degrees on Sunday for the first time in its history.
Las Vegas broke another record on Wednesday when it experienced its fifth straight day of temperatures of 115 degrees or higher. Prior to this week, Las Vegas had never experienced a temperature that exceeded 117 degrees, but the temperature there has reached or surpassed the 117 mark three times this week alone.
Sin City could also break its record of 10 consecutive days of 110-degree temperatures or higher by the end of this week. The temperature in Las Vegas is forecast to climb to a blistering 118 degrees on Thursday, 115 on Friday, and 112 on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Salt Lake City could also break a daily heat record on Thursday for the second straight day. The temperature there is expected to climb to 105 degrees on Thursday, topping its previous July 11 high mark of 104 degrees, according to the NWS.
In Houston, Texas, a million electrical customers remain without power for the fourth straight day since Hurricane Beryl barreled into the city. The temperature in Houston is forecast to reach a high of 90 degrees on Thursday with a 40% chance of rain. The National Weather Service said the heat index, which factors in humidity, will make Houston area temperatures feel more like 106 degrees.
Tornadoes, flash flood watches in the Northeast
Remnants of Beryl brought up to six inches of rain on Wednesday evening from northern New York state to Vermont and New Hampshire, flooding neighborhoods and prompting evacuations.
At least three tornadoes were reported in New York state on Wednesday, including an EF-1 twister near Buffalo that packed 110 mph winds, according to the NWS.
A total of 41 tornado warnings were issued in New York on Wednesday, tying the record for the number of tornado warnings issued in a single day in the state.
In Vermont, heavy rain from the remnants of Beryl caused flash flooding in several cities, including Barre and Lyndonville, where multiple roads were closed due to flooding, officials said.
Further South, a storm stretching from North Carolina to Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic states could produce up to five inches of rain through Saturday.
The severe weather on Wednesday cooled East Coast temperatures, but the reprieve from the hot, humid weather that has enveloped the region recently will be brief.
By Sunday, the heat will return to the East Coast with temperatures in the 90s from Boston to Washington, D.C. Combined with the heat index, temperatures on the East Coast will feel above 100 degrees into next week, according to the National Weather Service.
(HOUSTON) — More than a million electrical customers in Houston remained without power amid sweltering weather on Thursday and most won’t have their power restored until the end of this weekend, a full week after Hurricane Beryl swept in and damaged the energy grid, officials said.
Many Houston residents and elected leaders said they were losing their patience with the main utility company in the area, CenterPoint Energy, accusing the company of being slow in restoring electricity.
“I’m not in the business of grading. I’m in the business of saying, ‘Let’s get it done.’ We demand that they do better,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said of CenterPoint Energy during a news conference Wednesday.
CenterPoint Energy said Wednesday night that of the almost 2.3 million customers who lost power when Beryl came ashore early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, about a million have had their power restored.
But the utility giant said at least 750,000 customers won’t have their electricity back on until the end of this week, including 350,000 who will be without power until Sunday evening, a full week after Hurricane Beryl hit the Gulf Coast of Texas.
“We are fully focused on achieving our next restoration goals, while continuing to address the issues in the hardest-hit areas where there is major damage to our equipment and infrastructure,” CenterPoint Energy Lynnae Wilson, the company’s senior vice president, said in a statement Wednesday night.
As a CenterPoint Energy official warned residents on Wednesday that “it will take days” to restore power to everyone, Whitmire questioned why the Houston Astro’s game was able to be played under the lights of Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night as more than a million residents suffered under hot, humid conditions without power.
“We have to get our priorities right, folks,” Whitmire said.
Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday, knocking down power lines, toppling trees onto homes, flooding streets, killing at least six people and leaving Houston, the fourth largest U.S. city with more than 2.3 million residents, under miserable conditions, officials said.
On top of the damage exacted by Beryl, a heat advisory remains in effect in the Houston area, where the temperature is forecast to reach a high of 90 degrees on Thursday with a 40% chance of rain. The National Weather Service said the heat index, which factors in low humidity, will make the Houston area feel more like 106 degrees.
A spokesperson for the Houston Fire Department said Thursday that the agency has received 262 carbon monoxide poisoning calls since Beryl made landfall and urged residents to operate portable generators outside their homes.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Mayor Whitmire and acting police Chief Larry Satterwhite announced that more than 100 law enforcement officers from agencies across Texas are going to Houston to relieve the city’s police officers, who have been working 12-hour shifts every day since the storm hit. The additional officers will be assigned to patrol neighborhoods left in the dark by the power outage or assist with traffic control at intersections where traffic lights are out, the officials said.
This announcement was made in the shadow of the death of Deputy Fernando Esqueda who was killed last night by a suspect who is still on the run.
“I know that we’re all tired and frustrated. We’re hot. We are struggling to sleep and cool off and we absolutely have storm fatigue,” Judge Lina Hidalgo, the executive of Harris County, said at the start of a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Assessing the post-Beryl situation, Hidalgo reported long lines at the few gas stations that remain open, hospitals and senior living facilities without power, food dwindling at grocery stores, widespread damage caused by Beryl’s 97 mph wind gusts and 13 inches of rain in some areas.
“The main point here [is] I really want to encourage people not to panic. We can get through this,” said Hidalgo, adding that her home was without power.
But Paul Locke, CenterPoint Energy’s director of local government affairs, could only offer cold comfort to customers of the utility giant, saying, “It’s going to be days” before power is restored to everyone.
“I can’t give you a timeline, but it’s not going to be tomorrow,” Locke said.
About 12,000 linemen have been deployed to the field as CenterPoint continued Wednesday to assess damage to its electrical grid, the energy provider said.
When Beryl blew in on Monday, about 80% of those the utility serves lost power.
Drawing comparisons to a severe storm in May that knocked out power to about 1 million CenterPoint Energy customers, Locke said it took 4 1/2 days to restore power to everyone in the wake of that storm.
In its statement Wednesday night, CenterPoint Energy said crews are “nearing completion on damage assessment, with more than 8,500 miles of its circuits walked and thousands of miles flown across the Greater Houston area.”
“Crews have identified extensive tree damage across the company’s system. Trees across the Greater Houston area were particularly vulnerable due to three unusual years of weather, including significant freezes, drought and heavy rain this past spring. Downed trees and a significant amount of tree debris had a major impact on CenterPoint’s distribution system of poles and wires,” the company said.
Locke assured customers that the utility company was working as fast as possible to restore power, adding many members of the repair crews were without power, too.
“Nobody wants to sleep in a house that’s 85 degrees,” Locke said.
Compounding the problem, the Red Cross has been unable to set up shelters in Houston because of the lack of electricity, Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo also noted an emergency that occurred at the Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston at the onset of the hurricane, saying the facility, which she described as “one of the pillars” of the city’s health care system, lost power and could not get its back-up generator to work for several hours.
“It got so warm in the hospital that people’s lives were at risk,” Hidalgo said. “They had to shut down all operating rooms except for two, which meant even a lot of emergency operations were delayed.”
Hidalgo also said the storm prompted the closure of the Port of Houston, where much of the fuel for gas stations comes in. She said gas stations are relying on trucks to bring in fuel.
“So the ones that don’t have power, they can’t supply the fuel and the ones that do have fuel are seeing limitations because everyone is going there,” Hidalgo said.
She said that while some grocery stores reported running out of perishable items, “We’re not in a situation where we are going to run out of food or where it is just impossible for fuel to get to Harris County in the event of a serious emergency.”
Houston resident Joanne Posey was among numerous people without power on Wednesday picking up emergency supplies and water at a cooling station established at the LeRoy Crump Stadium in Houston.
“It’s hard, but you just keep the faith with sweat going down your face,” Posey told ABC Houston station KTRK, as she waited in her car to pick up supplies.
Susan Balderas of Houston was among those waiting in line at a gas station, telling KTRK that it was the second place she went to fill up her tank.
“I’ve taken my lunchtime today to find gas because in the area I live, a lot of power is still out,” Balderas said. “Gas stations are out. Long lines everywhere.”
President Joe Biden granted a federal emergency disaster declaration on Tuesday for 121 Texas counties affected by Beryl, which will speed up federal assistance to the area.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is serving as governor in the absence of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is on an economic development mission in Asia. Patrick said he spoke to Biden on Tuesday and made the formal request for federal assistance after he toured the damaged areas.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Biden alleged that state officials in Texas slowed down the federal efforts by not putting in a formal request with the administration sooner.
“I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden told the Chronicle.
Patrick, a Republican, later accused Biden of making the storm recovery “a political issue.”
(HOUSTON) — A manhunt is underway in Houston for the gunman who ambushed and killed an on-duty deputy overnight, authorities said.
The incident began just after 10 p.m. Wednesday when Harris County deputies responded to an aggravated assault at a Little Caesars pizza shop, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mike Lee said at a news conference.
“What happened is senseless,” Lee said early Thursday. “The suspect came into the location to pick up a pizza that he had ordered.”
“He was upset because the order was incorrect,” Lee said.
The suspect allegedly verbally assaulted the employee, “then produced a firearm and pistol-whipped the employee and then fled the location,” Lee said.
“The employee at Little Caesars was able to identify the getaway car by make and model, color and license plate,” Lee said.
A deputy spotted the suspect’s car, Lee said. The deputy then “had a phone conversation with one of the other detectives to let him know he did have the suspect vehicle in sight,” Lee said.
While on the phone, “our deputy apparently was ambushed” and shot multiple times, Lee said.
Other detectives rushed the 28-year-old deputy to the hospital where he died from his injuries, Lee said.
The slain deputy, who has not yet been identified, was a five-year veteran of the department, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
He was a “member of a very elite task force, the violent persons task force,” Lee said.
“None of us are ever prepared for such an untimely death and our members need your prayers and support,” the sheriff wrote on social media. “Our thoughts are with his family as they come to terms with this horrible news. An active investigation is underway to identify and apprehend his killer. We will not rest until we do!”
Lee said that investigators “have a good idea who the suspect is,” adding that the department expects to find him in “a timely manner.”
Lee noted the slaying comes as “everybody’s on edge” in the Houston area, with more than one million still without power in the state in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, which struck on Monday.
(NEW YORK) — A fourth juror in the Karen Read trial has come forward to report that the jury found her “not guilty” of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, attorneys wrote in court documents.
Read’s attorneys are asking the judge to dismiss the two counts when the case goes to trial again.
“There was no manifest necessity for a mistrial as to those counts, and therefore the Double Jeopardy protections of the federal and state Constitutions require that those counts not be retried,” Read’s defense attorney Alan Jackson wrote in court documents.
Judge Beverly Cannone declared the mistrial on July 1 after the jury informed her that they were deadlocked. Read’s attorneys have since filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Officer suspended
Damning testimony during Read’s trial led to the suspension of Massachusetts State Police Officer Michael Proctor. Trial testimony revealed Proctor was communicating with Canton Police Officer Kevin Albert during the investigation ahead of Read’s murder trial.
Albert is the brother of Brian Albert, who hosted the party at the house where John O’Keefe’s body was found outside. The Canton Police Department had recused itself from the investigation due to the Albert brothers’ connection to the case.
Kevin Albert was also placed on paid administrative leave, according to WCVB-TV. The Canton Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 22.
In this Aug. 17, 2014 file photo, a demonstrator holds a sign reading, “Dont Shoot”, with a picture of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The mother of Michael Brown — who was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in 2014 sparking protests around the county — gave testimony to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) to review the case of her son’s killing in a public hearing on Wednesday.
Lezley McSpadden, Brown’s mother, joined nonprofit organization Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Howard University on a Zoom conference to petition the IACHR to recommend for United States prosecutors to criminally litigate Brown’s killing. Lawyers from the U.S. State Department and the Department of Justice also attended the hearing.
“The PTSD is overwhelming. I do have three remaining children. I was very scared and nervous to let them out of my sight for weeks after Mike was killed,” McSpadden said. “I received tons and tons of threatening letters. It got so bad where my lawyers had to look through my mail before I looked through it.”
The 10-year anniversary of Brown’s death is Aug. 9. Legal charges were never issued for Brown’s killing.
“We will undoubtedly hear from the state a litany of all the things they have done to address the scourge of racist police violence in this country over the last 10 years, some of which I commend them for doing,” Kerry Kennedy, with RFK Human Rights, said at the conference. “Is it enough when more people were killed by police in 2023 than any other previously recorded year? The answer is no.”
Brown, an 18-year-old Black teenager, was unarmed when Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer at the time, shot and killed him on Aug. 9, 2014. The shooting ignited weeks of protests, riots, looting and arson in Ferguson.
“We are deeply saddened by this event and by similar events across our nation, and this event serves as another reminder that we must do more to prevent such tragedies,” Thomas Hastings of the State Department said during the conference. “While we do not intend to discuss or debate the details of what took place on August 9, 2014, it was a devastating event that led to the loss of life of a young man.”
The incident contributed to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as national protests over police brutality evoked Brown’s name among other Black Americans who died in police encounters, such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
“Hands up, don’t shoot,” a reference to claims that Brown had his hands up and voiced his surrender to the officer before being shot, became a rallying cry around the nation for those advocating against police brutality. The DOJ later determined in an investigative report that it could not confirm Brown capitulated to the officer before he was shot and killed.
“Federal statutes would require the government to prove that Officer Wilson used unreasonable force when he shot Michael Brown, Jr, and that he did so willfully,” Kristen Clarke of the DOJ said on Wednesday. “Willfully would mean proving that he shot Mr. Brown, knowing it was wrong and knowing it was against the law to do so. After a careful and exhaustive review of all available evidence the Justice Department in 2015 determined that the evidence did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer violated the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute.”
A St. Louis County grand jury declined to press charges against Wilson in 2014. He resigned from the police force soon after.
The U.S. Justice Department also chose not to indict the former officer in March 2015 due to witness accounts and evidence that claimed Brown attacked Wilson.
Brown’s family received a $1.5 million settlement in 2017 after they filed a lawsuit against the city of Ferguson.
“He never had a job, he never learned how to drive,” McSpadden said. “He was just beginning his life. So that was his first free summer to be a kid before he branched over into being a man. But he was robbed of it.”
The IACHR stated a report will be published outlining its findings on the case and issuing recommendations to the U.S. government.
(EUGENE, Ore.) — Police in Oregon have recovered more than 4,000 stolen Lego sets valued at over $200,000 in a massive bust following a three-month investigation, authorities said.
The seizure happened on July 3 at approximately 12:30 p.m. when authorities from the Springfield Police Department in Eugene, Oregon, served a warrant to 47-year-old Ammon Henrikson, the owner of “Brick Builders,” accusing him of knowingly purchasing new and unopened Lego sets that had been stolen from other local retail stores, according to a statement from the Springfield Police Department released on Tuesday.
“In several instances, suspects stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of Lego sets and then immediately went to the Brick Builders store to exchange the stolen items for cash: most often at a fraction of their actual retail value,” authorities said in their statement announcing the bust. “When interviewed, some suspects advised that Brick Builders’ staff knew the sets had recently been stolen. Officers learned that many of the suspects were utilizing the money they received to buy and use illegal drugs.”
Partnering with loss prevention investigators from Target, Fred Meyer, Barnes & Noble and Walmart to confirm that Henrikson was purchasing sets that were stolen from them, the Springfield Police Department ended up recovering 4,153 Lego sets with a total value of more than $200,000, police said.
The three-month investigation by the Springfield Police Department uncovered evidence that Henrikson was “knowingly purchasing new, unopened sets of Legos that had been stolen from local retail stores,” according to authorities.
“We all feel the impact of organized retail theft through the increasing cost of items we buy for our families,” said Police Chief Andrew Shearer. “Recognizing this, SPD’s Crime Reduction Unit, with the support of our retail partners, works diligently to hold accountable those who make the choice to engage in or support retail theft. SPD is proud of the work of our officers, and we are committed to the pursuit of those behind these crimes in our community.”
Henrikson has since been charged with organized retail theft and theft by receiving. Police are asking for anybody with further information related to contact SPD at 541.726.3714 or police@springfield-or.gov and the investigation is currently ongoing.
