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U.S. NEWS Thursday 2 augusT 2018

Student charged in elaborate

digital money theft scheme

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and tity theft and computer and impersonated a victim
ALANNA DURKIN RICHER hacking, court documents in order to get a new SIM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Mas- show. He's held on $1 mil- card, which gave him con-
sachusetts college student lion bail. trol of the victim's phone.
who was named his high The Santa Clara County, He obtained access to
school's valedictorian for California, public defend- the victim's "financial and
his savvy tech skills hacked er's office, which is rep- personal identifying infor-
into unsuspecting investors' resenting Ortiz, declined mation, tax returns, private
personal cellphones, email comment. passwords" and siphoned
and social media accounts A number listed for his $10,000 from a cryptocur- In this May 31, 2016 photo, Joel Ortiz, center, poses for a photo
with Mayor Marty Walsh, left, and public schools Superintendent
to steal at least $2 million in home in Boston was discon- rency account, according Tommy Chang, right, during a luncheon for public schools
digital currency like Bitcoin, nected. to police report. valedictorians in Boston.
according to documents The elaborate scheme in- In several instances Ortiz
provided by California volved taking over victims' allegedly impersonated victim's wife and sending a of the state.
prosecutors Wednesday. phones, allowing him to re- victims over text messages text to the victim's daugh- Ortiz enrolled at the Univer-
Joel Ortiz was taken into set passwords and access and convinced friends and ter that said "TELL YOUR sity of Massachusetts Bos-
custody July 12 at Los An- online accounts containing family members to "loan" DAD TO GIVE US BITCOIN," ton and studies information
geles International Airport electronic assets in the form him digital funds, court the documents said. technology, said school
ahead of a flight to Boston, of Bitcoin, Coinbase, Bittrex documents said. Court documents identify spokesman DeWayne
according to prosecutors. and Binance, the criminal At one point Ortiz allegedly more than 20 victims who Lehman.
The 20-year-old faces more complaint said. stole $10,000 from a Califor- live in California, and pros- Boston Public Schools
than two dozen charges In one case Ortiz allegedly nia resident, and then tried ecutors say they know of spokesman Daniel O'Brien
including grand theft, iden- walked into an AT&T store to get more, calling the additional victims outside declined to comment.q

Dad recalls finding girl with fingers severed by escalator

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST keep the escalator prop- monetary damages. dle and ring fingers severed
SANDY, Utah (AP) — A erly maintained. It says sev- The store, Kroger-owned midway down. Adalene is
4-year-old Utah girl whose eral "comb teeth" of the Smith's Marketplace, too young to say exactly
fingers were severed in escalator's steps were miss- declined to comment how it happened, so law-
the steps of a grocery ing, creating a hole where Wednesday, citing the yers are also trying to ob-
store escalator last year is the girl could stick her fin- ongoing litigation. The es- tain store surveillance vid-
learning to color pictures gers inside. calator's manufacturer, eo.
again, but she could face "I don't want nobody to Schindler Elevator Corp., Employees had to retrieve
more surgeries as her small feel what I felt, or kid to go has denied wrongdoing. the fingers from escala-
hands grow, her father said through what my daugh- Moreno was on his way to tor components under the
Wednesday. ter went through," More- his construction job when floor, and Moreno rushed
For Ramon Moreno, it's no said. The lawsuit filed he got the call from the the girl to an ambulance.
hard to forget the terrifying against the supermarket girl's mother, Silvia Zamora, Surgeons tried to re-attach
day he held his daughter and the escalator manu- his former partner, on Sept. the fingers, but they were
Adalene in one arm and facturer claims state in- 20, 2017. She had been too small and mangled, Adalene Moreno waves during
two of her fingers in a buck- spectors had warned the buying when she heard the Moreno said. an interview Wednesday, Aug.
et in the other. store about the broken girl scream. “She from went being hap- 1, 2018, in Sandy, Utah.
"It's a sick feeling. Scary," he pieces two years before, She rushed from the sec- py, singing, dancing, all the Associated Press
said in an interview. and safety switches did ond-floor self-check regis- time every day, to just kind
The family filed a lawsuit last not stop the escalator from ter to the nearby escalator lying there with a blank look who loves her Barbie dolls,
week claiming Adalene functioning after the girl's and found then-3-year-old on her face,” Moreno said. building forts out of blan-
lost her fingers because the fingers got caught. The Adalene at the bottom, Today, Adalene is a bub- kets and playing with her six
Salt Lake City store failed to lawsuit seeks unspecified covered in blood, her mid- bly child with long dark hair older brothers and sisters.q