Police link flat screen TV scam to oven door thefts

SOUTH BEND -- A rash of oven-door thefts might be linked to a recent case in which a woman bought what she thought was a flat-screen television, only to discover that the package held an old oven door, police said.\nSouth Bend detective Sgt. Jim Walsh said police arrested a suspect Thursday who they believe sold the appliance door to the woman. According to police reports, officers found an oven door and packaging materials inside the trunk of the man's car.\nOven doors are an increasingly hot item in burglaries targeting vacant properties. Walsh said police have investigated five recent burglaries where oven doors were among the items stolen.\nPolice have had two reports of the doors being sold as flat-screen televisions, and it's likely that others went unreported by the embarrassed dupes, Walsh said. Officers continue to investigate at least two other suspects who might be disguising oven doors and selling them.\nWalsh said it's risky to buy products off the street, particularly without opening a package first to make sure the items are what they appear to be.\nIn the case of the bilked woman, she was approached by the suspect Feb. 20 at her workplace with an offer of a flat-screen television at a bargain price of $500. When the victim couldn't come up with the money, the suspect settled for $300.\nBut when she unwrapped the packaging, peeling away the bubble wrapping and the Wal-Mart store labels, she found a cord, a controller -- and an oven door.\n"It's an elaborate job of packaging," Walsh said.\nEAST CHICAGO, Ind. -- A judge ordered insurance and investment firms to hand over more than $530,000 in assets belonging to a former city councilman convicted of trying to buy votes.\nProsecutors say Frank Kollintzas, 62, fled the country last year before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to repay $25 million to the city for his part in the scheme.\nAuthorities believe Kollintzas is in Greece, where he has relatives.\nIn his absence, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Miller Jr. ordered Kollintzas' insurance and investment firms to pay more than $530,000 to help repay the city.\nA federal jury convicted Kollintzas in 2004 of coordinating an illegal project to buy votes for former Mayor Robert Pastrick's administration in the 1999 Democratic primary. He's among six city officials convicted in a scheme in which the city paid to have residents' sidewalks paved and their trees trimmed in an effort to win their votes.\nKollintzas' wife, Joanna, has objected to the seizure of the assets and has filed for divorce in an attempt to shelter the money.\nBut Miller ruled last week that federal prosecutors had a superior claim to the assets.\nMiller said the government could seize Frank Kollintzas' investments, including 25 percent of his retirement package from the East Chicago school district, the cash value of five insurance polices and cash in six checking and savings accounts.