You are a winner! You have been selected to win $100,000, but first…I need your social security number and bank information.

Stop! This is just one example of the many scams going on in the community.

JC Post was recently informed of a telephone scam where a caller contacted an alleged potential victim and said they were from Reader’s Digest and wanted to reward $10,000 to the person they called. In order to gain trust with the potential scam victim, the caller offered to three way call the person’s bank. Still not feeling confident about the exchange when the “bank” came on the phone line, the person asked the scammer the name of their account manager and the callers abruptly ended the call.

Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci said that everyday a new scam circulates, via telephone, email or courier mail.

“There are literally hundreds of thousands of different scams going on every minute of the day throughout the world,” said Breci. “If they think that they are going to get something for free, it’s probably a scam – hang up the phone, and click out of or close the browser on their internet or their phone; if you give up any information or if you click on the wrong email attachment on your computer, you could be in for a rough ride.”

The difficulty with the scams, if you are a victim is arresting and prosecuting the assailants.

“The sad fact is that a lot of these scams come out of foreign countries and they’re very sophisticated on how the computer networks work and how banking works; trying to track down an IP address is almost impossible because even if we do [track them down], they’re usually in some foreign country and [the government officials in those countries] are not going to go against them,” said Breci.

And despite all their sophistication and cunning tactics, many of these scammers unknowingly contact law enforcement individuals.

“I can’t tell you how many times a week that somebody calls me or I get emails, and they’re saying that I won something or saying that I can get something for free if I do such and such; I just hang up [the phone] or click off of it on my computer, because I know [it’s a scam] – I don’t know anybody that gets anything for free,” said Breci.

The general rule of thumb in prize winning phone calls or emails is if they sound too good to be true, they usually are.

“Everyone should be aware of anything that they’re doing online, anything that comes as an email attachment that they’re not aware of they should not open it; anybody contacting them by phone saying that they won something – it’s probably, almost 99% sure a scam,” said Breci.

The Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information has a list of tips for navigating safely in the age of internet and telephone scams.

• Spot imposters
• Do online searches
• Don’t believe your Caller ID
• Don’t pay upfront for a promise
• Consider how you pay
• Talk to someone
• Hang up on robocalls
• Be skeptical about free trial offers
• Don’t deposit a check and wire money back
• Sign up for free scam alerts from the FTC at https://www.ftc.gov/scams

 

 

*feature image courtesy clipart panda

The damage estimate for the Bluffs apartment complex fire Saturday is much higher than originally reported.

Fire officials placed the initial estimate at $750,000 to the building and $400,000 to the contents.

Fire Chief Terry Johnson issued a statement to JC Post:

“The estimated fire damage that occurred at the Bluffs apartments is estimated near the insured value of $3.8 million; this was confirmed with the Bluffs property on the value of the building plus looking at the intensity and damage of the structure itself. Individual property loss for the residence/building will vary according to what they had in their residence and also what they had insured. [The fire] is still under joint investigation with the Kansas/State Fire Marshal’s office and the Junction City Fire Department.”

Johnson noted that the previous damage estimate numbers that were released were “rough” numbers put into the software used to continue with the investigation.

 

Congressman Roger Marshall will partner with Live Well Geary County to host a town hall in Junction City.

The event will be from 8:30 am to 9:30 am on Friday, April 14th at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.

“I look forward to returning to Junction City to talk with fellow Kansans about the issues, ideas and concerns they have,” said Congressman Roger Marshall. “Every time we sit down, define problems together and civilly discuss them, we move closer to real solutions.”

This event is free and open to the community.

 

UPDATE:

Junction City Fire Chief Terry Johnson said Saturday morning when firefighters arrived on the scene of a major apartment building fire at the Bluffs complex they were faced with heavy fire coming out of the building. “With the winds that we had coming through it moved the fire very quickly. We were worried about the exposures, what we call exposures, the other buildings. So the primary was protect those buildings as we were attacking the fire. It moved very fast, went through the roof, unfortunately this type of structure doesn’t have fire brick walls in it, does not have sprinklers in the attic so it progressed quickly on us.”

Johnson confirmed the fire originated on either the second or third floor on the south corner of the building. The Fire Department was notified of the blaze through an alarm system, and through residents calling 911 saying they saw fire.

Johnson said by the time he arrived on the scene the displaced residents were evacuating to the Bluffs clubhouse. “And we evacuated a couple of the other buildings to get folks out of the hazard area.” For the remainder of the day the Fire Department will be searching for hot spots, and investigating the possible cause of the blaze.

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Firefighters and law enforcement converged on the Bluffs Apartment complex on the south side of Junction City  at 1:12 a.m. Saturday for a major fire.

Junction City Fire Chief Terry Johnson confirmed Building B, containing 28 apartment units, is a loss. No one was injured.

Johnson said they received a call on a structure fire, with fire showing. Law enforcement personnel began evacuating residents from the building. “Our first arriving units came in. We had heavy fire on the south side of the building. We came in, fire was through the roof, we started operations.  We went through several evolutions of operations at this point. The building is a loss at this time, unfortunately. ”

Johnson reported that multiple agencies responded to help including the Junction City, Abilene, Manhattan and Fort Riley, Fire Geary County Fire Departments, Dickinson and Riley County EMS, Geary County Volunteer Fire Service EMA, State Fire Marshall’s Office, Red Cross, Dickinson County Rural Fire District One, Junction City and Grandview Plaza Police Departments, and the Geary County Sheriff’s Departments. The State Fire Marshall’s Office is conducting a preliminary investigation into the cause of the blaze.

By five a.m. the fire had been mostly contained, but there were still a lot of hot spots in the building, and ladder fire trucks were being utilized to provide firefighters a better view of the top of the structure.

Johnson confirmed all residents of the apartment building got out safely. He estimated approximately 40 to 50 residents were displaced. “Red Cross is on scene. They’re helping out with providing food for the firefighters and support needs for the residents.” Johnson expressed gratitude for all the communities that came in to provide assistance in dealing with the fire.

Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said they will help coordinate with the agencies. “We helped provide communication between the surrounding county agencies that came in…the Manhattan Fire, Fort Riley Fire, we made sure everybody could talk so everybody knew what was going on. We’ll be here to support. We made sure the Red Cross was enroute to help, not only the firefighters, but also the displaced residents.”

This is the second time there has been a major fire at the Bluffs Apartment Complex. In April of 2016 an apartment building at that complex was destroyed by fire. In that incident no one was injured.

 

 

 

 

This is a look at the events taking place in the community this weekend. For more detailed information, click the item you wish to explore.

• Friday, April 7th – Sunday, April 9th: Geary Community Schools Foundation/USD 475 Art Show and Silent Auction, times vary by night
• Saturday, April 8th: Breakfast for Alzheimer’s, 7am-10am
• Saturday, April 8th: Carpenters once more on stage in Abilene
• Saturday, April 8th: Answering the Call:  Soldiers of Geary County, opens at 1:00 pm with Guest Speaker from Fort Riley at 1:45 pm, 2:00 pm 1st ID Brass Quintet to play
• Sunday, April 9th: Easter Brunch Buffet and Egg Hunt, 9am-1pm
• Sunday, April 9th: Gary Kirkpatrick at C.L. Hoover Opera House
• Sunday, April 9th: Christopher’s Pins for a Purpose, 1pm-4pm

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has compiled their annual county health rankings.

In Kansas, Geary County ranks 74th out of 102 counties. There are different categories in the report.

In length of life for residents, Geary County ranks 47th , but 88th in quality of life ranging from poor or fair health to poor physical and mental health days.

For health factors, Geary County ranks 99th. Among the factors there are an adult smoking percentage of 22% to 21% excessive drinking, and teen births rated 73 compared to a state number of 36.

In clinical care primary care ranging from primary care physicians to preventable hospital stays Geary County rated relatively high at 19th in the state, but social and economic factors rated only 92nd. That went from a 71% mark for high school graduation to 86% for the state, to 20% children in poverty compared to 17% statewide.

In the physical environment Geary County rated 54th, including 8.9% air pollution to 15% severe housing problems.