If it looks suspicious...  

I received a box in the mail but didn’t recognize the return address.   I was suspicious because our e-mail had just been hacked and also there wasn't an invoice in the package to identify it.

I contacted UPS and Amazon and they couldn't track it either.

So to be safe I stuck it out in a shed.

The next day a relative e-mailed that they had sent a package to us to give to another relative as a surprise!   

They were lucky I hadn’t blown it up!  (I think I've been reading too many crime novels!)

And here’s another warning - be suspicious if you get an e-mail asking you to send money to me in the Philippines.  I’d prefer if you just sent it to me here at home!  (OK - I’m kidding!) 

Yes - I got “hacked”.   

It was 7 a.m. when I got my first phone call asking me about my trip to the Philippines!  And then an e-mail came from a friend in law enforcement who had no sympathy to my “plea” and e-mailed “Ha ha ha”.  (My friends are funny!)

A cousin in Wisconsin got a call from relatives in Germany (she speaks the language better than I do) who had heard I needed money - in the Philippines.

Frontier, my internet provider, helped me send out e-mails to everyone in my address book warning them not to pay attention to my “request”.

This whole process took several hours and was a mess.

 How to protect yourself...

   A friend who asked to only be identified as a 16 year resident of Cannon Falls with a long career in education and law enforcement, recently had his e-mail hacked even though he was careful of any unsolicited email.  

  He explained that the key to not becoming a victim rests largely with the individual.   

Be aware that legitimate internet fraud complaint centers associated with the FBI and States Attorneys’ Office will not request payment for service nor will they request extensive personal information. 

   One point was to have “a separate address for your friends to e-mail, a separate address for work and a separate address for family. This way, if one account is hacked only a handful of people are affected.”

   More suggestions...

Here are some more suggestions to protect yourself as explained by the Goodhue County Elder Justice Network, Jennifer Cook contact.

Don't use the same password on Facebook or any other social network that you use on other websites.  

 If you think something's amiss with a request you receive, contact the sender through another channel — such as a phone. 

Never open emails that don't include your actual email address in the "To:" line. Fakes are often addressed en masse to dozens of random email addresses.

Roll your cursor over any URL sent in an email to reveal where it really goes. The text displayed may be completely different from the actual destination.

Beware any URL that is excessively long or uses numbers (such as 192.155.12.38) instead of a traditional URL format.

Beware URLs that have been shortened, disguising where they actually go.   They frequently are used by scammers to hide the identity of malicious websites.

Wi-Fi hot spots

The rapid growth of Wi-Fi hot spots has made it convenient to crack open your laptop and hop online just about anywhere.  Crooks operate lookalike hot spots with the sole purpose of eavesdropping on all the data you send through it. When you type in your password, Social Security number or credit card information, scammers can capture it all and be on a fast track to stealing your identity. 

Another less common attack involves a hacker simply eavesdropping on a legitimate wireless connection by using special equipment to capture your signal, either from next door or while driving down the street.

Most phony hot spots leave telltale signs that they aren't legit, such as typos, strange sign-in web page designs or URLs that don't seem right. If you aren't 100% sure a site is legitimate, don't sign in to it. 

It's also a good idea to do your banking and bill-paying at home, on a line you know is secure. Make sure you're using Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 security on your home router and protect it with a strong password, such as a combination of numbers and letters.

Any “pop-up” asking for money is undoubtedly malware and not part of a legitimate security program.  

So if you plan to protect yourself from fraudulent e-mail requests,  I guess that means you won’t be sending me any money in the Phillipines!

Wise decision.

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Who had the Strictest Parents?

You think your folks were strict? What if your mom was a prison warden and your dad was a probation/parole officer? And if they left town they had the local police check out how their kids were doing at home! 

This is how it was in the home of the first female warden in 122 years at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing. Kathy Halvorson visited Cannon Falls recently to respond to questions from kids and adults at a meeting of TRIAD at the Shepherd's Center. 

Halvorson has had many previous jobs in the field of corrections to prepare for this position. Those in the Red Wing facility are "serious chronic male offenders." They may range from aggravated robbery, controlled substance crime, to murder - unintentional or intentional. They may have had two to three placements that failed. Current juvenile population is 130. There are also adult male offenders. Over 40 currently reside in a separate area.

The Red Wing facility was built on a 450 acre site in 1891. The purpose was to restore the offender, promote public safety, and provide a therapeutic environment, among other goals.

They keep order by making sure the boys are safe and keeping them in small groups consistent with their age level. They don't socialize with the adult offenders.

Halvorson explained that they have nine months to a year to help the young men make better choices. This includes helping them find jobs. The costs: 65% is paid by the county and 35% by the state.

She added, "Some of the opportunities for residents include attending Walter Maginnis High School, located in the facility, learning carpentry skills, job seeking skills and vocational programming. Residents also participate in community service projects and projects that focus on restoring justice to victims. 

"The adult population is made up of minimum custody offenders who serve on work crews around the community. They often assist local communities when nature disasters strike, like the Cannon Falls flooding last year." 

Besides professional help for the young men, there are over 200 volunteers at the facility. These range from volunteer "grandparents" who make sure every kid gets a cake on their birthday, or they make cookies so the good smell permeates their cottage.

 

And as far as I'm concerned about who had the strictest parents? I had them! Although they weren't wardens or parole officers, they were immigrants with a high standard for their American offspring! Something to live up to anyway... and not a bad deal when I think about it!

Crime Scene Mystery Book Tour!

The great response to my recent column about mystery writers locating crime scenes in and around our Cannon Valley, (like Christopher Valen’s novel, Bad Weeds Never Die), led me to want to have a “Crime Scene Mystery Book Tour” to check them out! 

We can make these books come to “life”, so to speak, and then end up at one of our local restaurants or winery to celebrate.

Some of the crime scene scenarios I heard about referred to bodies buried near the bluffs of the Cannon River, then some off a county road next to the Cannon River, then a murderer hiding out in Cherry Grove township, plus drugs and bodies hidden on a horse farm near Highway 52, etc.

We’ve also had some real ones... like the robber of the White Rock Bank who got stopped for speeding following his caper and then was later recognized by the same officer when he was looking at the bank’s surveillance video.

I figure you all have probably read about a lot more scenarios so please let me know so we can add them to the list.

Plus, we can invite some of these authors to join us.  

        John Sandford, author the Prey series with Detective Lucas Davenport, has a video online showing some of the scenes he used up in St. Paul.  (Check out: John Sandford - Scene of the crime on the Star Tribune website.)

We can video ourselves and our tour for YouTube and the world!

Keep reading and let us know the locations!

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Assassins... 
             Drugs... 

                     Bring your shovel?

The assassin for the Columbian drug cartel aimed the gun and the victim fell into the pit.  It had been previously dug by a backhoe as the gravesite for a sick horse.  

And it wasn’t the first human body dumped in there. 

It was on a horse farm near Cannon Falls.

This scenario is part of a book written by crime novelist, Christopher Valen who has won many awards for his series featuring St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana.  

I met Christopher through e-mail interviews as I was trying to find a speaker to visit the Cannon Falls TRIAD - citizens and law enforcement partnership.  He explained that he loves visiting the local Cannon River Winery because the winemaker, Vincent Negret is from Colombia just like Christopher’s wife.

But the key point was: Cannon Falls is actually referred to in his third novel!

He explained: “A few scenes in ‘Bad Weeds Never Die’ take place at a Paso Fino horse ranch modeled after the ranch in Cannon Falls.”

This immediately caught my attention because we have had such a ranch for the past 25 years... Spirit Song Paso Finos.  To surprise the author I e-mailed back our website: www.paulrosie.com with our farm on it.

Christopher responded: “I didn’t realize... When I was researching the third book, I needed a ranch/farm where Paso Finos were bred in Minnesota and found Spirit Song in Cannon Falls. So my wife and I drove by one day, and then I "fictionalized" the farm in the novel. It plays a key role in the story.”

OK.  So let’s take a glimpse at his novel... and the role Cannon Falls has in it.  He writes:  “The sun moved in and out of darkening clouds as (Detective) Santana drove south on Highway 52, past the huge Pine Bend Oil Refinery, and through a flat landscape... to rural fields of soybeans and stalks of tall corn...”  (We have that.)

Turning off the highway about three miles from the farm on to the county road which was narrow and curving. (We have that.)

There was “...a windbreak of evergreens planted along the end of the pasture...”  (We have that.)

As he drove up the circular driveway (we have that)...  he saw a woman riding on a beautiful black Paso Fino.  (We have that!)

Here’s what we don’t have!

Detective “Santana recalled that Colombians liked to bury things of value... whenever a cartel kingpin was knocked off, the first thing the new leader did was dig up the yard and tear up the floors and walls of the former leader’s home, looking for... treasure.”

When setting up the scene for the murders the author describes the method a vet uses to euthanize an animal.    And the backhoe that digs the grave. 

The strange part is that this book was being written in 2010.   That’s the year we had to “put down” one of our horses because of illness.  And we decided to bury him on the farm so we needed to use a backhoe to dig the grave.  I’ve got a video on Youtube about our memory of him.  http://youtu.be/h__qRIDF2gM

But that’s all that is buried there folks!

I’m looking forward to meeting the author when he visits Cannon Falls this spring.

Until then, a friend, Susan, loaned me some other crime novels written by another Minnesota author, John Sandford.  I opened Storm Prey, also from 2010, and to my surprise I read about “a horse ranch thirty miles south of St. Paul... 40 acres... round gravel driveway...” where two men who had stolen about $1 million in drugs went to hide it but were executed by a hired killer near the horse barn.

It seemed to me that this was all getting kind of creepy!

I was telling about this “literary connection” to one of Cannon Falls’ Police Officers and he just shook his head and said, “Now I suppose we’ll have to get a shovel and come out and dig.”

(Well, I’ve got a garden that could use some work!)

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           Some times a note from a friend sent to all during the holidays, deserves to be read again all year long.  Kevin Hogan, a well-known international public speaker, consultant, corporate trainer and author of 19 books (www.kevinhogan.com) went to high school in Cannon Falls.  He wrote to remind us of the important things in life.. in memory of his mother, Carol Swicker.  

            No Terror “Threats”... 

       every day was terror.

Guest Columnist: Kevin Hogan

There were no terror "threats." Every single day was living terror.  In World War II,  60 million people were killed. 

Each and every day, life was on the line for almost every family.

The battlefield in the harsh winter was unimaginable. Back home, the families of those fighting hoped that their kids would live to return, perhaps at Christmas, the time of year that families came together by tradition... 

It was a time that represented hope. Hope that the person you loved would come home...

For one young girl, that person she wanted to come home was her much older brother, Freddie.

There was no Christmas in her home when she was a kid...and she wanted to have Christmas. There was no money for a tree, gifts...

Christmas Eve 1944.

Mom had just turned 10.

She listened to the radio like most people, and she loved the music of Christmas...  "I'll Be Home for Christmas" played. Bing Crosby recorded it the year before. It was pretty much a vocal Christmas Card from a soldier to his family back home. It finishes, "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams."

As it played, there was a knock at the door and as soon as they opened the door, they knew what was coming.

A family friend in the military brought the telegram with the news that her brother Freddie, 24, had been killed in action, days earlier, fighting for Europe's Freedom. 

He took a bullet for another.  

Back in the States...many families had the knock on the door... or a telegram....and of course for some, the news had to come at Christmas...

That moment changed my Mom's life.

Being 10 and finding out that your big brother had died has to be devastating.

From my earliest days, I can remember, when I would hear one specific song, there was a sort of reverence in the house. Everyone would be quiet... and we had a big family... 

Mom would stop doing whatever. Sometimes she would cry. But she kept the "why" to herself until I was in my late teens ...and to this day, that song means the world to me.

When Mom died 13 years ago, it was one of three songs at her funeral. I don't imagine many have had that song played in that setting. For her, it was perfect. She would have approved.

Mom was the Mom that wanted to make Christmas magical for people for all the right reasons. Her spirit was unyielding in her desire to give people a special Christmas.....

Someone in town didn't have somewhere to go for Christmas, they came to our home. We didn't have stuff...we did have an overflow of love.

At Christmas... there is often a spirit of giving and goodness that I see and feel. The spirit of good intention. The spirit of wanting others to be happier...to feel good...to find ways to give someone else a better life...a brighter day.

And as I think of these things this Christmas, I think of you.  

Maybe you'll be home for Christmas. Or maybe you'll be at someone else's home... 

Sixty-eight years ago, those soldiers made certain you and I would always be at home.

The best of the holiday to you and yours.

  Kevin

They honked to get help...

but nobody heard!

They careened off the newly plowed country road and slid down the steep embankment.  They were wedged backwards between the trees.

They tried honking the horn to attract attention but nobody stopped.

Because nobody heard. 

I hadn’t wanted to go out that morning.  Mainly because we hadn’t plowed our farm road. It’s a half mile to the county road.   

But since I was supposed to bring the treats for a Bible study at the little church on the prairie down the road, my husband Paul said he’d drive.  

Besides we had just gotten snow tires on our car and now we could test them out!

After reaching the main road, Paul saw tire tracks skidding off to the side.  

I hadn’t been paying attention because we were late and I just wanted to stay warm and get there.   I was on the passenger side of the car and replied that I hadn’t seen anything off the road.  And the wind was already covering up the marks with snow.

Maybe it had happened a while ago and was already taken care of.

But I also recalled that we had just passed a steep drop off on that side of the road.    So you probably wouldn’t notice any thing as you were going by.

 As we drove, Paul mentioned the tracks again and I, for some unknown reason, said: “If we don’t turn around and there’s been an accident we won’t forgive ourselves the rest of our lives.”    That thought sounded awfully dramatic - even to me!  Where did it come from?

Paul found another road with space to turn around.

As we drove back he maneuvered the car closer to the edge and I was shocked to see a pickup truck down the steep incline.

It must have spun completely around and was wedged backwards among the trees and facing uphill.

Paul stopped our car and I got out.  I was trying to see if there were any bodies but I couldn’t see down into the windshield.

I asked Paul if we had a rope in the car so I could climb down the bank.  We didn’t.

Then a person got out the passenger side and called up to me warning me not to try to come down to them because there was ice under the snow.

I asked if they were hurt and they replied, No.

I asked if they had a cell phone and they said yes, but it wasn’t working.

I called 911.

We got a little concerned when the woman called up to me that the driver was feeling pressure on his chest.  But this was apparently due to his seat being tipped back and he was laying half way upside down!  He was good.

The folks wanted to stay in their pickup.  They could turn on the heat and stay warm.

I was amazed at how their pickup looked perfectly placed in the brush right next to a tree.  

Fifteen minutes or so later a deputy showed up and took over.  He didn’t need a rope to climb down to them.  

But I did suggest that he should wear a cap in the cold weather - that’s a Grandma routine, I think! - but he said he didn’t need that either.  

Anyway, the folks were towed out of there with little damage to their truck.

And Iola and Dave Engelmann had the opportunity to enjoy another Holiday Season together.

    Looking down at the pickup almost hidden in the brushy ravine off county road 24 about 2 1/2 miles west of Highway 52 it was easy to see how it was missed from the road.   The 2007 Chevy Colorado 4X4 careened off the icy county road down into a ravine before the Christmas holidays. 

The party’s over...

but who pays the costs?

Guess being a “fly-over” state isn’t so bad!  (This means the folks in the “know” think they “know” what political camp we are in so they won’t waste their efforts on it.)

 But, being a “fly-over” state (at least until near the end of the campaign) also means Minnesota doesn’t have to pay repeatedly for the safety of the candidates.  This can be costly to already tight city budgets.

While visiting Ohio a few days before the election, I read about all the visits they’ve had from candidates.

Dozens of times for Obama and Romney!

It probably was exciting at first.

I still think it was a blast to have President Obama visit Cannon Falls.  But would I want any of the candidates to stop by repeatedly?

It has nothing to do with their political views... or personalities.  But it has a lot to do with the cost of protecting them which could ruin already tight budgets.

And perhaps it can get to feel like the relative who comes to visit... too many times...for too long!  (Not referring to any of mine of course!)

You see, the communities hosting these visits have to “pony up” for keeping the visitors safe.  Cannon Falls had a lot of volunteer help from other police departments and the publicity showcasing the beauty of our  area was priceless.

According to an online article I read from WCPN radio, one of Ohio’s county sheriffs, a Democrat, said he wanted some help with the costs.  So he sent President Obama a bill for almost $50,000 and challenger Mitt Romney one for about $26,000.  Apparently he had sent a bill to the Secret Service but they said they weren’t responsible.  Then he sent one to the campaigns but was referred back to the secret service.   (Not identified if both campaigns did this.)

They said the mayor of Mansfield, Ohio, a Republican, sent a bill for around $21,000 to the Obama campaign.  A county commissioner, also a Republican, wanted to send a bill to that campaign for $3000 but their board decided not to.  

I love the quote they give their Governor.  He wondered that since the candidates were there so much they should pay income tax like sports figures do! 

With this insight in mind, I think when I run for President I’ll just tell folks to watch me on YouTube and use the money they save for a community “Booyah”!

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