European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 3, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                1985 the stars and stripes Page 7 mail scam offered cheap officials say new York a a mail order operator persuaded thousands of people around the country to Send in pay ments of to for jewelry they never ordered and May never postal inspectors the phony Billings brought in at least a according to Lawrence a postal he said thursday there was no Overall figure on what the company has reaped since launching the scam Early this victims frequently were elderly people who paid up dutifully before realizing they haunt ordered any he Federal authorities got a court order wednesday Block ing delivery of any More mail to the overseas Exchange whose mailing address is in the Empire state state investigators also were looking into the company practices on the basis of complaints that its goods were shoddy or a spokeswoman for the state attorney general the scam involved sending to people on a mailing list a notice that implied they already had paid most of the Bill and Only owed a few one of the mailings was a Post card that read your genuine Diamond ring has arrived at our fifth Avenue Gem vault and is ready for immediate shipment to please confirm your ring size in the space below and return this notice with the balance of before july 29 and your jewelry will be shipped to you promptly via insured return the letter was signed Robert Valens of Christopher Christopher gallery and Christopher gallery Fine gems Are names under which overseas Exchange does said postal spokesman Jack overseas Exchange is itself the offspring of another company under investigation in another fraud Shaw he declined to name the Parent a Call to overseas was answered by a woman when told a reporter was seeking said no and Hung another Christopher gallery card brought to inspectors attention said your lookalike eight piece Japa Nese Faux French for fake Pearl wardrobe has this card asked for a balance said the company also mailed a letter saying the addressee had a credit in his account and that he owed a balance of plus postage and for a jewelry collection he had said in the first of 800 complaints was received by the Post office and we got Calls from attorney general offices and consumer Protection boards across the said he estimated that overseas Exchange had sent out be tween and Maxwell said the majority of victims he interviewed were elderly thinking they ordered something and owed some but  he said also that some of those bilked probably were opportunists who thought that through some error they were getting a Chance to buy Worth of jewelry for spy cases Spur Weinberger says by Norman Black Washington a defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger says the Pentagon will have a hard time reducing the number of Security clearances held by private but recent spy scandals have at least forced a change in attitude for the our own awareness of the risks of this has certainly been heightened by the Walker Case and said Weinberg he referred to the arrests two months ago of four men accused of passing Navy secrets to the soviet that Means a lot More people Are aware of it and will be conscious of activities or clues that they might pick up that would Lead to disclosure of he that got a Downside to because you dont want everybody going around suspicious of everybody but the Walker Case was a serious loss and its important to have in mind that that kind of thing can Weinberger stressed he remained serious about slashing the number of Security clearances held by contractor employees As Well As by Pentagon he suggested any significant reduction in clearances beyond the 10 percent he has already ordered would be achieved within the weve started to and have made sub Stantial reductions in the numbers of peo ple who have the highest he weve tried to get Back to a real Needt know basis for some of the Clear ances because there Are just a tremendous number of the number of of Are the employees of contractors who Are working on classified and you cant Cut Down very much on but you can Cut Down on a lot of the numbers around Here and we certainly will do there Are about million individuals who hold some Type of clearance from confidential up to top secret including about million who work for defense on june Weinberger set an 1 deadline for an 10 per cent reduction in Security he also expressed the Hope that even larger cuts could be made the Navy has set a goal of slashing its clearances by 50 incredible shrinking actor Grant Dies a photo los Angeles a actor Grant who played the title role in the classic science fiction film the incredible shrinking has died at age a new York City was treated for blood poisoning at a veterans administration Hospital where he died Hospital officials who began his film career in appeared in such movies As written on the red the the Monolith monsters and he earned a cult following after his performance in the title role of the incredible shrinking the 1957 film about a Man who mysteriously shrinks to Micro size after being caught in a radioactive the movie was praised at the time for its outstanding special Williams also had a featured role in it 109 and was one of the costars of the television series hawaiian Eye from 1960 to also appeared in the television shows studio the outer limits and the incredible shrinking Man in 1957 Williams is survived by a installation of hot tub wrecks neighbourhood Buena a it was a big Day at the Gerard Van Dieren House with kids Selling lemonade on the front porch and the family Brand new hot tub being delivered by a giant 90foot then suddenly it was a big the Crane tipped the fibreglass spa came crashing the 90foot Boom crushed three rooms of the House plus part of a second one and knocked out some Power that sparked a fire in a Cypress igniting the Wood Shingle roof of a neighbouring Home and two grass the Chain reaction wednesday sent the Crane operator to the Hospital with a bruised the children on the porch and Van who was inside the House at the escaped fire David Myers nobody knows yet what including Crane operator Steve of said thursday at his Long Beach Jim District inspector for the California department of occupational safety and said his staff impounded the Crane and was investigating thursday but had no findings to the Van Sierens Telephone was out of order thursday when a reporter tried to Call for Wofford declined to describe the Inci but Myers said the weight of the spa apparently was too much for the and the outriggers which Widen the Crane base to prevent tipping May have been extended far apparently what happened was the Boom was overloaded and the Crane crashed Down through the House and damaged approximately on third of the Myers he estimated the damage at to As the Crane came Down it busted All the Utility so we had a downed wire an italian Cypress caught on and that touched off several shingles on the roof next he that from the wires it took Southern California Edi son 10 to 15 minutes to reenergize the during that time the whole Boom of the Crane was energized and quite Hazar Bush launches ship to fight drug smugglers a vice president George Bush says the first High Speed coast guard patrol boat built at a Lockport shipyard and 15 others in the works will be used to keep on turning up the heat on at dedication ceremonies wednesday for the first ship said the 16 ships will form a squad to fight illegal drug trafficking in the United More than people gathered along a Bayou at Bellinger machine shop shipyard for the dedication of the 110foot also attending the ceremonies were Secretary of transportation Elizabeth coast guard commandant James s Gracey and Steve a Man who was held hostage by shiite moslem this summer in earlier in the Bush met with officials of the National narcotics Border interdiction a program that has resulted in seizures of thousands of pounds of cocaine and other illegal drugs in the Gulf Region since it began two years the National drug enforcement program has taken some abuse and deserves some Bush told the in not saying were perfect weve got a Long Way to go but we ought to get credit for what were doing Bush and this drug interdiction program is Bush created the Nobis two years ago under a vice presidential executive the new Orleans Gulf Region most often concerned with the flow of drugs from the Gulf of Mexico and South is one of six in the last month the general accounting office released a report saying Nobis accomplishments As a nationwide coordinator of drug interdiction have been this organization is almost in its Bush that audit was done at an earlier time it was i dont want to claim it was but 1 didst like it and it was certainly demeaning to those men and women who Are working effectively in this he the key to the organizations Success has been that youre All working pooling the resources of the Bush