Headline, May31, 2013

'''MASTER -MATCHSTIC​K- MAVERICKS'​''

In October of his freshman year, Warren quit the U.K. soccer team, forfeiting his scholarship. And remained on the fringes of campus life. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to a Lexington Catholic alumnus who was making an easy living in identity theft.

Seeing something in the wayward Warren, the preppy grifter pitched him the idea of selling fake Kentucky driver's licenses in the U.K dorms.

Warren jumped at the opportunity and recruited another adrift freshman, his old high-school soccer teammate Eric Borsuk, as a partner. By early November the boys were selling Fake IDs at hundred dollars a piece, and had apparently branched out into more lucrative identity manipulations:

''I can't really get into too much specifics,'' Eric disclosed, ''but we were doing all kinds of little scams, here and there. That's what we were doing, kind of living this little Matchstick Men, college kind of life.''

The partnership flourished, with Warren as the face of the operation and Eric in charge of the ID production, until the two had an argument over $2000 that went missing from Eric's drawer. They stopped talking entirely and disbanded. Suddenly without Eric's mock-ups, software and equipment, Warren thought of Spencer. Although the two hadn't really been in contact in the first few months of school. 

Warren knew that Spencer's artistic talents would be an asset. Spencer, feeling increasingly disaffected with school life himself, readily accepted the offer.

Several weeks before Spencer was approached by Warren about the fake-ID business, he had been on a freshman orientation tour of Transy, including the library and its exceptional collection of rare books and manuscripts. So, between studying for his first semester's finals, working out and painting, Spencer made time to scope out the Special Collections Section of the Transy library, reporting back to Warren weeks later that there was zero security. But what really worried them all, was even if they did steal the books, for example, how would they ever sell them?

Warren was already busy working out this problem, returning for advice to his underworld contact. After several phone calls Warren managed to arrange a meeting in New York. The contact, who identified himself only as Barry, stipulated that Warren had to bring $500 in good-faith money. So the two friends drove 700 miles to Manhattan, and Warren signing in under the nom de guerre Harry Ballsani  - a name backed up with one of their fake Kentucky driver's licenses  -and paying in cash to avoid a paper trail.

The meeting was scheduled on the southern edge of Central Park near Plaza Hotel. Barry described himself as an older man with a long ponytail and said he'd be wearing a green scarf. But the meeting hit a snag straight away when Barry was put off by the boy's youth. Warren recalls:

''It was hard for us. We weren't like, hardened criminals. so we kind of really had to put up a front,'' Warren deepens his voice: ''How ya doing?'' That kind of stuff. But after an awkward back and forth, Barry slipped him an email address with instructions to sign off any communication with the name of Terry.

Once safely back, the two buddies created a Yahoo account and sent off the email in which they claimed to have unspecified rare books in their possession using the name Terry as instructed. A week later came a terse reply, telling Terry that, if he wanted to sell something, he was going to have come in person to, Amsterdam, ''as that is where I do business.''

Both Warren and Spencer were thrilled,  -until they realized it would require travelling with a passport.

''So we go back to the guy in Lexington and we say, 'Listen, we want to go out of the country. We can do a license, but now we need a passport.'

So he says,'' Come see me in a week, but I need money, $2,500.''   Bam Bam. So we get the passport from the dude.'' Ha Ha!

Twelve Million Dollars, Just Sitting There!! Imagine that?!

Stay on the next Post as this thriller unfolds.

''The Truth is, But for one Big Mistake, They probably would have gotten away with it,'' an L.P.D Detective said.

With respectful dedication to: ''Looking For Adventures And Safety Not Guaranteed!'

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless