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Ohio man faces terrorism charge over phone call
AP via The Columbus Dispatch ^ | July 21, 2009 | NA

Posted on 07/21/2009 1:31:05 PM PDT by buccaneer81

Ohio man faces terrorism charge over phone call Tuesday, July 21, 2009 4:06 PM

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS -- A northwest Ohio man has been jailed on a terrorist charge after allegedly threatening in a phone conversation to set fire to a firm selling extended car warranties.

Charles Papenfus, 43, called a telemarketing firm in St. Louis in May after receiving a mailing that said a factory warranty had expired on a Ford Taurus driven by his 23-year-old son, his wife, Tracie Papenfus, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The car had been purchased as-is for $3,000 and hadn't had a factory warranty in years. He repeatedly asked why the mailing had been sent, when they'd never had a factory warranty on the car, she said.

He called back to complain some more, and when the firm called to return a voice mail he'd left, he allegedly said he would burn down the firm's building and kill employees and their families, according to court documents.

"They insulted each other," said Douglas Forsyth, a lawyer representing Papenfus. He said Papenfus referred to "a scam" and the lawyer alleged the telemarketer then called Papenfus names.

Forsyth said several minutes into the call Papenfus said something about burning down the firm's building. Court records don't identify the firm, but only one firm at the address, TXEN Partners, provides auto service contracts, also called extended warranties.

A man who answered the phone today at TXEN Partners, which does business as Service Protection Direct, declined comment.

The Better Business Bureau recently accused the firm of sending mailers to consumers that incorrectly state factory warranties on their vehicles either have expired or will run out soon. Last year, then-Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the firm for misleading customers. The business as part of a settlement was to only refer to expiring warranties if it believed in good faith that those claims were true.

Tracie Papenfus said she hasn't seen her husband since his arrest on June 27, when he went to a Fostoria, Ohio, police station. She says she can't post his $45,000 bond. He is jailed in St. Louis.

She said her husband's outburst was unusual for him, but said he was on prescription painkillers for a wrist fracture he had gotten in a motorcycle accident a few days before. Forsyth said irritability can be a side effect from the drugs.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Missouri; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: scam; terrorism; warranty
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I understand his anger, but sometimes you just gotta pick your battles.
1 posted on 07/21/2009 1:31:07 PM PDT by buccaneer81
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To: buccaneer81

If this was during the initial, company-initiated call, I’d give him a pass and a pat on the back.

But the dumbass called them back.

Du-OH!!!


2 posted on 07/21/2009 1:32:32 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: buccaneer81

“Hello, is this the office of ‘TXEN Partners’? I’m calling because our records show that your fire protection plan is about to expire. This is your FINAL NOTICE to extend your warranty....”


3 posted on 07/21/2009 1:35:53 PM PDT by steve-b (Intelligent Design -- "A Wizard Did It")
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To: buccaneer81

To qualify as terrorism, an act must be motivated primarily by one or more political motives. Threatening to bomb a business over a commercial/financial matter is an act of either extortion or revenge, not terrorism. It is not terrorism unless there is some political purpose, some intent to change the policy of a nation or government, to protest its political stance, or to intimidate its citizens regarding their foreign or domestic policy preferences.


4 posted on 07/21/2009 1:40:10 PM PDT by sourcery (Obama Lied. The Economy Died!)
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To: buccaneer81
Rather than make a specific threat, I find it is more effective to gently ask the caller to perform a procreation act upon him or herself. Also, who could consider an act of love to be a terroristic threat.

Caller ID is worth it just to avoid telemarketers. These car insurance scammers called me many times, but the only way I knew was by searching for their phone number on the web.

5 posted on 07/21/2009 1:40:18 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (As a child Obama was rejected from Little League because of lack of a birth certificate.)
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To: buccaneer81

While Islamists are taking over America, they incarcerate a ‘politically correct’ suspect, aka white Christian male, on charges of terrorism. Liberalism on full display.


6 posted on 07/21/2009 1:40:45 PM PDT by libh8er
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To: buccaneer81

Given our freedoms of speech, what name is associated with the supposed “crime”?

Verbal assault?

From http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Verbal+assault

I have ... “The act required for an assault must be overt. Although words alone are insufficient, they might create an assault when coupled with some action that indicates the ability to carry out the threat. A mere threat to harm is not an assault; however, a threat combined with a raised fist might be sufficient if it causes a reasonable apprehension of harm in the victim.”


7 posted on 07/21/2009 1:40:46 PM PDT by OldNavyVet
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To: sourcery

In Ohio, the charge would be menacing.


8 posted on 07/21/2009 1:41:26 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century. I AM JIM THOMPSON!)
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To: libh8er

I wonder if the order for his arrest came from Eric Holder himself.


9 posted on 07/21/2009 1:43:27 PM PDT by libh8er
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To: buccaneer81

Geez, throw the ad out.
I do.


10 posted on 07/21/2009 1:44:04 PM PDT by netmilsmom (Psalm 109:8 - Let his days be few; and let another take his office)
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To: netmilsmom
Geez, throw the ad out. I do.

Some of these places were cold calling dozens of times. My cell phone got hit 15 times one weekend.

But yes, Tuesday is usually junk mail day. Off to the trash with any printed matter.

11 posted on 07/21/2009 1:47:17 PM PDT by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century. I AM JIM THOMPSON!)
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To: buccaneer81

I have had a cell phone since the early 90s and have never gotten a spam call.


12 posted on 07/21/2009 1:50:10 PM PDT by Graybeard58 ( Selah.)
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To: buccaneer81

>>Charles Papenfus, 43, called a telemarketing firm in St. Louis in May after receiving a mailing that said a factory warranty had expired on a Ford Taurus driven by his 23-year-old son, his wife, Tracie Papenfus, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.<<

I could understand if he was being called. This was a mass mailing.
My hubby is getting calls for a Karen something to collect a debt. He has tried calling back and it’s porn. Sprint won’t help and just says “change your number”. It’s eating our minutes every month.


13 posted on 07/21/2009 1:51:18 PM PDT by netmilsmom (Psalm 109:8 - Let his days be few; and let another take his office)
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To: KarlInOhio
It's not honest, but I pass telemarketers off the "lady of the house"...my very talkactive 16 year old daughter. (She has strict orders not to give out addresses, names, SSANs, etc.)

She had one jack@ss on the phone for 30 minutes describing every detail of a time share condo before he realized he was the one getting scammed. After a few times, the nuisance call trailed off considerable. Time is money for them...I figure this is kind of my families little fine for interrupting our evenings.

14 posted on 07/21/2009 1:54:14 PM PDT by Red Dog #1
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To: buccaneer81

This firm is a bunch of dirtbags.

If the DA is going to go after this fellow, he should go after the warantee guys as well for misleading people, and offering a rip-off product.


15 posted on 07/21/2009 1:55:54 PM PDT by Fido969 ("The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." - Albert Einstein)
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To: buccaneer81

Overzealous prosecutor: I don’t think it will pass any of the true threat standards given the context of a yelling match with a telemarketer.


16 posted on 07/21/2009 1:58:33 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: buccaneer81
If this goes to trial, he needs to demand a jury trial. Where would the prosecution get a majority of jurors willing to convict someone of threatening a telemarketing firm?

Personally, if I were on the jury, I stand up and give him an ovation!

17 posted on 07/21/2009 2:01:46 PM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Ronald Reagan - Morning in America; Hussein 0bama - Mourning for America - FUBO!)
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To: buccaneer81
Service Protection Direct

It sounds like Warranty Services has some competition in the scam department.

18 posted on 07/21/2009 2:05:21 PM PDT by Sarajevo (You jealous because the voices only talk to me.)
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To: KarlInOhio

If I’m in a particularly patient and playful mood, I play dumb and extend the converstaion as long as possible until they catch on that we’re just going in circles. Make them explain the same thing over and over and never quite get it. Not even listen to the answer, go back to the ball game or whatever, and when you hear them saying “hello, are you there?”, you just ask another dumb question. Sometimes I think they’re programmed to NEVER HANG UP.

I figure I’m wasting their time and keeping them from bugging anyone else and if we all did it, the business model would collapse. Of course, I rarely have the time and patience for that game, but I have done it.

The other one I like - but it’s hard to keep a staight face - is to affect some strange accent, like the character in Slingblade or Elmer Fudd or Sgt Shultz and see how long you can do it without cracking up.


19 posted on 07/21/2009 2:14:32 PM PDT by swain_forkbeard (Rationality may not be sufficient, but it is necessary.)
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To: buccaneer81

I agree. But the charge is absolutely absurd. These telemarketers and mailings are out of control. All this was was a case of ‘mail rage.’ The cops are out of control, too. Common sense has left the building.

It’s too bad the guy wasn’t smart enough to figure out that the letter he received was a scam instead of either thinking his old “as-is” clunker still had a warranty or else getting so mad about receiving the stupid mailer that he decided to throw a fit. I mean, how dumb can someone be? Doesn’t he have bigger fish to fry? That stuff is nuisance mail. Just round-file it and move on. I look at it this way: creating, printing and mailing those things keeps people employed, and it’s no stupider than most of the things we pay gargantuan sums to the government to do.

Anybody want a ham sandwich?


20 posted on 07/21/2009 2:18:48 PM PDT by bustinchops
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