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Three Middle Eastern Men Found With 1000 Cell Phones

Around 1:00am August 11th three men purchased cell phones from the Wal-Mart store on M-81 near the corner of M-24 in Caro. Wal-Mart places a limit on the number of cell phones that can be purchased at once, that number is three. The three men allegedly bought 80 by purchasing them three at time so that an alert wouldn't be triggered by the cash register. They also paid cash.

An alert clerk grew suspicious and called Tuscola County central dispatch. The Caro Police Department sent a unit and stopped the rented van on M-81 just east of Caro. The suspects were headed towards Bad Axe on M-81 where there is another Super Wal-Mart.

The three men were described as being of Pakistani descent but live in Texas. Police say the three, ages 19, 22, and 23 appear to be naturalized citizens. One man was driving while the other two were in the back opening the phone packages with box cutters throwing the phones in one box, batteries in another and the packaging and phone charger in another container. The suspects had 1000 other cell phones in the van. There was also a bag of receipts showing that someone was in Wisconsin the day before.

More...

Of course they have to prove what there intension were for the cell phones. I believe you can legally have all the cell phones you want. But where did they get the money? And what were they up to? I believe it must be terror related, but just racking my brains as to what they could do with that many. Were they track phones or subscription phones? They have purchase a subscription to use them, and buy time. This is weird.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1682087/posts
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Thanks to piasa for the ping to this thread.
Note: The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1682294/posts

Two Men Try To Buy Multiple Cell Phones In Ithaca
wnem tv5 ^ | Aug 11, 2006 04:18 PM CDT | WNEM TV5

Posted on 08/11/2006 10:28:49 PM PDT by DannyTN

(TV5) -- While FBI agents pour into Caro another incident breaks out in Gratiot County. At approximately 11:35am August 11th police were called to the Dollar General Store in Ithaca after a" clerk in Ithaca became suspicious after two men came into the store, and became upset when they were turned down while trying to buy several disposal cell phones.

TV5's Mike Terry spoke with the clerk who called police. She said they were two "Middle Eastern" men and said they've been coming into the store weekly and buying disposable cell phones. She said the same thing was happening at the dollar general store in Alma.

You might think the clerk became suspicious because of what was going on in Caro but when we asked the clerk she said she wasn't even aware of what was going on.

The policy at their store is that they can only sell two cell phones, per person, per day. She saw the men put the phones in the trunk of the car and when she thought they were coming back in, she called 9-1-1.

We did talk to Ithaca police while there has been no crime committed-they do want to find these men, and run their names against government watch lists.