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. WNEM
Adding Ithaca and Alma, Michigan
ADDING THIS UPDATE:
STEPPING BACK IN TIME...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1696286/posts
“Charges dropped in Mich. cell phone case”
AP / Yahoo! News ^ | Tue Sep 5, 9:07 PM ET | DAVID N. GOODMAN
Posted on 09/06/2006 4:40:52 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “DETROIT - A federal judge threw out conspiracy and money laundering charges Tuesday against three Texas men once accused of plotting a terror attack on Michigan’s iconic Mackinac Bridge.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Charles Binder in Bay City ruled that federal prosecutors failed to present enough evidence to justify bringing them to trial on charges involving the buying and resale of prepaid cell phones. They were cleared earlier of the terror charges.
Defense lawyers claimed the men — Louai Othman, 23, his brother Adham Othman, 21, and their cousin Maruan Muhareb, 18, all of Mesquite, Texas — were targeted because of their Middle Eastern heritage. All are Palestinian-American.
“I’m happy to be going home, and I’m happy that I’m free,” Adham Othman said through his lawyer, Christopher McGrath.
The three were arrested Aug. 11 after buying large numbers of prepaid cell phones at a Wal-Mart outlet in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit.
Tuscola County authorities said they were alarmed by the hundreds of prepaid cell phones they said were found in the men’s van and by images on their digital camera of the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, which links Michigan’s two peninsulas.
They charged the men with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and with surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist purposes.
The FBI and state police later said there was no imminent threat to the landmark span and no information linking the Othmans and Muhareb to known terrorist groups.”