Alanis Morissette loses millions in burglary: report

LOS ANGELES | Burglars made off with $2 million in jewelry from singer Alanis Morissette’s home in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, U.S. media reported Tuesday.

The Canadian-born alternative rock giant was not at home when the thieves struck on Thursday, celebrity news website TMZ said, although police were not immediately able to confirm the report.

The break-in comes less than two weeks after Morissette’s former business manager, who worked for other entertainment and sports figures, admitted embezzling more than $6.5 million from his clients.

Jonathan Schwartz, 48, entered his plea to federal wire and tax fraud charges for failing to disclose the embezzled funds to the Internal Revenue Service.

He is due to be sentenced on May 3, and faces a prison term between four and six years.

He acknowledged that between May 2010 and January 2014, he withdrew about $4.8 million belonging to Morissette without her knowledge or authorization.

Morissette said in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles last year that she fired Schwartz after growing suspicious when he could not provide timely information on her finances.

The singer was the voice behind a string of energetic rock anthems in the mid-1990s including “You Oughta Know,” “Hand in My Pocket” and “You Learn.”

Her 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill” won the Grammy for Album of the Year, making the then 21-year-old Morissette the youngest winner of the prestigious award until Taylor Swift.

source: interaksyon.com

Pinay maid caught hiding stolen gold jewelry in bar of soap

A Filipina housemaid stole jewelry from her employer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and hid them inside a bar of soap, a report of the news site Emirates 24/7 said.

The report said the 29-year-old Filipina was also accused of stealing cash from her employer and using a mobile phone to transfer the money to the Philippines.

The Filipina allegedly connived with the maid, 43, of the next-door neighbor who charged Dh20 for the prepaid telephone card used in the money transfer.

The Filipina's employer, an Emirati manager, 33, told the court that their family discovered gold jewelry missing from their house in February.

In March, the Emirati's mother also lost Dh2,000.

Suspecting that the maid was behind the missing items, the employer decided to trap her.

When she was confronted by her employers, the maid initially denied the crime but later confessed and handed over a blue bar of soap which contained the missing jewelry.

The maid cut the bar soap in half and made a hole in each half.

"She confessed to cutting the soap into two halves, making a hole in each half, stuffing the holes with jewellery and rejoining the two halves of the soap so as to make it easier to take it out of the house,” the Emirati told the court.

After conducting a search in the maid's room, the police found stolen money worth Dh1,000 and money transfers receipts.

The court is expected to hand its verdict on July 9. - VVP, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Cloud computing to the rescue! Stolen iPhone tracked via iCloud

Cloud technology played the role of crimefighter recently, helping track down the stolen iPhone of a passenger of a Disney cruise ship last April.

Photos taken using the stolen iPhone were synced to Apple Inc.'s iCloud, allowing owner Katy McCaffrey to re-post the photos on her Facebook account.

Security firm Sophos said McCaffrey even made an album out of the photos titled "Stolen iPhone Adventures," complete with humorous captions.

It eventually attracted the attention of netizens and the media - and eventually the attention of Disney, which said it has placed the employee under investigation.

"It is unclear whether Nelson was in fact the thief, or if he simply purchased the stolen phone from someone else on board the ship. It isn't looking good for him at the moment though," Sophos said.

A separate article on USA Today said Disney Cruise Line had placed the unnamed employee on "administrative leave" while it investigates the alleged theft of the iPhone.

Images from the album depicted the alleged thief and other members of the Disney crew working and relaxing on the Wonder.

USA Today quoted Rebecca Peddie, manager of public affairs for Disney Cruise Line, as saying the line became aware of the Facebook photos and the alleged theft, and that the iPhone had been recovered.

"Peddie says that while situation is being investigated, the crew member, who is still on the Wonder, is on administrative leave and has been restricted from guest areas," USA Today said.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior," the spokesperson added. "We are taking aggressive action."

Smartphone safety

But Sophos said the incident also raised concerns about smartphone safety, noting McCaffrey could have reported the phone stolen and canceled its service to prevent the thief from racking up a large phone bill.

"McCaffrey clearly was using Apple's iCloud service, so why did she not take advantage of the remote lock/remote wipe service that is part of iCloud?" it added.

"Playing amateur detective rarely works out the way it appears to have this time and even without the photos the 'Find my iPhone' app would likely have allowed law enforcement to locate the thief," it said.

Sophos also noted McCaffrey did not bother to secure her phone with a password.

It said a survey conducted last summer showed 70 percent of smartphone users admitted to not using a passcode. — TJD, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com