{"id":178568,"date":"2026-01-20T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=178568"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:38:30","slug":"daily-fgs-678","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=178568","title":{"rendered":"Daily FGS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-178570 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer-300x225.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer-444x333.webp 444w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer-400x300.webp 400w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sigsauer.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewpewtactical.com\/sig-sauer-mpx-k-review\/\">Sig Sauer MPX K<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>NC police bust $2.8 million gold scam in sting outside Walmart, spurring chase and crash: Officers<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Police in eastern North Carolina took down a $2.8 million gold scam this week during a \u201ccontrolled gold drop\u201d outside a Walmart, leading to a chase and crash, Kinston officers said.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201clarge-scale\u201d gold-based fraud investigation began in October 2025 when a suspect known only as \u201cLucas\u201d along with others, convinced a victim that his financial accounts were compromised, according to a Friday afternoon Kinston Police Department news release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLucas\u201d worked with other unidentified individuals posing as federal and financial officials, Kinston police said. The scam targeted an elderly person, according to charges.<\/p>\n<p>Police said the scam worked like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"continue-read-break\" data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">The victim was given a controlled cellular phone by the suspects<\/li>\n<li data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">The scammers remotely accessed the victim\u2019s personal computer<\/li>\n<li data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">The victim was directed to wire funds for the purchase of gold through The Carolina Coin &amp; Gold Company<\/li>\n<li data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">The victim was instructed to photograph the purchased gold<\/li>\n<li data-t=\"{&quot;n&quot;:&quot;blueLinks&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:13,&quot;a&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;b&quot;:76}\">Scammers told the victim to later surrender the gold to couriers in the Kinston area<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The victim later reported a financial loss of $2.8 million, police said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the investigation, the Internal Revenue Service placed a hold on the victim\u2019s accounts,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n<p>Kinston police investigators set up a \u201ccontrolled gold drop\u201d on Thursday to try to catch the suspects, police said.<\/p>\n<p>The sting operation was set up in the parking lot of Walmart at 4101 W Vernon Ave., according to the news release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce the transaction was completed, detectives attempted a vehicle takedown,\u201d officers said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the suspect fled through the Walmart parking lot and then north onto Hill Farm Road, police said.<\/p>\n<p>The driver then continued on Hill Farm Road before crashing into a utility pole at the intersection of Hill Farm Road and Banks School Road.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Francois, 29, of Florida, was arrested in the case, police said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/crime\/nc-police-bust-2-8-million-gold-scam-in-sting-outside-walmart-spurring-chase-and-crash-officers\/ar-AA1UwsKP?cvid=7de45c3f55a24b32d409b24f82504cfc&amp;ei=42\">MSN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I always conduct gold transactions in Walmart parking lots. Whatever could go wrong?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.<br \/>\n\u2014 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sig Sauer MPX K NC police bust $2.8 million gold scam in sting outside Walmart, spurring &hellip; <a title=\"Daily FGS\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=178568\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Daily FGS<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":178570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-good-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178569,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178568\/revisions\/178569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/178570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}