B3 OUR REGION
John Chambliss I Managing Editor
770-718-3407 I news@gainesvilletimes.com
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia
Midweek Edition-July 17-18, 2024
Woman charged with DUI,
Gonzalez-
Gonzalez
BY NICK WATSON
nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com
Editor’s note: This published
in a previous E-Paper edition
and is being provided here for
piint-only readers.
A Gainesville woman was
charged with driving under the
influence and leaving the scene
after hitting a Hall County
deputy with one of her side
mirrors Saturday, July 13, on
Atlanta Highway, according to
authorities.
Heidy Gonzalez-Gonzalez,
45, was also charged with vio
lating the open container law
and Georgia's “Move Over"
law for police and EMS. She
was booked Sunday, July 14,
in to the Hall County Jail and
released on an $11,660 bond.
A Hall County Sheriff's
Office deputy made a traffic
stop around 10:40 p.m. Sat
urday in the Thurman Tanner
Parkway area while Gonzalez-
Gonzalez was heading north
bound on Atlanta Highway.
hitting deputy
The Sheriff's Office said the
Gainesville woman did not
move over and struck the patrol
vehicle with her side mirror.
“She also hit the deputy
with the passenger side mir
ror, causing an injury to his
upper arm," according to the
Sheriff's Office. “Following
the collision, Ms. Gonzalez-
Gonzalez continued driving
northbound.”
Gonzalez-Gonzalez was
arrested roughly a half mile
away on Valley Green Drive.
The deputy was taken to the
hospital and released Saturday
night. The Sheriff's Office did
not have any information on
how fast the driver was going.
‘I was like a robot’
Vickie
Masters
looks
through
paperwork
Monday,
July 1,
about her
contact with
a scammer.
The
Gainesville
woman was
scammed
out of
$5,000 after
receiving a
call and
texts from a
woman
claiming to
be with
Publishers
Clearing
House say
ing that she
had won
$3.5 million.
Scott Rogers
The Times
Vickie Masters thought she won S3.5M, then lost $5K
BY BEN ANDERSON
banderson@gainesvilletimes.com
Editor’s note: This published
in a previous E-Paper edition
and is being provided here for
print-only readers.
For about five hours, 66-year-
old Vickie Masters thought she
was a millionaire.
It was the morning of June
6, and she got a call from a
woman who identified herself
as a representative of Publish
ers Clearing House, a com
pany known for its big-money
sweepstakes.
Masters and her husband had
entered the sweepstakes many
times before, and today was the
day that it would finally pay up.
“They said that they had a
special drawing for senior citi
zens and that I had won $3.5
million (and) $5,000 a month
for life,” Masters said.
She was also the winner of
a brand-new Mercedes Benz
SUV in the color of her choice,
the sky-blue cherry on top of
her new mountainous fortune.
“There's no gimmick, no
catch, just free money waiting
to be given away in our online
sweepstakes to good people
like you,” the company pros
elytizes on its website.
True to the last part of that
pitch, Masters didn't immedi
ately think of herself when she
imagined how she would spend
the money. She thought instead
of her son and daughter and of
her five grandchildren. She also
thought of her church.
“I never have been a materi
alistic person for myself,” she
said. “I've always been more
for giving to others.”
But surely there must have
been something that she had
been yearning to check off her
bucket list, perhaps the obliga
tory trip to Hawaii.
“Well, we just got back from
Hawaii,” she said. “So that was
the biggest thing on my bucket
list, was Hawaii.”
A woman of compact stature,
a slight hunch, a shuffling step
and a sweet southern manner,
Masters wants for little at this
stage of her life. A hairdresser
of nearly 50 years, she is now
retired along with her husband,
and the two live comfortably
enough in their modest ranch-
style home in Gainesville.
But this good luck came with
one small catch.
In order to receive her prize
money, Masters would need
to withdraw $5,000 from her
personal bank account and
deposit the money into a sepa
rate account in the form of a
cashier's check.
“They told me I had to write a
cashier's check... and take it to
Chase Bank,” she said. “They
gave me the routing number,
and they said ... Publishers'
sweepstake was paying most of
the taxes, but my responsibility
was $5,000, and if I would do
that, they would have it coming
down my driveway that day.”
Masters dutifully carried out
her instructions and texted the
woman a picture of the deposit
slip.
“I was like a robot,” she said.
“I did exactly what they told me
to do.”
Masters returned home. Sev
eral hours later around 2 p.m.,
the woman called Masters
back that they had just landed
in Atlanta and would soon be
delivering her check. She sent
Masters a point-of-view cell
phone video of someone off-
boarding a plane.
But there was one more
hitch.
“They said that in order to
get the check across the state, I
had to send them $8,000,” Mas
ters said.
If she harbored any skepti
cism about this step, it was
quickly quelled in a subsequent
phone call with a person who
claimed to work for the IRS.
She was even sent a picture of
a draft copy of her $3.5 million
check from Chase Bank.
“It was so convincing,” she
said.
So, she hopped back in her
car for a second trip to the bank.
But as Masters was about to
pull out of the neighborhood,
her son Sean pulled in. He had
just gotten off work and was
coming to pick up his kids, who
were being babysat by Masters
and her husband. They pulled
up alongside each other and
rolled down their windows.
Sean could tell that his
mother wasn't quite herself.
“I was like, ‘What are you
doing?” he asked her. “And she
was not there. You could see (it
in) her eyes.”
In a hypnotic, almost manic
state, she told her son the good
news.
“I'm going to take care of
y'all,” she said, explaining that
she would be able to pay off his
and his sister's houses and cars
and pay off all of their debts.
Sean knew right away that
this must be a scam.
“Mom, no you're not, wake
up,” he said. “It's not real.”
“No, Sean, it's real,” his
mother insisted. “It's real. It's
real. It's real.”
“I got to go to the bank, I got
to go now,” she said, and drove
off.
Earlier, Vickie's husband
hadn't had any luck either in
taking sense into his wife.
“She took off like a kid and
went and got the money,” he
said. “She wouldn't listen to
me at all. She finally listened to
my son.”
Sean pulled into the drive
way and called his mother.
“Mom, wake up!” he said
again. “This is not real.”
Then something clicked in
her and she realized he may be
right.
“I could tell she was back,”
Sean said, and he told her to go
to the cops.
Vickie filed a report with the
Hall County Sheriff's Office,
and tried to stop payment on
the cashier's check, but it was
too late. The check had already
been cashed.
But it could have been worse.
“Thank God that I was
there,” Sean said, his voice
breaking. “Because it could
have been really bad.”
The Sheriff's Office declined
repeated requests to interview
any of its property crimes inves
tigators and instead directed
The Times to social media
posts it has made about how to
avoid scams. The agency also
declined to provide informa
tion about how it investigates
scams, saying in an email that
“we will not discuss investiga
tive techniques.”
Cpl. Brad Raper of the
Gainesville Police Department
said scam-related reports have
increased “exponentially” over
the last decade or so.
“It's a large problem,” he
said. “I've been in investiga
tions since 2012, and I'd say
it's probably increased tenfold.”
And most the time, the vic
tims never get their money
back.
“The chances of us get
ting money back are very
slim unless we catch it very
quickly,” Raper said. “It's like
a maze, really. We get into
having to do search warrants
or subpoenas to the different
places to find out who the hold
ers of the bank accounts are,
and we have to start trying to
trace down the money. And that
can be a lengthy process, and a
lot of times by the time we get
to the end of it, that account
is closed and they've moved
on to another bank or another
account.”
Nationwide, elder fraud
complaints increased by 14%
in 2023, and associated losses
increased by about 11%,
according to the FBI's most
recent Elder Fraud Report.
And lest you think that this
only happens to the naive or the
foolish, consider the fact that
the former director of the FBI
and CIA, William Webster, was
himself the target of elder fraud
in 2014.
“If it can happen to me, it can
happen to you,” he says in a
video on the FBI’s website.
“I have seen this happen
to doctors, nurses, under
privileged people, just every
body falls prey to these things
because they're so convincing,”
Raper said.
The FBI's report notes that
older Americans seem to be
disproportionately impacted
by scams and fraud. More than
101,000 people over the age of
60 say they were the victims of
scams in 2023. Victims under
20, on the other hand, were the
least-impacted demographic,
with about 18,000 reporting
scams last year.
Raper's advise to people is
simple: “If they are asking you
to deposit money to get money,
it is a scam.”
“My biggest recommenda
tion is, if you get a phone call
from a number that is not in
your phone, do not answer it,
and if it is somebody that truly
needs to talk to you, they will
leave a voicemail or send you
a text message,” he said. “That
is the best way to avoid most of
the telephone scams.”
Vickie says the scammers
still call and text her multiple
times a day.
She sent the scammer one
text saying, “I hope you can
sleep.... you win now but I will
win in the end I hope you find
jesus before it's (too) late.”
She said losing $5,000
“stings, but it's not going to put
me under.”
She said she is sharing her
story in the hopes that she can
prevent it from happening to
others.
“I never thought it would
happen to me,” she said. “I'm
telling my story because I hope
and pray that this does not hap
pen to you.”
BOC OKs
TSPLOST
for ballot
BY DENISE ETHERIDGE
deniseetheridge@gainesvilletimes.com
Editor’s note: This published in a previous
E-Paper edition and is being provided here
for print-only readers.
The Hall County Commission approved a
resolution to place a one cent Transportation
SPFOST on the Nov. 5 ballot during a voting
meeting Thursday, July 11.
If Hall County voters approve the
TSPFOST, it will go into effect in April.
County officials said that up to $390 mil
lion in revenue can be collected over 6 years
for transportation projects, such as roads,
bridges, bicycle paths, sidewalks and accom
panying infrastructure, should the referen
dum pass.
The Hall County Board of Elections will
meet on July 16, presumably to issue the call
for the vote.
“Hall County has grown significantly at a
rapid rate throughout the last several years,
and if you frequent the county, you know that
the traffic reflects that growth,” Hall County
District 1 Commissioner Kathy Cooper said.
“As long as this community continues to
expand, we will need to ensure our roads and
infrastructure are maintained and improved
in order to ease congestion, improve traffic
flow, and make sure our citizens and visi
tors are as safe as possible when choosing to
drive or walk to their destinations.”
The Association of County Commission
ers of Georgia recognized State Sen. Shelly
Echols of District 49 and State Rep. Fee
Hawkins of District 27 at the meeting for
introducing changes to the new TSPFOST
law.
“We appreciate our local delegation, who
has worked tirelessly to ensure that citizens
get the final decision on whether or not
to implement a Transportation SPFOST,”
Hall County District 4 Commissioner Jeff
Stowe said. “This is an important step for
our County and all other counties in Geor
gia who are seeking dedicated transportation
sales tax funding.”
Echols and Hawkins introduced Senate
Bill 383 and House Bill 946, respectively,
during the legislative sessions at the Geor
gia Capitol in January. The proposed legis
lation, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp
in May, changed the law requiring that all
municipalities in a single county TSPFOST
must sign an Intergovernmental Agreement
to levy a full penny tax. The new legislation
now requires only municipalities represent
ing more than 50% of a county's municipal
population to sign an IGA to levy the tax at
a full penny.
Fast year the City of Buford declined
to sign such an agreement between Hall
County and the cities. On June 27, Buford
was among the Hall County municipalities
that signed the 2024 Transportation SPFOST
IGA.
NGHS hit by
tech outages
BY DENISE ETHERIDGE
deniseetheridge@gainesvilletimes.com
Editor’s note: This published in a previous
E-Paper edition and is being provided here
for print-only readers.
A software issue caused computer and
phone outages over the weekend at all loca
tions of Northeast Georgia Health Systems.
NGHS stated that the issues were resolved
on Sunday, July 14.
Chris Paravate, NGHS chief information
officer, released a statement Monday explain
ing what caused the communication systems
issues:
“We experienced IT system outages Sun
day morning, which we believe were inad
vertently caused by a software issue with one
of our vendors,” Paravate said. “We became
aware of the issues around 5 a.m., which
limited our ability to operate our electronic
medical record and receive phone calls. It also
limited the ability for people to access their
records via MyChart, call our locations, and
schedule appointments online. Thankfully,
our nurses, physicians, and staff continued
providing the same safe, high-quality care
through our standard downtime procedures -
while our IT teams worked with our vendors
to get the impacted systems back online. We
were back to business as usual by 5 p.m.”
