LETTER TO OLDER BLACKS BOGUS, POLICE SAY

A letter being circulated locally that claims black senior citizens could be entitled to compensation because of slavery is bogus and its instructions should not be followed, Vicksburg Police said this morning.

“You have to be careful with these things and make sure they are legitimate,” said Beverly Prentiss, public information officer.

The letter instructs black people born before 1928 to contact the National Victim’s Registrar T.R.E.A. Senior Systems League based in Washington, D.C., for information on how to collect $5,000 through the, “slave reparation act.”

In order to get information about the money the person must send a Social Security number, address, phone number and date of birth.

Prentiss said the group is lobbying Congress to have legislation passed to fund the act, but makes no guarantees. She warned that people should never give out personal information such as Social Security numbers.

“Whenever you get a letter asking for that information, call the Attorney General’s Office or the Better Business Bureau to check it out,” Prentiss said.

A spokesman for the group told Vicksburg Police this morning that the letter had not been generated by their office and that they were not requesting Social Security numbers from people, Prentiss said.

TWO TRUCK BURGLARIES REPORTED TO AUTHORITIES

Two truck burglaries netted thieves items that included firearms and welding equipment, local law enforcement officials reported.

Beverly Prentiss, community relations officer with the Vicksburg Police Department, said the owner of a pickup said he had parked it in the 100 block of Cornell Street and found that rented welding equipment was missing. The items were a Lincoln 225AC arc welder, a Craftsman cutting torch, an oxygen cylinder and an acetylene cylinder with a total value of $600.

Jay McKenzie, chief of detectives with Warren County Sheriff’s Department, said a Clinton man reported he parked a 1997 Nissan pickup at Fay’s Grocery on U.S. 61 South about noon Monday.

When he returned four hours later, he found someone had broken in and taken a Compaq laptop computer, a Remington Model 1100 12 gauge shotgun, a stainless steel Browning A-bolt rifle with synthetic stock and a 3×9 power scope sight, with a total value of nearly $3,000.