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Crime Alert News Release
Insurance Scam
On Thursday, Elbert County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to all residents in reference to an insurance scam directed at life insurance. In the news release issued from Sheriff Barry Haston, he advised that throughout the past several weeks there have been complaints where a person posing as an insurance agent was targeting families with the recent passing of loved ones. In the scam the agent would either talk with a family member or would try and make contact with some member of the family stating that the deceased had a life insurance policy, which had lapsed by only a few months and if the family would send money the policy would be reinstated.
The latest complaint came from Norman Berry of Berry Funeral Home who had an individual attempt to call him and was trying to get in touch with a family who had a recent passing. After Berry took the information from the unknown caller he attempted to call the number back with no results.
On 07/12/06, a notice was sent to area funeral homes from the Georgia Funeral Directors Association warning of this scam. In the notice posted from GFDA it warned that many of the scams are occurring in the South Carolina Area where persons are seeking money from families to correct a lapsed life insurance policy to reinstate it.
Sheriff Haston advised that this is not the practice of Insurance Companies to contact families at the passing of a loved one to inform them of a lapsed policy. If anyone has had such an incident occur to them or their family please contact the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division or the State Insurance Commissioner.
A $1,000.00 reward is being offered from the Governor’s Office for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the death of Ann Outz.
Outz’s body was located in a wooded area near the Brewers Bridge on June 24th , 2006.
Investigators from the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office, Elberton Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have been investigating the death since the discovery of the body.
The investigating agencies requested the reward money from the Governor’s Office and were soon notified after the request that the money had been granted.
Flyers have been created with the information pertaining to the death of Outz whereas one side is in English and the other is in Spanish.
Anyone with information may call the Elbert County Sheriff’s office at 706-283-2421, the Elberton Police Department at (706)-213-3130 or the crime tippers hot line at (706) 213-8956.
The body of Ann Outz which was later determined to be a murder was discovered on June 24th in a wooded area in Elbert County.
On Friday, October 6, 2000, the Elbert County Sheriff's Office in Elberton, Georgia responded to a local residence where the body of a 67-year-old white male had been discovered. The victim, Jimmy Harris Webb, had been shot to death approximately four days earlier. At the time of the murder, the victim was in possession of a very large coin collection believed to be valued in excess of $100,000.00. The collection consisted of approximately 500 to 1000 coins that ranged in date from the early 1800's to present. The safes containing the coin collection had been broken open and all the coins were taken. There were no signs of any struggle or forced entry into the home.
If anyone has any information on this homicide or on the stolen coins, please contact the Investigative Division of the Elbert County Sheriff's Department at (706) 283-2421 or (706) 283-2032. Special Agent Ben Williams with the Athens office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation can also be contacted at (706) 542-7901.