Window Cleaning News

Trial of alleged Maine scammer begins in Bangor, Maine - A Stockton Springs man who federal authorities believe defrauded several people of money so that he could invest in an international moneymaking scam went on trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Todd Denson, 50, faces 13 counts of wire fraud involving more than $25,000. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. According to court testimony, Denson told "investors" that he needed money to gain access to millions he had in foreign bank accounts. In most instances, Denson was able to document his alleged wealth. In one case, he played a phone message to a potential investor from an overseas bank that confirmed his wealth, witness testimony revealed.

Three reputed victims testified Tuesday morning that Denson persuaded them to give him money with the promise that he would pay them back more than what they gave. He never made good on that promise. One alleged victim, Gary Plante of Oakland, was supposed to get a private loan from Denson of $185,000 so he could buy a home. Plante deposited $5,000 into an escrow account at Denson's request to help facilitate the loan. Nearly a year has passed and Plante has not gotten the loan or his $5,000 back. Another reported victim, Camillia Arelia, whose hometown was not available, knew Denson socially and at one point offered to give him money on the stipulation that he pay it back. Denson assured her that he had millions overseas that he could access. The trial is scheduled to resume today.

Denson has been incarcerated since his arrest in April, but this isn't the first time he has been involved in a fraud case. In 2006, the U.S. Secret Service was called in after a man responded to a classified newspaper ad promising a $20,000 return on a $40,000 loan, payable in 48 hours. The man said Denson told him he needed the money to release more than $9 million he kept at the "Intercontinental Bank" in England to avoid U.S. taxes. The man said he wired most of the money to an address in England and gave Denson the rest in cash. He contacted the Secret Service after he wasn't paid back. Denson later told Secret Service agents that after he had sent $60,000 of his own money overseas he was instructed to send more money to complete the deal.

In order to attract investors, Denson fabricated stories about how he had made millions designing window-washing equipment or how he stood to inherit millions from his long-lost father. He eventually confessed to bilking several Cumberland County residents out of nearly $80,000. He later pleaded guilty to seven counts of mail and wire fraud and was sentenced in Portland in June 2007 to 18 months in federal prison. He served about 14 months in prison, but according to court documents outlining the new charges, Denson began engaging in the same kind of conduct for which he was convicted almost immediately after his release. Scams similar to the one in which Denson reportedly became ensnared have become widespread. Many of them operated through mailed letters and fax machines for decades before they moved to the Internet in the 1990s. See here for more.

'Thank you' - little Shannon is all set for life changing operation: John, a window cleaner, said: “With God’s will, we’ll give little Shannon a chance to see her family, cartoons, colours and flowers – what everyone takes for granted. That’s what it’s all about.” Shannon, of Rensherds Place, has an extremely rare condition called Peters Plus Syndrome which has made her virtually blind and she lost her right eye in 2008 through an infection. Dr Liu is just one of a handful of experts who are able to perform a pioneering artificial cornea replacement procedure called keratoprosthesis. Yesterday, Tuesday, the specialist confirmed that Shannon is eligible for the operation and it is hoped a date will be set before Christmas. But the family has been warned there is no guarantee that it will be a success.

The Better Cheater: So why are men so sure that women are monogamous? Simple. Women are better at keeping secrets. Although recent research shows that both sexes are equally promiscuous, 1 in 10 men get caught, but only 1 in 20 women. I can still see the face of one particular guy who was bragging about his affairs while his unsuspectingly wife was sitting at home. When one of my friends, in her sweetest voice and looking very innocent, asked him if they had a gardener, or perhaps a male window cleaner, or builders doing work on the house, his jaw literally dropped. It started to dawn on him. Let’s face it boys: if you want to run somewhere else out of boredom or frustration, there's a fair chance she’s feeling the same way.

Possible attempted child kidnapper may have been seen elsewhere in southwest Reno: The sheriff’s office said Thursday that someone may have tried to kidnap a 14-year-old girl on Sept. 9 after approaching her in the 4900 block of Ventana Parkway and told the news media about it. There is a second report of a man with a similar description on Peace Pipe Loop south of Ventana Parkway of a man knocking on a front door repeatedly for several minutes before leaving a flyer on the door advertising a window cleaning service, the sheriff’s office said. Also, there were emails circulating among people in that area that there was an attempted abduction of a child in the area of Rick Circle, which runs behind Bishop Manogue High School. Detectives investigated and said the report of an attempted abduction was false, but said there was a confirmed incident similar to the Peace Pipe Loop incident of an older white man approaching the home, knocking on the door and leaving a flyer.

Meanwhile one of Skipton’s vintage crop of athletes Bernard Gardt, has been doing the club proud. Contesting the Yorkshire Masters Athletics Champion-ships which were staged at Cleckheaton, Gardt – a familiar town-centre window cleaner – proved himself fastest over 60 runner in the county, when he mopped up the opposition in that age-group’s 100 metres final. Bearing in mind that he had those ladders to hump around and climb the following morning, he resisted on this occasion to challenge for further honours. The ever-popular former local footballer though can now proudly reflect upon having won at least one county title in every masters age-group from over 40s upwards. As an over 50 athlete, he also won the British Masters Pentathlon crown.

Palm Beach County ponders another $6 million in last-minute budget cuts - Palm Beach County budget planners on Thursday highlighted options for nearly $6 million in additional budget cuts, but recommended that the County Commission instead stick with plans to boost property tax rates 9 percent. The potential further cuts laid out Thursday (with the associated savings) include: reducing window washing ($51,000); and eliminating 50 filled positions.

Spike attendance up for 2010, director says: The Golden Spike drew about 1,500 visitors over Rail Fest weekend, according to director JoAnne Hoatson. The Spike posted net losses in excess of $250,000 for 2009, including $158,000 in depreciation expenses. Raising revenue is one way to address that problem. Cutting expenses is another. For example, the Spike paid over $37,000 in janitorial costs in 2009. Hoatson said she addressed that directly this year, finding more cost effective services and reducing window washing from 12 months to eight. "Getting our windows washed alone costs $850 a month," she said.

In the Ryder Cup fanzone, the only thing flooding in was the rain. Big screens attract few spectators in Newport, which hopes for a big boost from the golf tournament down the road. While a few miles up the road golf enthusiasts were packed around the tees and greens, the Newport fanzone hosted precisely one hardy fan: window cleaner Roy Webb. "I'm not really into the golf, I just thought I'd come and have a look at the first shots on the big screen, see what it's all about," said Webb. "Anyway the weather's too bad to clean any windows. But there aren't many people here, are there?" He drifted away before seeing a hole completed.

Simple Ways to Cope With Debt-Related Stress - Don't dwell on thepredicament. While you should honestly face the issue, obsessing over the circumstances of your situation can be damaging mentally andphysically. Michael Thomas, owner of a window-washing business in Longmont,Colo., is currently digging out of $455,000 in consumer and mortgage loans.Last year, as a harsh winter put a sizeable dent in his income, he internalizedthe stress. "I gained about 20 pounds, had a lot of trouble sleeping and wouldfeel like a loser for not being able to pay my obligations on time," he says. Thomas also shut out his wife from the pecuniary plight. "Ithought I was shielding her from the stress of the situation," he says. "Turnsout, however, she was stressing right along with me. She was getting sick of mymoody behavior, but now we communicate better about finances and take responsibilityas a team."
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TRUCKEE, Calif. — It still haunts Stefan McLeod. Where on Highway 89 did his passion for fly fishing spawn? Independence Creek, maybe? He was a 5-year-old child fishing with a family friend. McLeod fell in love with the sport, hook line and sinker. “I was a certified bait dunker,” said McLeod. At 16, he knew he was going to be a fly fisher. At 33, he's done just about everything to support that passion: Tying flies, working as a certified fly fishing guide, which took the “fun out” and turned it into a job. In winter he still ties flies, and operates two businesses to support his passion, snow removal and A Glass Act window cleaning service. His service to clean waterways is long founded and abundantly evident. The Truckee born and raised native is tattooed left and right with rocky river bottoms, curling blue waves, may flies and the ultimate: A Trout Unlimited logo. Trout Unlimited's mission is “to conserve, protect and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.” As McLeod said: “The fish are only as healthy as their fishery.” As president of the newly hatched Truckee chapter of Trout Unlimited, McLeod will continue his crusade to keep the Truckee watershed clean. He's been down and dirty on Donner Creek for several years, a self-proclaimed law enforcement vigilante for clean waters. During an April 2010 cleanup, McLeod, Dave Lass and Frank Pisciotta decided to clean the area from the Mousehole past the mobile home park. They estimate 18 contractor garbage bags, close to a ton of trash, was removed from a stretch the length of a football field.

Daredevil Jonny has a head for heights! A Duns daredevil is set to celebrate completing a kilomathon next week - by leaping off the Forth Rail Bridge! More commonly known in Berwickshire for climbing up ladders than dropping off Scottish land marks, window cleaner Jonny Logan will be one of almost 200 fundraisers to take the plunge in Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland's Ultimate Abseil on October 3. But he will be the only one to take on the daunting drop having already completed a 26.2 kilometre road race the same day. Jonny, who signed up for the kilomathon and the CHSS abseil not realising they were on the same day, has decided to persevere with both challenges to raise even more money for charity. "I hadn't realised both events were on the same day but figured it made the events even more of a challenge," he explained. "Chest heart and stroke illness touches everyone's lives at some point so I felt it was a great charity to support."

The day will see Jonny setting off from the Royal Highland Showground and crossing the Forth Road Bridge twice on the gruelling run before taking part in the 165 foot abseil from the Forth Rail Bridge. Jonny has previously completed six half marathons, but after completing the longer distance of 16.3 miles a week on Sunday, he'll barely be able to catch his breath before tackling the mammoth abseil.  And although he admits he may be ready to drop in a completely different way after running Scotland's first ever kilomathon, Johnny's determined to go the distance and finish both daunting tasks. He said: "I started running a couple of years ago and have done six half marathons, I ran one recently and put quite a lot into it, but I felt hellish at the end!

"The kilomathon's a wee bit longer so I'll take it slower and make sure I get to the end. "Whether I feel like climbing off the Forth Road Rail Bridge or not I'll do it anyway - it's what I've signed up for." CHSS event organiser Chris Marks commented: "Jonny has set himself a real challenge and on behalf of CHSS I'd like to thank him most sincerely for undertaking it in aid of our charity. The money raised will make a real impact on our ability to continue supporting those affected by chest, heart and stroke illness across Scotland." Jonny added: "The sponsorship is going well but I've hit a bit of a wall in that I've had all my family and friends now!" If you would like to help Jonny achieve his fundraising target you can donate via his fundraising website http/justgiving.com/jsl or call the CHSS fundraising hotline on 0800 3160555.

On Thursday, wearing a white shirt and grey tie, Farquharson stood in the dock at his pre-sentence hearing. He shook his head in disagreement as prosecutor Andrew Tinney said the former window cleaner had committed, with an "evil" motive, the worst category of murder and should never be released from jail. Cindy Gambino sometimes sits and asks her sons what really happened on Father's Day 2005 when their father drove them into a country Victorian dam. She will bring a blanket and sleep beside the graves of Jai, Tyler and Bailey Farquharson. It is the only way Ms Gambino feels she can have physical contact with her boys. Other times she looks at a photograph of the three and find herself crying for days. Before September 2005, Ms Gambino was a happy, loving mum. That was until Father's Day, when, in an act of vengeance against her, the boys' dad Robert Farquharson deliberately drove them into a dark, deep, cold dam and ended their young lives.

Chemical pact pair tragedy: A young suicide-pact couple suffered “death by detergent” after filling their car with deadly fumes from a household cleaner. The pair died after apparently copying a deadly craze that has swept Japan and the US. It involves a lethal cocktail of detergent being mixed with bath salts to create poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas. The alarm was raised yesterday after a retired police officer spotted the couple’s Vauxhall Astra in a secluded spot. The pair, who had not been named last night, had placed two notes on the car window naming the toxic gas inside, before it is believed they killed themselves. About 30 firms were evacuated from near the spot at an industrial centre in Braintree, Essex. Worker Peter Turner, 64, said: “The car had signs on it, which said there was gas inside.” When an ambulance crew arrived they realised it was dangerous to open the car doors, so a specialist unit that deals with chemicals was called from Kent. Hydrogen sulphide was used in World War One and is released naturally by volcanoes. It was used in an estimated 500 suicides in Japan in 2008 and there have been cases in America this year. But there have been few cases reported in the UK.

Cleaning Services in Australia - Industry Risk Rating Report - new market analysis released. This is the replacement for the July 2009 edition of Cleaning Services in Australia Industry Risk Ratings Report. Industry Risk Ratings Synopsis This Industry Risk Ratings report evaluates the inherent risks associated with the Cleaning Services in Australia industry. Industry Risk is assumed to be ´the difficulty, or otherwise, of the business operating. The Industry Risk score measures expected Industry Risk over the coming 12-18 months. Industry Definition: This report relates to firms that provide window, building, telephone cleaning or similar cleaning services.

Cameron’s chain gangs:  Are we really going to witness thousands of convicts being forced to work unpaid around the country in a bid to kick-start the economy? Will our roads be dug by burglars, our potholes filled by shoplifters and the graffiti scrubbed from walls by fraudsters? This it appears is an extension of what is seen as the soft option of community service. Out will go road sweeping and window cleaning and in will come hard manual labour.

It is awards season - not least with the EDP Business Awards being held next Friday. Here is a round-up of some of the other awards that have been won by the region's businesses in the past weeks. Stulee General and Industrial Cleaners, set up in June 2006 by Lee James and Stuart Ford, is also on the shortlist for a general award recognising the promise of the young business. Their company, which started as a simple two-man window-cleaning business, has developed over the last few years and now cleans the windows of more than 500 houses and holds more than 40 contracts for office and shop cleaning nationwide.

AUSTIN - What woke up students across the University of Texas at Austin's campus Tuesday? Pebbles? A noisy window cleaner? An overactive bird? All wrong and all too ordinary -- the answer is gunshots. University of Texas at Austin freshmen Courtney Weir and Riane Wates woke up Tuesday morning to unfamiliar sounds that would set the tone for the rest of their day. "We thought it was rocks or maybe a window cleaner but then we got the text and realized we woke up because of gunshots," Yates said.

Glass Fool; Probably just about every newspaper on the planet carried a vertigo-inducing photograph of a man perched on a window ledge, 400 feet up on the 34th floor of a tower block in Jumeirah Beach, Dubai - with no safety harness, clutching onto the window frame while cleaning the glass. A resident of a neighbouring block, who took the pictures, said: “The professional cleaners have safety harnesses and cradle. He had nothing.” It prompted some great headlines, including in Scottish Daily Mail: ‘Just Don’t Drop Your Squeegee!’ More here.

A window cleaners Blog: We will be reviewing tools as well as anything to do with window cleaning.We will provide links to companies that are the backbone of the window cleaning industry and also to forums from all over the world  who will be there to help you on a local level. We will try over the next few months try to be a non bius blog that will give you honest advise on marketing that works for the window cleaners from a whole host of countries.Also we hope to get help from marketing guru's within the industry to help new and upcoming window cleaners get that all important advise to get them on the road to making a good living while upholding a time honored tradition of quality  for our customers and respect for our profession. We look forward to hearing from anyone within the industry who would like to take part in this blog .

A former soldier from Tavistock convicted of murdering his baby son will appear at the Appeal Court later this month in a bid to clear his name. Michael Burridge was jailed for life at Plymouth Crown Court in March 2008 after a jury found him guilty of murdering his eight-week-old son Rees, whom he was looking after while his wife Donna was out shopping. He has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction by the Appeal Court and on October 11 he will face a week-long battle at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London. Burridge, a 30-year-old self-employed window-cleaner, repeatedly denied during his trial that he had harmed his son. His defence team revealed he had told police when interviewed he would 'never, ever, ever, ever even think about hurting' Rees, who died on October 2, 2006. An array of medical experts appeared for the Crown Prosecution Service, explaining to the jury the specific and complex injuries which they claimed led to his death. The jury agreed with the experts who claimed Burridge had crushed his son's tiny ribs and shaken him violently back and forth.

New York State Fair: Troy McEwan, a presentor with Speed Pro window cleaner, shows Sally Fedrizzi (center) and Kim Holt, both of B'ville, how his product can clean a window in the Center of Progress Buildiing at the NY State Fair.

DENVER – One of the largest fires in Aurora has history resulted in an $18 million verdict against a security systems company with an office in Greenwood Village. Sonitrol’s security system used tiny microphones in corners of entrances and windows. Convicted burglar and arsonist David Ottersberg, then 28, used a battery-operated chain saw to cut through the wooden door into the warehouse, which stored convenience store items like candy, cigarettes and cold tablets – a base ingredient Ottersberg used to make methamphetamine. He also tore away pieces of the door with his hands and kicked it apart to break in. “There was an audio sensor mounted 18 feet away from where he broke in,” said Thomas Dunford, a partner at Denver law firm Cozen O’Connor who represented the tenant’s insurance companies, the plaintiffs, in trial. “It never activated.” Ottersberg and two others were able to steal carloads of snacks and cold tablets before setting the place ablaze using flammable items — including lighter fluid and concentrated window-washing fluid — they found in the warehouse. The alarm still never activated.

3 reasons why a window cleaner might be better at business than you: “Do you need your windows cleaned?” According to the trainer at a web-design course a friend of mine went on last week, the average new visitor to your website will decide in the first 8 seconds whether or not he’s going to stick around. The window cleaner spotted me, my smile, and the opportunity to grab a new client and he was in there. Read more.