This Week in Crime: The Dog Days of August

Ah, the dog days of August, when crime in Reston trickles down to one mere incident in which a group of men liberated a wallet from someone in South Reston.

Four men assaulted a 40-year-old man and stole his wallet on Saturday, July 31 around 11:06 p.m. in the 2200 block of Stone Wheel Drive. The suspects were described as Hispanic, between 20 and 25 years old. The victim declined medical treatment.

Despite the fact there were four men involved, detectives do not appear to be rounding up barbershop quartets for questioning.

For those that prefer their crime tidbits on the white-collar side, there's this:

A Nevada law firm has filed two civil lawsuits against Reston-based Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems alleging billions of dollars worth of fraud.

The suits, filed in Nevada and California district courts, claim the company has deprived county and state governments of revenue "used among other things to maintain county real property records, fund the judiciary, school systems and other government services."

"They tout themselves as being a recording-fee avoidance scheme," said attorney Robert R. Hager of Nevada law firm Hager & Hearne, which has filed the suits against MERS.

MERS spokeswoman Karmela Lejarde called both suits "baseless" and pointed out that the attorney generals of both California and Nevada refused to accept them as false claims cases, essentially forcing Hager & Hearne to file civil suits.

"These same law firms have brought many other lawsuits against MERS and every one has failed," she said. The MERS website further claims the MERS system is approved by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs, and the California and Utah housing finance agencies, as well as all of the major Wall Street rating agencies.

There's a bunch of complicated stuff about mortgage recording systems in that article, so instead please to be enjoying this heartwarming "news-paper" article about "Angel of Reston," a Jack Russell terrier who wins lots of first place awards at terrier shows. SPOILER ALERT: You'll also learn why Angel's middle name is Huey. And whether she attended a Newt Gingrich book signing (SPOILER ALERT to the SPOILER ALERT: she did.)