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Saturday, July 20, 2019 • Vol. 64 • No. 29
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Man indicted in skimming scam involving area victims
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By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
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Kyle Rimel, a 53-year-old homeless man who usually sleeps under the Loop 610 overpass at Ella Boulevard, moved to Houston in 2017 from his home state of Indiana. He often asks passersby for food and money.
“(Some people) act like we’re a lower lifeform.”
Homeless man, area resident form unlikely friendship
Leader readers make their choices From Staff Reports
Every year, we ask readers to tell us their favorite spots in the community -from where to eat, where to go for a haircut to where to find a good book or a good record. And you never let us down. This week, The Leader is proud to announce the winners of our annual Reader’s Choice Awards. Over the course of the last few weeks, voters have cast their ballots for businesses of all types and sizes. Today, these top-notch businesses have a new trophy to put on their mantle. As your community newspaper, we love spotlighting these businesses and bringing their stories to you, the readers, because our mission is to help bring the community together. It’s more evidence that we’re all in this together. From longtime community staples such as Liberty Hoepfl Garage to relative newcomer The Pure Parenting Shop to everything in between, there is no shortage of quality businesses all around us. Congratulations to the winners! If you haven’t visited some of these businesses, today is a great time to start. You’ll find the complete list inside starting on page 5B.
THE INDEX.
Calendar/Church............................... 6A Classifieds.............................................. 7A Coupons................................................... 7B Food/Drink/Art................................... 1B Obituaries............................................... 6A Opinion..................................................... 5A Public Information......................... 2A Puzzles...................................................... 5A
Buying gas has become risky business for area drivers, who must remain on the lookout for pumps where credit card skimmers have been installed. Justice could be coming for several area consumers who already have fallen victim. Wilfredo ColumbieTellez, a 42-year-old man originally from Cuba, was indicted by a Harris County grand jury Wednesday for allegedly possessing and using more than Wilfredo 50 pieces of identifyColumbie-Tellez ing information that were obtained illegally. He has been charged with first-degree felony identity theft in state district court and, if convicted, faces 20 years to life in prison. According to a motion for $70,000 bond filed in court, a skimmer, credit card re-encoder, re-encoded credit cards and USB devices containing more than 750 credit card numbers were found in Columbie-Tellez’s Southwest Houston apartment when he was arrested in March. Robert Buss, a Harris County assistant disSee Skimmer, P. 10A
By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
The insults start flying as soon as Brad McPhee approaches. Kyle Rimel first calls him a jezebel, then a twerp. He claims that McPhee harasses him, aggravates him and brings him bad luck. He even accuses McPhee of trying to poison him. But it’s all bluster, a way for Rimel to mask the way he really feels about McPhee, who laughs at the jabs and dishes out some of his own. They talk to each other like childhood friends who are catching up as adults. But their relationship dates back only to February, and it’s far from typical. Rimel is homeless, having spent the last 15 months living under the Loop 610 overpass at Ella Boulevard. McPhee lives in a house in
Photo by Adam Zuvanich
Area resident Brad McPhee, left, regularly interacts with homeless people and brings them food and supplies.
a nice neighborhood to the north, drives an SUV and makes periodic visits to see how Rimel is doing, bring him hamburgers or, as he did last week, deliver him a new wheelchair. “I love Brad to death. He’s like a brother to me,” Rimel said. “Well, he is my brother – in the Lord. I’d defend Brad just like he was my real brother. That’s why I give him heck all the time.”
Citywide effort helps homeless By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com Assisting those who need help is a responsibility most churches fulfill within their community. They also are tasked with keeping their members and their property safe. Sometimes those two objectives are at odds with each other. Robert Clark, interim pastor at Garden Oaks Baptist Church, said the complex at 3206 N. Shepherd Dr. is a popular gathering place for parishioners as well as children who attend Garden Oaks Baptist Early Learning Center. Situated on a major thoroughfare in close proximity to a freeway, it’s also a place where homeless people congregate. Clark said members of the area’s homeless community regularly walk past the church while making their way down Shepherd. Sometimes they seek help from the church in terms of food, clothing or money, and sometimes they find a covered corner on the property that makes for a good place to sleep.
Rimel, 53, is one of nearly 4,000 homeless people in the Greater Houston area, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. The nonprofit organization estimates there are about 100 in the six zip codes served by The Leader. McPhee, an unemployed petroleum engineer, is a regular churchgoer who has long had a soft spot See Homeless, P. 11A
HOMELESS
9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000
8,538
Moon landing recalled with awe, fondness By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon in July 1969. Ray Viator, the author of “Houston, Space City See related USA,” which is a pictorial story by celebration of the city’s Betsy ties to the U.S. space proDenson gram, relayed an observation from a fellow author: Page 9A Unlike other singular moments in history steeped in tragedy, like President John F. Kennedy’s assassination or the Challenger tragedy, the moon landing is a collective positive memory for those who watched it. Viator was on vacation with his family in Hot Springs, Arkansas, that summer, and his parents gathered him and his siblings around the television to watch the historic event.
7,356 6,359 5,351
2011
2012
2013
2014
See Apollo 11, P. 10A 4,609
2015
3,626
3,412
2016
2017
4,143
3,938
2018
2019
Graph numbers from 2011-16 represent total homeless population for Fort Bend and Harris counties. Montgomery County is included from 2017-19. Source: Coalition for the Homeless
Their presence is a concern to many church members, Clark said, so they regularly are asked to relocate. But the church also has provided assistance to many of them. “We’re trying to do our part to show God’s love to people who are obviously having great difficulties in their lives,” he said. “We feel like it’s part of being Jesus in the world today, and we want to contribute toward that. But at the same time, obviously there is a security concern, especially where small children and parents of those children are concerned. We want to ensure they’re as safe as possible.” According to the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit that assists the homeless across the Houston area, there are about 4,000 home-
less people in the region and that number has fluctuated in recent years. The same is true within the six zip codes served by The Leader, with the estimated homeless population jumping from about 75 in 2017 to more than 200 in 2018, then dipping to about 100 this year. A longtime Garden Oaks resident who attends Garden Oaks Baptist Church and used to walk her two grandchildren to its neighboring preschool said she recently stopped doing that because she was concerned about a few homeless men who started congregating along Shepherd. A July 4 Facebook post on the page for Shepherd Park Plaza asked about an increased See Effort, P. 11A
Photo from Ray Viator A Lego astronaut greets a student at Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet in 2017.
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