Our coverage of the Rollins v. Rollins divorce case has taken a number of twists and turns, but the most bizarre twist might have come a few weeks back when a man contacted me and claimed to be in possession of Ted Rollins' iPhone.
What happened next apparently was an attempted scam on me, Ted Rollins, or perhaps both of us--and I suspect it might have constituted a federal crime. For sure, it was one of the strangest episodes since this blog started in June 2007--and that's saying something.
This tale even includes allegations about child pornography and child abuse, although I never received evidence that such images actually exist. (See video at the end of this post.)
It all started with an anonymous comment to a post I had written about the Rollins divorce, which involves Birmingham resident Sherry Carroll Rollins and her ex husband Ted Rollins, who now is CEO of Campus Crest Communities and a member of the mega wealthy family behind Orkin Pest Control, Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment, and other profitable enterprises. The post in question was not new; it had been up for some time, so I was surprised to see a comment for it.
The commenter stated that he had information about Ted Rollins that might be of interest to me, so I suggested that he contact me by phone or my personal e-mail account. The man called me--with the name and number showing up as "unknown"--and told me the following story, which comes from notes I've kept on the episode:
The caller said he worked for a company that was involved in the renovation of Campus Crest's offices in Charlotte, NC. As part of the project, he said, Campus Crest discarded numerous electronic devices--phones, cameras, laptops, etc.--and told crew members that they were welcome to take any objects from a pretty large pile. The caller said he took an iPhone and one other item--a camera, I think it was.
When the man got home, he discovered that the iPhone included lots of information--contacts, e-mails, texts, photos, music, etc.--from its previous owner. After going through the material, the man discovered that the phone had belonged to Campus Crest's CEO. "I guess Mr. Rollins gave the phone to someone in IT, and they forgot to clear out everything and mistakenly put it in with the stuff to be thrown away," the caller told me.
The man said he Googled Ted Rollins' name, discovered my blog, and decided that either Sherry Rollins or I might be interested in the phone. The caller also said that he had found at least two nude photos on the phone of a young person he believed to be an under-aged member of the extended Rollins family. The man said he was concerned this might constitute child pornography and raise various criminal issues. He also said the phone included images of a boy who had a black eye and apparently had somehow been roughed up.
What happened next? We will explore that in a series of upcoming posts. But for now, these questions are foremost in my mind: Who was this guy, and what in the heck was he up to?
I don't have solid answers for either question. But I did tape record our conversations, so we know what his voice sounds like, and you can check it out at the video below.
Note: I've edited the audio to delete a name that was associated with the alleged images of a nude child.
(To be continued)