12/30/08
Pay stub used as bank robbery note
Here we go again... another stupid criminal. The robber's threatening note made a Chicago bank job easy to solve: The FBI says the suspect wrote it on his pay stub. An FBI affidavit said the man walked into a Fifth Third Bank on Friday and handed a teller a note that read "Be Quick Be Quit (sic). Give your cash or I'll shoot."
The robber got about $400 but left half of his note. Investigators found the other half outside the bank's front doors. Authorities say that part of the man's October pay stub had his name and address.
The suspect was arrested at his Cary home. A judge ordered him held without bond Monday. If convicted of bank robbery, he faces 20 years in prison.
Resource...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_fe_st/odd_bank_heist_note
12/24/08
Snowzilla is no more.
Municipal officials in Anchorage have given a cease-and-desist order to builders of the giant snowman that made appearances the last three years in an east Anchorage neighborhood. The giant snowman was a favorite for photographers and camera crews from Russia and Japan filmed the temporary sculpture. Snowzilla in 2005 rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.
He was built in the front yard of the Powers family home and Billy Powers said his children collected snow from neighbors homes to add to the height and breadth.
The snowman was built even higher in succeeding years, but not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.
City officials deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard.
A few weeks ago, code enforcers left red signs at Snowzilla's bottom body ball telling its builders to cease and desist. The city also tacked a public notice on the door of the Powers home.
City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.
When the notices went up, Snowzilla still didn't have a full torso or head.
"The kids had spent hours and hours of work on it," Billy Powers said Sunday.
Now, Snowzilla is just a big pile of snow rubble. Powers said he doesn't plan to rebuild.
Resource...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28358077/
11/01/08
Repeat Offender Doomed By Adorable Puppies
You wouldn't attend your own murder trial dripping in blood, or arrive to be sentenced for an arson case smelling like smoke and lighter fluid. And if you've been accused of grand theft auto, you probably shouldn't drive to the courthouse in another stolen vehicle.
And if you do, you should probably leave the puppies at home.
Accused of driving a stolen Porsche, Tony Van arrived at a Marin County (CA) courthouse to receive the jury's verdict.
How did he get there? In a newly stolen Lexus, police say.
Cops report that they were alerted to Van's hot wheels by court employees who noticed Yorkshire terrier puppies that were wandering around the parking lot. Evidently Van had left seven dogs in the sweltering car and a few had escaped. When police ran the car's tags they discovered it was been stolen.
Van's been charged with receiving stolen property and animal cruelty.
But there's some justice in the world: the dogs are being cared for by the local Humane Society and Van was convicted of driving the stolen Porsche. And I bet a conviction for the stolen Lexus isn't far behind either.
Resource...
http://blog.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/2008/10/dumb-repeat-off.html
10/11/08
Forgotten, man sits in jail for two years
By Robert Patrick
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
St. Louis — Joseph A. Shepard Sr. sat in local jails for almost two years, assuming that his lawyer was making progress on his case and that drug-related charges against him would soon be resolved in federal court.
His family says lawyer Michael P. Kelly told them Shepard had pleaded guilty and would return home soon with credit for time already served behind bars.
Shepard never came home.
Shepard, 53, is a man the system forgot, apparently ignored by his own attorney — and the prosecutor and judge — as days ticked by in a municipal lockup where he was confined to a cell 23 hours a day.
Shepard was surprised when a reporter broke the news at the Jennings jail Wednesday night that his case had been forgotten. It was more than a month after prosecutors took steps to move the case forward, though he still had not been told about it by his lawyer.
"Good. That's what I've been hoping for — something like that," he said. "I kind of figured that, after two years of nothing happening."
Shepard, in a short-sleeve orange jail top, blue shorts, flip-flops and a Rip Van Winkle-esque seven-month growth of beard, almost missed the news. He balked when guards said he had an unexpected visitor. "I argued with them and told them no, you got the wrong person," he said.
Long ago, he told his family not to drive four hours round trip from home in Potosi to Jennings for just a 20-minute visit.
Shepard has been locked up in Jennings for 20 months while other federal detainees came and went. "Everybody but me," he said. Jennings holds federal prisoners under contract. He was in a different jail for six months before that.
He is charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, conspiracy and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Shepard said he persevered "day by day" thanks to reading, praying and the patience he developed fishing and working on cars and motorcycles. He figured, "If I just sit here long enough, something's going to happen."
Shepard has mainly communicated with Kelly, his lawyer, through family. He said Kelly visited him July 17 to tell of a potential plea deal for a four-year sentence. Shepard said he wanted to take the deal.
But prosecutors said Kelly turned it down the next day.
All the while, it appears Kelly did nothing to try to secure his client's release on bond.
Kelly, who has a private practice and also is a municipal court judge in Potosi, has not responded to repeated phone calls and e-mails from a Post-Dispatch reporter over more than two weeks. While at the U.S. attorney's office Friday, he told a prosecutor that he would not speak with a reporter who was on the way to talk to him.
Shepard's family members say Kelly has been very difficult to reach and has given them information directly contradicted by court files.
Shepard's daughter-in-law, Amy Shepard, complained that Kelly didn't help when she asked him to get Shepard medicine for diabetes and hypertension. She also said Kelly told family members that Shepard had pleaded guilty and was about to get out.
They said the lawyer also told family members not to bother attending the plea hearing because such proceedings are held privately in the judge's chambers.
Kelly has not filed a single document on behalf of Shepard in all of 2007 and 2008, court records show. The last was Sept. 29, 2006. And he failed to file documents that could have allowed Shepard to be released on bond more than two years ago, according to court documents and prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said her office first realized Shepard was still in custody when it negotiated in mid-July with Kelly about a plea bargain.
"As best I can ascertain, (the judge) issued an order saying if the defense complied with certain conditions, the defendant would be bonded out. And no response was ever made to that order," she said.
"I am very concerned about his lawyer's performance," Hanaway said in one of a series of interviews about the case.
But she also questioned why Shepard said nothing.
"Surely it seems that if you were sitting in jail and you thought you had some opportunity to be released, you would be a very active advocate on your own behalf," she said.
Prosecutors also discovered that U.S. Magistrate Judge Frederick Buckles had never issued a ruling after Kelly challenged some of the evidence in the case.
"And so it wasn't incumbent on us at that point (to do anything)," Hanaway said. She also acknowledged: "We weren't paying any attention."
Hanaway said lawyers often look only as far ahead as the next court date. "What you look for is: Are there any deadlines I have to meet?" Hanaway said there were none while Buckles' ruling was pending.
Without that ruling, Kelly and Shepard lacked crucial information about what prosecutors would be able to use in court when they discussed a plea on July 17.
Buckles issued his ruling Aug. 4, after being alerted to the situation by prosecutors. He tossed out evidence from a botched search of Shepard's house in December 2005 and statements Shepard made to investigators. But prosecutors have appealed, and still have a gun, a knife and four bags of drugs that police said they found on Shepard during and after a traffic stop in Washington County in May 2006.
It's too early to tell what will happen with the charges against Shepard, or how much time he would serve if convicted. He should get credit for the time he's already spent in jail, lawyers say. But living conditions are generally better in federal prisons than local jails.
Buckles cannot comment on open cases. "Somehow it just slipped through the cracks" was all he could say in a recent interview.
After prosecutors brought the case to the attention of Chief U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson on Thursday, she scheduled a status conference Tuesday morning to discuss releasing Shepard on bond. It will be just over 106 weeks since he last appeared in front of a judge.
Hanaway said it is not odd for prosecutors to help someone they're trying to put in prison. "We're advocating that he has his rights represented. I mean, our mission is to do justice. We think he should be convicted ... but we're supposed to uphold the law."
Shepard's relatives are planning to attend the status conference. An angry Amy Shepard complained: "Whether he committed a crime or not, two years is gone with nothing being done."
Resource...
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9F383B4342A46DDC862574B50014E785?OpenDocument
09/06/08
NJ cops kick in door over bird's cries for help
Cries for help inside a Trenton, N.J., home turned out to be for the birds. Neighbors called police Wednesday morning after hearing a woman's persistent cry of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in to make a rescue.
But instead of a damsel in distress, officers found a caged cockatoo with a convincing call.
It wasn't the first time the 10-year-old bird named Luna said something that brought authorities to the home of owner Evelyn DeLeon.
About seven years ago, the bird cried like a baby for hours, leading to reports of a possible abandoned baby and a visit to the home by state child welfare workers. But it was only Luna practicing a newfound sound, DeLeon says.
DeLeon says her bird learns much of her ever-growing vocabulary from watching television, in both English and Spanish.
Story from Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080905/ap_on_fe_st/odd_boisterous_bird
Check out other Odd News while you're there.
08/16/08
Couple lived in a mall for 4 years.
In 2003, inside a 750-foot storage space, abandoned since construction days, Michael Townsend and Adriana Yoto crafted a secret apartment within the mall. The mall adventure was to last a week; it went on for four years. If Townsend hadn't been nabbed by security and charged with criminal trespassing last October, they'd still be camping out there today.
After their experimental week, Yoto and Townsend returned regularly, attempting to transform the storage space into a luxury apartment furnished by the mall. They built a wall with 39-pound cinder blocks that they hauled in themselves. They added sofas, tables, lamps, a TV, a china hutch and a Sony PlayStation (which was stolen while they lived there, which suggests their presence wasn't entirely secret), and stayed for days at a time. They planned to install pre-laminated wood flooring and a portable toilet.
While Yoto and Townsend critiqued the mall as agents of surveillance, they worked hard to make sure they were surveilled. They scanned their sketchbook' pages onto their blogs. They uploaded handmade maps of the mall's undefined spaces. They posted video of their mall apartment on their Web site, which began to appear near the top of Google searches for Providence Place. They assume that's how security knew to search for them, finding Townsend one October afternoon behind the door they built. Townsend yelled "Surprise!" when they turned on the lights. He pleaded no contest, was sentenced to six months probation and was banned from the mall.
Yoto and Townsend's great crime -- what made the mall feel violated -- was to make the mall an individual experience, to define the space themselves. They wanted to replicate what developers had done around them: declare an abandoned area blighted and then redevelop it, to make a tiny piece of the mall uniquely theirs. It was their own personal eminent domain
Resource:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/08/15/living_in_mall/index1.html
06/26/08
Picnicking in Ohio
Man has sex with table
Art Price Jr., 40, of 146 Brinker St. in Bellevue was having sex with a picnic table while outside on the deck. The incidents occurred between January and March 2008.
Price is seen naked and masturbating in the rear room near the open doorway; he then comes out to the deck. He tilts the metal round picnic table on its side and lays up against it and has sexual intercourse with the table. He then cleans the table and the deck.
This was being done across from an elementary school, and a tipster turned in the evidence on 3 DVDs.
He's been sentenced to 6 months in jail.
CNN comments...
Wish I could be a fly on the wall when an inmate asks him, "What are you in for?"
Having sex with a metal picnic table in the middle of an Ohio winter sounds more dangerous than sticking your tongue to a flag pole.
If you are seeing a table, and you go out to dinner, does it get jealous you are with other tables?
06/20/08
Finding more than change in your couch
Couched in the couch
If most women found a lump on their couch they'd call it their husband, but if you sit on a lump in your couch, it may just be a stranger.
A woman came home to her apartment. The lights were on. The door to her balcony was chained, but things just didn't feel right.
She called her friend who stayed on the line as she searched her apartment, but found nothing.
As she sat on her couch she felt a lump. Then the lump moved. When she jumped up to run, a man, David Joe Limones, flipped the couch and chased after her.
Police arrived when a neighbor called 911 and arrested Limones on a variety of charges, including burglary, a felony. He went to Orange County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail or $100,000 bond.
Full resource story...
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS/806200372
06/12/08
Sudoku Mistrial
Would You Believe
A mistrial was called after jurors in Australia were caught playing the puzzle, Sudoku, during the trial.
The trial for two men accused on drug conspiracy charges, had gone on for 66 days, so far, and cost the taxpayers an estimated 1 million Australian dollars.
It had looked like the jurors were taking notes until the judge noticed that the jurors were writing vertically.
"We actually all thought they were quite a diligent jury," said solicitor Robyn Hakelis, who represented one of the accused.
"The judge had made many comments about what a good jury they were, how they were taking copious amounts of notes. I'm quite disappointed."
The jury foreman admitted that several jurors were playing puzzle games for over half the time of the trial. He said it helped to keep his mind busy paying more attention. "Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time, and that doesn't distract me too much from proceedings," he said.
They expect the new trial to begin in a few weeks.
Resource...
http://www.miamiherald.com/577/story/564779.html No longer available
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1318701,00.html
05/27/08
Bobblefoot day at the ballpark
The St. Paul Saints, long known for offbeat, sometimes edgy, promotions, have come up with a real doozy for this Sunday's game.
It's a not too subtle reference to Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, who pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct after an undercover police officer arrested him for allegedly soliciting sex in a bathroom stall at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The Saints' press release says, it is in honor of National Tap Dance Day.
Read Story...
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/19160729.html
05/20/08
81-year-old Escapee Arrested
Willie Parker escaped from prison in Maryland in 1965. He had only served 10 years of a 40 year sentence for robbery with a deadly weapon.
Willie's had a pretty tough time after suffering a stroke, and his right arm curls inward as correctional officers help move him about the jail.
I can tell you he's in pretty bad health," Capt. Sylvester Wilson, who works at the jail, said Tuesday.
"He just about fell down yesterday when I was getting him in and out," Wilson said. "So, his health is not at all good, to be honest with you on that one."
The hobbled old man was finally tracked down as part of Maryland's effort to clear more than 80 outstanding warrants, and his arrest has many wondering if it was worth the effort.
"The general sentiment is why are we wasting our time with this old man. We've got plenty of other crime up here in Maryland," said Warren Brown, one of Parker's attorneys. "He's a sick man, requiring hospitalization at times, and they would have to bear the cost."
Read story details....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-27-fugitive-maryland_N.htm
05/10/08
Man crashes at driveway, sees home catch fire, gets ticket One moment, Justin Hill was turning into his driveway. Minutes later he was being flown to a hospital as his home went up in flames. Then he got a traffic ticket.
Hill, 42, got into a crash after turning into the path of an oncoming car Tuesday evening, said Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer Monte Terry. Hill's wife heard the crash and ran outside, leaving the kitchen stove, where she had been cooking, unattended.
Within minutes, their Rock Island trailer was on fire, and firefighters who had responded to the accident found themselves fighting the blaze.
The rural central Tennessee home had extensive damage. Hill was treated at the hospital and released, but he was cited in the accident for failure to yield.
For this and other storys...
http://newsblogs.blogspot.com/2006/07/odd-and-humorous.html
05/06/08
La. warden has a black bear guard
The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.
"I love that bear being right where it is," Warden Burl Cain said Monday. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."
The bear was first seen by an inmate crossing a road in the prison on Friday. It was taking a stroll near the center of the state's only maximum security prison, which is about 115 miles northwest of New Orleans. Most of the roughly 28-square-mile prison is run as a farm, but about 5 1/2 square miles is mostly untouched piney woods.
Read Story Details...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_fe_st/odd_prison_bear No longer available
04/29/08
Drunk Juror reports for duty
Texas
By Isadora Vail
A man admitted to drinking a few beers before going into the courthouse, officials say.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Williamson County jurors usually have a hard time finding their way around the county courthouse because of its long hallways, but authorities said that it was obvious one man was more than disoriented Monday morning.
They said he was wandering the halls and reeked of alcohol.
John Peter Shevetz, 47, of Round Rock was at the courthouse because he was called in for jury duty in a driving-while-intoxicated case. But he was not in the courtroom when Judge Don Higginbotham announced to the jury pool that the defendant had pleaded guilty and that they were free to go; he was found in the judge's office. That's when the judge requested that Shevetz be arrested and charged with public intoxication, a Class C misdemeanor, which requires no jail time and a fine not to exceed $500.
Shevetz's speech was slow and slurred, according to an arrest affidavit, and he admitted to drinking three beers before arriving at the courthouse about 9 a.m.
He also told police that he drank "too many" alcoholic drinks Sunday night and that he didn't go to sleep because his mother was sick, the affidavit says.
According to Texas law, a breath alcohol test is not required for someone to be arrested on public intoxication charges. Shevetz was given a portable breath alcohol test, but because of an unknown health condition, he could not breathe hard enough to get a clear reading, Assistant District Attorney Jo Poenitzsch said.
Shevetz remained in the Williamson County Jail on Tuesday; bail is set at $350.
"It's not unusual for a defendant to come in intoxicated," Poenitzsch said. "But I've never had that happen with a juror before."
Full Resource...Read this and other stories at...
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/23/0423juror.html No longer available
04/19/08
When 3rd Graders Attack
It was hard for me to believe an article I read about a group of 8 and 9 year olds planning an attack on their 3rd grade teacher.
Between six and nine children plotted to attack their teacher for scolding one of them for standing on a chair. The scheme involved a division of roles including covering the windows and assigning one student to clean up the blood.
Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher.
I just can't imagine what would have happened if the 3rd graders had attacked their teacher. What are we raising these days??? IMO
Read story details...
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15761842/detail.html
04/07/08
The Wheelchair Bank Robber Eludes Police
Palo Alto police are looking for a bank robber who favors a decidedly slow-speed getaway vehicle — an electric wheelchair. Police said a man in his 60s with gray hair and a beard held up the Wachovia Bank branch at the Stanford Shopping Center late this afternoon with a black handgun.
After the stickup, he left in his wheelchair and was last seen motoring down a nearby street toward El Camino Real, a major thoroughfare.
Read Story...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_on_fe_st/wheelchair_bank_robbery No longer availabe
04/02/08
Naked Cop Arrests Thief
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A policeman in a small New Zealand town did not let the fact that he was naked hold him back from chasing a thief trying to steal his car.
The off-duty constable was asleep at his home in Balclutha, in the lower South Island, when his wife woke him in the early hours, the New Zealand Press Association reported.
When the policeman realised the sound his wife heard was someone attempting to start the couple's car, he didn't let the fact he was stark naked hold him back, bursting out the door with nothing more than a torch.
The offender bolted with the officer in hot pursuit, NZPA reported, but was soon after picked up by a police patrol.
"The offender...startled by the sight of a naked constable with just a torch coming towards him, took off," local police were quoted as saying.
(Reporting by Adrian Bathgate; Editing by David Fox)
Resource story...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080401/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_newzealand_naked No longer available