The Homestead restaurant in the California desert hung $1 notes on the walls, with each dollar bearing a message from a customer. Donald Dejarnette, 34, decided it would be good to steal about 8,000 of these marked notes. He then began to spend them. Among the payments he made was a court fine. The clerk processing the payment immediately recognised the banknotes, some of which even had 'Homestead' written on them. About $1,000 of the cash has been recovered, and Dejarnette and four others have been arrested in connection with the theft.
In the course of her duties cleaning homes in Lincoln, Nebraska, Mary E. McDaniel hatched a plot to steal the safe of a client who owned several businesses. The 52-year-old McDonald recruited an accomplice to distract the woman while two others grabbed the safe from her house. The five then split the haul. McDaniel netted about $80, rather less than the $15,000 she had envisioned. All five involved in the theft have been arrested.
A seven-year-old boy leapt over a fence at Australia's Alice Springs
Reptile Center and proceeded to beat three lizards to death with a
rock. After all, he needed something to feed the zoo's saltwater
crocodile. In his half-hour romp of desctruction, the boy also threw
several live animals into the crocodile's enclosure to be eaten. 'It
was like he was playing a game' is how zoo director Rex Neindorf
described what surveillance cameras showed of the boy's manner.
Just as in a game, there are to be no consequences. Children under
10 years of age cannot be charged with criminal offences in the
Northern Territory, and his name cannot legally be released. Neindorf
said he plans to sue the boy's parents.
As a result of an apparent administrative error by Exxon, the Marseille football players and staff found that no fuel purchase had been authorised for their flight back to France after a match in Spain. Exxon representatives refused to accept payment by credit card from the pilot. In the end, flight staff and the football club's members contributed the necessary 3,000 euros in cash, and the Aigle Azur flight was on its way. The airline report having received an apology from Exxon, who have launched an internal inquiry.
Election politics have been causing candidates' tempers to flare. During a live television interview, one of the candidates trailing in the polls in the run-up to the election for governor of Bangkok punched and kicked a journalist. Chuvit Kamolvisit, who said he had been provoked by humiliating questions, apologised for assaulting host Visarn Dilokwanich. 'He was very upset when I told him during the show that what he said off-air and on-air was totally different' is how Visarn described the circumstances.
Police found a sedan smoking in the middle of a Rhode Island street. Firefighters put out the blaze, and the 28-year-old man in the car explained to officers that the fire had started because he had been smoking a cigarette in the car. The fireworks near his feet had ignited. Indeed, witnesses said they had seen a passenger scooping lit fireworks out of the car just before the police arrived. The 28-year-old man is charged with use or possession of illegal fireworks valued at under $500.
An advert posted on craigslist.org requested landscaping help for a city project in Monroe, Washington, for $28.50 an hour. Thus it came to pass that several people showed up in the required yellow safety vest, blue long-sleeved shirt, eye protection, and ventilator mask at the meeting point. This was a park near a bank, where a similarly dressed man soon arrived and held up an armoured truck during a cash delivery. He escaped, and authorities are still trying to figure out the origin of the work advert, according to FBI agent Roberta A. Burroughs.
A 24-year-old woman in Fort Myers, Florida, says that she wanted to go to sleep while boyfriend Jonathon Guabello preferred to have sex. Under the influence of Xanax and alcohol, he decided to punish her by shooting himself twice in the arm. The 29-year-old Guabello then threatened to kill her if she tried to send him to rehab or call for help. After this, he stumbled into the kitchen and fell into the oven, knocking himself out. He was taken to hospital and then to jail.
A man in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, realised that he didn't have enough
petrol in his sport utility vehicle to get home from his friends'
home. So, aided by a woman, he began to syphon petrol from a van.
When he wanted to see how much petrol he had gathered, he flicked a
cigarette lighter. Police report that the man burned his hands and
created enough fire that local residents rang the police.
The man and woman were found in a nearby car park. He was arrested
for theft and negligent use of burning materials.
A man, identified by the Kazakh press as R. Iskendirov, was arrested for driving while under the influence of alcoholic beverages. A court rejected the charges against him, even though he had admitted that he'd had a few drinks. This is because he argued that he had been drinking fermented mare's milk (kumys), prescribed to him by a doctor for its alleged health-boosting properties. Kumys, which can contain up to about 4% alcohol, is not listed in the legislation of Kazakhstan as an alcoholic beverage.
According to his sister, aspiring Eddington chef Andrew Lee challenged his girlfriend's brother to a contest to see who could eat the hottest chili sauce. Lee's father even grew special chilis in preparation for the contest. The chef's sister reports that on the day of the contest the 33-year-old Lee ate his sauce and 'apparently got into bed at 2:30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend scratched his back until he fell asleep.' Lee never woke up. He was judged to have died of a heart attack. Toxicological tests continue.
Illinois's Stephen Crane is unhappy with the marital counselling he and his wife, Maureen, received from parish priest Christopher Floss. After several sessions of one-on-one therapy, Maureen left Stephen and Floss left the Roman Catholic priesthood. Crane is suing Floss and the diocese, with the charges including professional negligence, alienation of affection, and negligence in supervision and retention of the priest. Crane is seeking money to help raise his children and to pay for therapy from a medical professional.
According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, a woman reported that there was a bat in her house. She was able to get to sleep anyway and woke the next morning, had her coffee, and found the bat in the filter of her automatic coffee-maker when she started to clean it later in the day. She has been treated for possible rabies. Health officials say lab testing was unable to determine whether the bat was rabid, as its brain had been too well cooked by the hot water.
A family in Chalmette, Louisiana, returned home to find that their home had been burgled. St Bernard Parish sheriff Jack Stephens said: 'This is like something out of World's Stupidest Criminals' - because the family's distinctive blanket was hanging in the window of the house next door. The police said the alleged burglars were using the blanket to hide themselves from view. Troy Clouatre, 35, and his aunt, Lisa J. Smith, 47, were arrested on charges of simple burglary and possession of more than $5,000 in stolen property.
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© 2008 Anna Shefl