‘It didn’t take the sleuthing skills of a Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes to figure out who was peddling marijuana to teenagers in Market Square.
Police said 28-year-old Eric Hardcastle’s tattooed eyebrows, head and cheeks made him easy to identify.
Late Monday night, a teenager reported being approached by a man with a heavily tattooed face with three baggies of marijuana for sale. Officers said they found Hardcastle — who has a row of arrows over each brow, a tattoo on his forehead and scalp and matching markings on each cheek — soon afterward at a convenience store. [..]
Despite his run-in with the law, Hardcastle said he likes Portsmouth, where he landed two weeks ago after riding with a trucker.
“I want to make it here,” he said.’
‘A Moscow man who ill-advisedly decided to sit watching telly in the nude in the flat he shared with his ex-missus earned himself a wedding-tackle-torching for his trouble, the Evening Standard reports.
The unnamed man’s former wife evidently took exception to his vodka-swilling TV viewing, and duly set fire to his penis. A police spokeswoman admitted it was “difficult to predict” if the human candle would make a full recovery from the ordeal which he described as “monstrously painful”.
He added: “I was burning like a torch. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”
In case you’re wondering, the couple divorced three years back, but continued to cohabit, an arrangement “common in Russia where property costs are very high”.’
‘The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft is pressing ahead with its proposal to have internet service providers send warning notices to customers who have been identified as illegal downloaders, and disconnect the services of repeat offenders.
It has the support of the music industry, represented by the Australia Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI).
AFACT says the ISPs are not doing enough to combat the illegal downloading of movies and music, which it says increases ISPs’ costs by chewing up bandwidth and robs income from those who sell the content legally.
A report produced last year by web monitoring company Envisional found the per capita rate of television show piracy in Australia was the highest in the world. It said Australians accounted for 15.6 per cent of all online TV piracy.’
‘A man accused of spying on female campers while they used a campground latrine was arrested last weekend.
Clackamas County deputies said Richard Berkey, 63, was spotted by campers in a latrine area at the Big Fan Campground near Bagby Hot Springs in Estacada.
After he was seen hiding in dense foliage, Berkey was chased down and tackled by Jason Dugan, who was camping with friends, according to deputies.
“He didn’t say anything and I caught a side profile and I just knew. I took off up the hill and I yelled for one of my friends,” said Dugan.
Three men then took Berkey to their campsite and tied him to a tree while another camper left in search of authorities.’
‘The minister of defense checked the Web page again — still nothing. He stared at the error message: For some reason, the site for Estonia’s leading newspaper, the Postimees, wasn’t responding. Jaak Aaviksoo attempted to pull up the sites of a couple of other papers. They were all down. The former director of the University of Tartu Institute of Experimental Physics and Technology d been the Estonian defense minister for only four weeks. He hadn’t even changed the art on the walls.
An aide rushed in with a report. It wasn’t just the newspapers. The leading bank was under siege. Government communications were going down. An enemy had invaded and was assaulting dozens of targets.
Outside, everything was quiet. The border guards had reported no incursions, and Estonian airspace had not been violated. The aide explained what was going on: They were under attack by a rogue computer network.’
Followup to Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia.
‘A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.
According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over. [..]
In the probable cause statement filed with the charges, police said Reimer was desperate because he could not pay the bills for his wife’s treatment for neurological problems and uterine cancer.
‘She Didn’t Jump’ Investigators said that Reimer was in the apartment when they arrived. He told them, “She didn’t jump,” but did not elaborate.’
‘A handcuffed woman being transported for treatment after she was taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies jumped out of a moving ambulance, ran into some woods and vanished, according to Orange County sheriff’s deputies.
Investigators said Lisa McCoy, 34, was picked up Wednesday on an outstanding warrant. She was wanted for failure to appear on a petty theft charge.
When McCoy was taken into custody, she complained she was having a panic attack, police told Local 6 News.
Deputies handcuffed the woman and an ambulance was called to take her for treatment.
Officers said a paramedic was supposed to be watching her during a trip to the hospital.
“He moved to the front to call in the transport and when he did that, that is when she jumped out,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Roland Rivera said.’
‘A dairy farmer hoping to induce a woman he impregnated to miscarry gave her a soda containing a cattle hormone sometimes used to force abortions in cows, police said.
William Stanley Sutton III, 25, added ProstaMate last week to a soda he gave to 21-year-old Lauren Ashley Tucker, according to documents charging Sutton with reckless endangerment, assault and poisoning. [..]
ProstaMate is a hormone given to cows in the breeding process to bring all cows into heat at the same time. It can also be used to stimulate an early term abortion in a heifer that gets pregnant too young or a cow that mates with an undesired bull.’
‘The 50-foot California pepper tree was in Kelley Fornatoro’s backyard when she went on vacation Aug. 2.
It was gone when she got back a week later. [..]
It took two days and a sizable crew from Oxnard-based Julian’s Tree Care to remove the nearly 30-year-old tree from her Rustic Court home in Thousand Oaks, neighbors told Fornatoro.
The question both Fornatoro and the police are asking is who hired the company to remove the tree?
The tree removal cost $3,500 and the company hasn’t been paid. A police report lists the company as the second victim in the case along with Fornatoro. [..]
Replacing the tree that was cut down with one similar in age and stature would cost $52,000 to $60,000, according to other tree service companies Fornatoro consulted with. The price includes labor and special equipment.’
‘A couple were thwarted in their effort to leave this small central Wisconsin town when they were arrested for robbing a gas station with a samurai sword.
Renee Ferreri, 22, told police that she and Brian A. Schmid, 24, “were tired of their lives, and they just ‘gave up,'” according to a criminal complaint.
The couple needed money to leave town, so they stole a 2000 Mercury Sable on Aug. 8 from the Jeepers Gin Mill and drove to their home to pick up the sword and two stocking caps, police said. [..]
Police arrested the couple after a Plover officer remembered seeing several samurai swords in their apartment when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in May.’
‘A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to a Texas base, U.S. officials said.
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.
The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.’
‘Malaysian police have arrested a man who practised as a dentist for 29 years although he had no medical training and treated patients at his home in a cast-off examining chair.
The impostor’s closest brush with the dental profession was during the years 1962 to 1978, when he assisted an army dentist by carrying his bag on visits to plantation workers’ homes, the New Straits Times reported.
“I watched the doctor diagnose and treat problems with teeth,” the paper quoted the unidentified man as saying when officials raided his home this week.
“I also saw how he would extract teeth and make models and measurements for dentures.”‘
‘Deputies said they spotted a vehicle Tuesday night and attempted to stop the driver on suspicion he was driving drunk.
The driver then led police on a chase that ended on Mott Avenue in the Lockhart area.
Officers said the driver tried to run them down before jumping from the vehicle and running away.
The man was spotted fleeing while still clutching a beer.
“There was a 12-pack of Corona he was working on in the front seat,” Orange County sheriff’s Cmdr. Jeff Stonebreaker said. “He decided to take one of those over the fence with him. So, he bails out of the car and runs from the deputies with a beer in his hand.”‘
‘A drunken barrister accused of exposing himself to bridesmaids before battering a guest at a wedding told his victim he would ‘seriously beat him up’, a court has heard.
Best man Christopher Dunn, 40, so offended women and children guests at the country hotel reception, that David Baird-Dean stepped in to drag him away.
Dunn was threatened with police being called but guests relented when he offered an abject apology and pleaded as a barrister he would be in trouble if arrested, Preston Crown Court heard.
But hours later the heavily built lawyer allegedly beat his victim until he was unconscious after ushering him onto a sun terrace outside the venue, Harefield Hall Hotel in Pateley, Bridge, North Yorkshire. [..]
Its alleged the trouble began when Dunn was asked if he had a tattoo of a white rose, to which he replied, “I’ll show you a white rose” – then unzipped his trousers and pulled out his penis.’
‘A 23-year-old St. Augustine man who told deputies he was “angry with God” and intentionally drove his pickup truck into a Catholic church Tuesday morning, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. [..]
Just before 3 a.m., deputies responded to a report of a crash at St. Anastasia Catholic Church in the 5200 block of state Road A1A South. They said they found Thomas Kyle Nursey still in the driver’s seat of his Ford F-150 pickup that had crashed into the door of the church, according to WJXT-TV.
Deputies reported damage to the door and north wall of the church, but an estimate of damages was not immediately available.
The church would not comment on the crash.’
‘A North Las Vegas judge has been sacked after telling MySpace readers that his interests include physically beating prosecutors – or words to that effect.
In a post to his public MySpace page, The Associated Press reports, substitute judge Jonathan MacArthur laid out his attitude towards prosecutors using a certain graphic phrase that he claimed was common “among blacks, people who associate with blacks or in a sports context.”
The AP wouldn’t actually quote the phrase and the MySpace page has since been made private, but The Reg can confirm that MacArthur told internet users everywhere that his interests include “breaking my foot off in a prosecutor’s ass” and “improving my ability to break my foot off in a prosecutor’s ass.”
MacArthur is also a criminal defense attorney, but in describing his role as a pro tem judge with the North Las Vegas Justice Court, he said that he was a lot like a substitute teacher in a black choir robe with a disconcerting amount of authority.’
‘Laughter might be unexpected in a liquor store where a robbery just occurred. But that’s how employees responded to the “Duct Tape Bandit” who hit Shamrock Liquors in Ashland and fled nearly empty handed.
A man who had his head wrapped in duct tape to conceal his identity walked into the store last Friday, police said.
Store manager Bill Steele had some duct tape of his own, but his was wrapped around a wooden club that sent the robber fleeing, according to a report by WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.Va.
Store employee Craig Miller said he chased the man to the parking lot, tackled him and held him in a choke position until police arrived, the station reported. An unidentified customer also helped, police said.’
Also with a video interview with the man from the jail.
(9.2meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A 12-year-old Indian girl was beaten and then hanged by her mother for demanding she be sent to school, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported today.
The girl was beaten unconscious with a rolling pin by her mother in a village in Jodhpur district in the western desert state of Rajasthan this month.
“The mother thought she had killed the girl and, in panic, decided to make it appear like a suicide,” a police officer was quoted as saying.
“She allegedly tied a rope around the girl’s neck and hung her from the ceiling.”
The woman has been arrested.
The girl’s father, a labourer, said he and his wife could not afford a bicycle to send their daughter to school a few miles away.’
‘The blood that stained the courtyard of the modest Thousand Oaks apartment complex had been washed away by Monday morning. In its place stood a makeshift memorial: A teddy bear and a few balloons. A Winnie-the-Pooh baby blanket. And a single rose for every year the young victim had lived.
Sev’n Molina, age 6, was hacked to death with a meat cleaver Sunday night, as his mother fought to save his life, terrified neighbors called 911 and the bravest among them tried to intervene in the grisly struggle. [..]
After the boy burst from the apartment into the communal courtyard, witnesses said, Sharp followed him, wielding the cleaver, and began hacking at the child’s head and shouting, “Die, die!”‘
‘The Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department was seeking a man Monday who broke into a home and tried to steal from a toddler’s piggy bank. [..]
Sheriff’s Capt. Dave Adams gave the following account:
Julie Herscheb of Wilson woke Friday night and heard a noise about 10:30 p.m.
With her husband asleep in the basement, she grabbed a baseball bat and opened the door to her 2-year-old daughter’s bedroom. Herscheb saw a man trying to shake money from the child’s piggy bank.
She shut the door and went to call 911. She dropped the phone, making a noise. The man was gone when deputies arrived.’
‘Three hundred chickens died in panic early on Sunday when a drunken German teenager on a joyride crashed a van into their shed, police said.
“Apparently some of the chickens were so desperate to get away that they ran into the wall and died,” the spokesman said. “Others suffered heart attacks.”‘
‘Police have used a stun gun to subdue a man who smeared himself with faeces and blood after being thrown out of a Gold Coast nightclub.
Officers were called after a security guard was assaulted by a man who had been evicted from the club in Orchid Avenue, Surfers Paradise, around 3.30am (AEST) today.
By the time officers arrived, the man had undressed himself and covered his entire body in faeces and blood, police said.’
‘An armed robber was no match for a 7-year-old girl in Reidsville, North Carolina.
The gunman tried to hold-up the convenience store where little Alisha’s mom was working. (She didn’t want to reveal her last name.)
Alisha rushed to her mom’s defense when the robber pushed her. Alisha shoved him right back.
“I was pushing on him and telling him to ‘back away, back away man.’
“I didn’t want him to hurt mommy.”
Stymied by the little girl, the gunman gave up on the cash and stole some cigarettes. Then he ran from the store.’
‘A city woman who apparently thought she couldn’t be arrested for stealing once she left the store was in fact charged with multiple misdemeanors yesterday after, police said, she fought with the Neiman Marcus security guard who caught her.
Jazmine Roberts, 19, “went into a rage, repeatedly yelling ‘it’s too late, I already left the store,’ ” according to a police report of the incident, which took place shortly before 4 p.m. at Maple Avenue and Paulding Street.
Roberts, of 86 Dekalb Ave., was seen stealing a $251 pair of jeans at the store by the guard who, police said, followed her outside and apprehended her after a struggle during which Roberts allegedly pulled the guard’s hair, bit her on the wrist and choked her. The guard, who was not identified, was not seriously injured.’
‘A man confessed to breaking into a Porter County probation office and stealing two urine samples, including his own, police said.
Joseph Klinkman, 23, of Valparaiso faces a burglary charge for Tuesday night’s break-in. The theft was discovered Wednesday morning at the Porter County PACT office, which operates programs for prisoners, ex-offenders, victims and witnesses.
A judge had ordered Klinkman to undergo programs through PACT because of an earlier drug possession charge. [..]
“He’d been in a few hours before and gave a urine sample,” Balon said. “He saw they were testing for a drug he didn’t think they were testing for. He panicked.”‘
‘An alcoholic nine-year-old boy who waged a two-year crime spree, including car theft, has become Victoria’s youngest prisoner.
The pint-sized menace was locked up in a secure welfare unit this week as authorities attempt to cure him of alcoholism and stop him committing crimes.
The State Government will be asked to explain how the boy was able to carry out his crime spree and descend into a booze battle without welfare authorities stepping in.
The boy, who began offending at the age of seven, came to police notice 35 times in two years, but he could not be charged because of his age.’
‘Tom Rogers, a retired Indianapolis detective, toils away most days in his suburban home office reviewing sexual Web sites and other Internet traffic to see whether they qualify as obscene material whose purveyors should be prosecuted by the Justice Department. [..]
The grant, about $150,000 a year, has helped pay for Mr. Rogers and another retired law enforcement officer in Reno, Nev., to harvest and review complaints about obscene matter on the Internet that citizens register on the Justice Department Web site.
In the last few years, 67,000 citizens’ complaints have been deemed legitimate under the program and passed on to the Justice Department and federal prosecutors.
The number of prosecutions resulting from those referrals is zero.’
‘A man accused of having sex with a goat is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday on a animal cruelty charge. Charging papers say a witness saw 63-year-old Arthur Lawton having sex with a goat May 8th in a barn at Eatonville’s Pioneer Farm Museum where he worked.
Lawton said he was trying to milk the goat. [..]
He’s the second person charged in the county since the Legislature made bestiality a crime in response to the fatal injury to a man having sex with a horse in Enumclaw.’
Followup to Mr Hands.
‘Bryan Connelly, convicted of forgery charges, is accused of making an unusual choice in seeking a hit man to kill the prosecutor: the judge who sentenced him.
Galveston County District Court Judge David Garner said Connelly, 34, of Santa Fe, was among those defendants who “think outside the box” for allegedly writing a letter offering him $5,000 to kill former prosecutor Donnie Quintanilla, now in private practice in Galveston.
Connelly wrote a second letter to his defense attorney, Houston lawyer Jonathan Cox, offering him $5,000 to kill Garner, special prison prosecutor Alice Gregg said.
“I want Judge David Garner dead and I want you to kill him for me,” the letter to Cox read, according to Gregg. “If you decide not to kill Mr. Garner for me, I will kill him myself after I kill you.”‘
