moonbuggy

‘A former Home Depot employee said the company fired he and three other workers because they helped police catch several suspected shoplifters in May.

Midwest City police said the men helped officers catch suspected shoplifters as they tried to run from a store with lawn equipment.

An internal memo from Home Depot outlines that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting. However, one of the fired employees said the company is selective in enforcing that policy.

“The loss-prevention guy at our Shields (Boulevard) store turned around and told me all we need to do is tell the shoplifter to have a good day as they leave the store. I said that just doesn’t make sense.”‘

‘It was a sight that would make any flagrant parking meter flouter smile. Police were pulling over parking meter attendants to warn them that their $9,600 miniature Mitsubishi and Subaru were not street legal and did not have proper tags.

The state Division of Motor Vehicles told the Huntington Municipal Parking Board last week that the two golf-cart-like trucks it bought were manufactured for off-road use only. They also don’t qualify as low-speed vehicles and can’t be registered, according to Glenn Pauley, DMV director of vehicle services.

The trucks sit at the city garage while the Huntington Municipal Parking Board decides what to do with them.’

‘A British resort town is deploying extra police during full moons, convinced of a link between the lunar cycle and violence. The vibrant seaside city of Brighton on England’s southern coast is adopting the new approach after reviewing crime statistics for the past year, Sussex police said Tuesday.

“Research carried out by us has shown a correlation between violent incidents and full moons,” the force said in a statement. “More officers will be out on the city’s streets during full moons over the summer months.”

Police inspector Andy Parr conducted an analysis of crime statistics that suggested more violent incidents happen during full moons.

In a paper published earlier this year, Michal Zimecki of the Polish Academy of Sciences claimed to have identified a link between lunar cycles and criminality.’

‘Who would want to have the life of a speed camera? Exposed to the weather, day and night, alone, no friends… Sounds like a harsh life. But as if it weren’t enough, the poor creatures are also likely to be destroyed…’

‘A lion and a tiger kept as exotic pets on the roof of a Mexican meat processing plant killed a man feeding them Monday, Mexican media said.

Caretaker Angel Aguilar, 56, was taking pieces of chicken to feed the two big cats when the lion swiped at him through the bars of its cage and pulled him inside, Reforma daily said. The tiger then joined in the attack.

Paramedics arrived at the plant in the rough Mexico City neighborhood of Iztapalapa while the man was still alive but they could not get past the animals to treat him. [..]

After the attack, which left scraps of bloodstained clothing on the floor of the cage, the animals were sedated and the tiger’s jaws tied around a chunk of wood.

The tiger later died, apparently of suffocation, after being transported by animal protection authorities to a nearby zoo in a small container. The lion survived the journey.’

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‘Two Alabama men are in the jail following a brawl straight out of the Middle Ages.

A third man involved in the fight, Pat Tordt, got out of the hospital Saturday night.

The fight was so intense weapons used were scattered some 30 yards down the street where the fight occurred.

The weapons were also something of a curiosity: a battle-axe, sword, and crossbow were among those recovered. [..]

Sgt. DeWayne McCarver of the Huntsville police said the injuries were serious, and the weapons of choice aren’t something police run across everyday.’

‘Hampton Police are trying to unravel a huge mystery. Was there really a gunman at the East Pembroke McDonald’s around 2:30 Monday afternoon?

Around 2:30, police got the call that an armed gunman was inside the fast food restaurant.

Police say a SWAT team freed 12 employees and two customers believed to be held hostage for nearly three hours inside a Hampton McDonald’s by an armed man but never found a gunman.

No one was injured, and police are trying to figure out whether the man somehow got away or perhaps someone had perpetrated a hoax.’

‘Three Australian businessmen charged with misbehaving on a flight to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are expected to be deported from the country within the next 24 hours.

For the past six weeks the trio had faced the possibility of 14 years’ jail or floggings under Shariah law.

David Evans has instead received a 12 month suspended sentence for using rude language and touching a stewardess on the arm.

Jeremy Snaith has received a six month suspended sentence for drinking alcohol without a permit and using offensive language.

A third Australian, William Sargent, has been acquitted because the prescription drug in his blood stream did not fall under UAE jurisdiction.

The businessmen’s lawyer, Ross Hill, says they are expected to be deported within the next 24 hours.’

Followup to Pair accused of air fracas face desert hell in jail.

‘A Filipino in a drunken rage hacked dozens of people with a machete, killing 10 and wounding 19.

The killings took place in Gadgaran village on the central island of Samar.

A local police chief said suspect Danny Guades went from house to house before dawn hacking dozens of people, including relatives.

After attacks in two houses, he continued his stabbing spree at another home where villagers were attending a wake for a dead neighbour.’

‘A Japanese policeman distraught by working long hours and weekends for two months stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife to get some time off, police said Monday.

The 44-year-old officer knifed himself at his home in northwestern Japan on May 23, but told police he had been attacked, prompting an attempted murder investigation, Ishikawa prefecture police said in a statement.

Investigators became suspicious of his story after they could not find evidence of anyone who matched the description the officer had given of the supposed attacker, a police spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.’

This is a video from the MTV movie awards, with a comedian making fun of Paris Hilton whilst the whole audience laughs. Paris doesn’t look too happy.

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‘The 26-year-old heiress, a symbol of privilege and American celebrity culture, was booked into a Los Angeles County jail early on Monday, a day ahead of her court-ordered deadline, to begin serving a three-week sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.

She surrendered to authorities in downtown Los Angeles hours after making a surprise appearance at the MTV Movie Awards, and was transferred to the Century Regional Detention Facility in nearby Lynwood, the county sheriff’s department said.

Once there, she was fingerprinted, photographed and issued an ID wristband, orange-colored jail clothing and toiletries, said sheriff’s department Sgt. Diane Hecht in a statement.’

Followup to Paris Hilton gets 45 days in jail.

‘A condemned inmate wants to leave them laughing.

Patrick Knight is collecting jokes and will pick the funniest one for his last statement before he is set to die June 26 for shooting his neighbors, Walter and Mary Werner, to death almost 16 years ago outside Amarillo.

Randall County Sheriff Joel Richardson thinks the whole idea is insensitive. “This tells you a little bit about the guy’s character, anyway,” said Richardson, who was chief deputy at the time of the Werners’ killings and plans to witness Knight’s execution. [..]

Knight acknowledges there’s nothing funny about his execution. [..]

“I’m not trying to say I don’t care what’s going on. I’m about to die. I’m not going to sit here and whine and cry and moan and everything like that when I’m facing the punishment I’ve been given.

“I’m not asking for money. I’m not asking for pen pals or anything like that. All I’m asking for is jokes,” Knight said.’

‘The legal front of the US government’s “war on terror” suffered a stunning reversal Monday when military judges threw out prosecution charges against a Canadian-born foot-soldier for Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s ex-driver.

The surprise rulings regarding Toronto native Omar Ahmed Khadr, 20, and Yemeni-born Salim Ahmed Hamdan, 36, threatened to torpedo the government’s pursuit of Guantanamo Bay terror suspects through new-look military tribunals.

In both cases, the judges found that they had no jurisdiction to proceed with trials as neither Khadr nor Hamdan had been classified as “unlawful enemy combatants” as required by a 2006 act of Congress.

Murder and other charges levied against Khadr were dismissed by Colonel Peter Brownback. Late in the evening, Navy Captain Keith Allred threw out charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism against Hamdan.’

‘A gay gang that allegedly raped victims lured on the internet, drugged them and infected them with the AIDS virus has shocked the Netherlands and raised questions over its liberal sex culture.

A date rape drug known as “Easy Lay” and ecstasy were allegedly involved.

Health Minister Ab Klink called the case “horrible”, as the press splashed the news across its front pages today.

The matter came to light yesterday, when police said they had arrested three men two weeks ago after four victims, men aged 25 to 50, accused them of rape and premeditated bodily harm. [..]

The three suspects – one of whom is a male nurse – were said to have raped the men, and even injected some of them with a mix of their contaminated blood.’

‘Four people billed a health insurance company for 20 brain operations that were never performed on them, sometimes for the same person on multiple occasions, authorities said.

One 36-year-old man from New York City claimed nine brain surgeries for himself, along with his wife and two sons, receiving reimbursements from New York-based Group Health Incorporated totaling $142,268, federal investigators said Friday.

GHI paid out more than $300,000 in reimbursements to all four defendants, based on the claims.’

‘A 26-year-old woman from Johnstown stands to face several charges for a spree Thursday involving a hammer, several broken windows and a small poodle.

Kathie Mercado started out her afternoon at her sister’s mother-in-law’s house in the 200 block of Tartan Drive in Johnstown.

She is said to have hurled the mother-in-law’s poodle at the window twice in an attempt to break the window, according to Johnstown Police Chief Reggie Mayes.

Mercado was unsuccessful, so she moved on to a hammer and began breaking several of the windows at the ground level and the basement. In the process, she suffered cuts to her arms and hands.

After breaking those windows, Mercado moved to a home across the street, where she broke out several of the windows there. No one was home at the time and Mayes said he doesn’t think Mercado knew the people who lived there.

“We are still not sure why she did it,” Mayes said. “She was very unstable.”‘

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‘A suspected burglar in Miami was found dangling from a large ventilation fan after he apparently stepped on the on switch while his body was inside the machine and killed himself, according to police.

Miami investigators said a “known burglar” in the area was found dead in the powerful fan at the Maranatha Used Clothing store Thursday when the store opened up for business.

A witness said an employee of the store noticed feet dangling from the fan and called police.’

‘Police in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, are investigating claims that an eight-year-old boy has killed in cold blood three babies — including his eight-month-old sister and nine-month-old cousin.

The case came to light when a mother could not find her six-month-old daughter after leaving her asleep at a school in Musahari village. After a police search the child’s body was found buried nearby.

A few hours later, Amarjeet Sada, who police claim suffers from psychiatric disorders, apparently admitted that he had strangled her and led villagers to the spot where he had disposed of the body.’

‘A Newcastle family claim they have been forced from two homes by thugs who have targeted them over their ginger hair.

Kevin and Barbara Chapman say they and their four children, aged between 10 and 13, have endured years of taunts, smashed windows and violence. [..]

Son Kevin, 11, said he was recently punched in a street attack. Newcastle Council is “discussing the situation”. [..]

Mr Chapman said: “The abuse we get is unbelievable. It started more than three years ago, when the kids started getting bullied by lads over the colour of their hair.

“They’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge. Every time they go out these gangs get to them.”

He added that the family now wanted to move again.’

‘US officials said Saturday the suspects nabbed in a foiled Islamic terrorist plot to blow up New York’s main international airport courted support in South America and the Caribbean, including from Jamaat Al Muslimeen, which failed at a bold 1990 coup bid in Trinidad.

Four suspected Islamic extremists, including Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana’s parliament, were charged with conspiring to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy airport, the US Department of Justice said.

The plot had links to international terrorist cells in the Caribbean as well as South America, but was foiled well before it could be carried out, US Justice officials added.’

‘The phrase “Verschärfte Vernehmung” is German for “enhanced interrogation”. Other translations include “intensified interrogation” or “sharpened interrogation”. It’s a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their “enhanced interrogation techniques” would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan. [..]

In Norway, we actually have a 1948 court case that weighs whether “enhanced interrogation” using the methods approved by president Bush amounted to torture. The proceedings are fascinating, with specific reference to the hypothermia used in Gitmo, and throughout interrogation centers across the field of conflict. The Nazi defense of the techniques is almost verbatim that of the Bush administration…’

‘The father of a teenaged girl faces attempted murder charges for allegedly slamming his van into six people, including his daughter, outside a Scarborough, Ont., high school on Friday.

The six were sitting in a park near Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute, near Birchmount Road and Sheppard Avenue when a van came speeding towards them, said police.

The daughter, her boyfriend and a friend of the couple were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Witnesses allege the father was angry over the daughter’s relationship with her boyfriend.

“This was not an unintentional collision,” said Sgt. James Cassells of traffic services with Toronto police.’

‘Bus drivers are to be issued with DNA kits so that passengers who spit on them can be traced by police.

The “spit kits” are already supplied at all 275 Tube stations and are expected to be rolled out this summer across London’s 7,000-strong bus fleet.

It is the latest initiative against anti-social behaviour on buses and has coincided with the Mayor’s introduction of free bus travel for under-16s.

The DNA kits will allow drivers to take swabs of saliva that can be passed to the police and checked against criminal records. Transport for London says that about seven out of 10 samples provides a match.’

‘Two people police say were hoping to avoid drinking and driving chose instead to head home on horseback, and ended up under arrest anyway.

Culpeper police officers Lonnie Myers and Tim Chilton heard a disturbance last Thursday around midnight and found Culpeper residents Eric Kyff and Lauren Allen arguing, Sgt. Scott Jenkins said.

Kyff and Allen, who appeared to be intoxicated, wanted to “travel home several miles by horseback to avoid drinking and driving,” Jenkins said. [..]

The two were charged with public intoxication and taken to the county jail. The horses were held across the street in front of the police department.’

‘China’s heritage bureau has launched a probe into Chinese mining companies alleged to have brought down part of the Great Wall to allow their trucks to avoid paying road tolls, state media reported on Thursday.

Coal mining companies operating near Hujiayao village, on the border between the northern province of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, had also taken soil from parts of the Ming-era (1368-1644) wall to build houses and piled “small mountains” of coal against it, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a local newspaper.

“Big trucks carrying coal had even opened a big gap in the Great Wall to make a coal shipping thoroughfare,” the paper said.’

‘The United States and Russia have agreed on a plan to accelerate installation of radiation detection devices at 350 Russian border crossings so the system to prevent nuclear smuggling is fully operational by 2011, U.S. officials said on Friday.

“This announcement is a major cooperative step in counter-proliferation work in Russia,” which contains a major portion of the world’s nuclear material, said Will Tobey, deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the U.S. Energy Department.

“It will help us prevent smuggling into and out of the region,” he told Reuters in an interview.

Russia identified more than 480 cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear and radioactive material in 2006. While U.S. officials said these cases were not believed to involve weapons-grade nuclear material, the number of cases underscores the scope of the problem.’

Leaping through the air solves a lot of problems.

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‘A Minnesota woman who was forced to the ground and handcuffed after a DirecTV dispatcher told police that an installer was being held hostage is suing.

“These are regular people. She’s a schoolteacher. … You shouldn’t have SWAT teams coming after someone if they know there’s not a crisis,” Marc Kurzman, a lawyer for Julie and Steven Pyle of Savage, Minn., told the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press. The Pyles are seeking more than $75,000 in damages in a federal civil rights lawsuit against DirecTV, Savage police and Scott County enforcement dispatchers. [..]

Julie Pyle felt bad the job was taking the installers so long, so she baked them cookies, the lawsuit said.’