moonbuggy

‘A police officer will avoid criminal charges despite admitting he took marijuana from criminal suspects and, with his wife, baked it into brownies.

The police department’s decision not to pursue a case against former Cpl. Edward Sanchez left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one city official, who vowed to investigate. [..]

The department’s investigation began with a 911 call from Sanchez’s home on April 21, 2006. On a 5-minute tape of the call, obtained by the Free Press, Sanchez told an emergency dispatcher he thought he and his wife were overdosing on marijuana.

“I think we’re dying,” he said. “We made brownies and I think we’re dead, I really do.”‘

Also, there’s a recording of the 911 call. :)

(13.2meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘Willie Tarpley Jr. knew this much about his ex-wife’s new boyfriend: The man was a convicted sex offender and Tarpley didn’t want his children anywhere near him.

So Saturday night at about 8, Tarpley, 46, drove to his old house, grabbed one of his samurai swords, a katana, out of the garage and threatened to use the 42-inch blade to cut off the boyfriend’s head.

The boyfriend, Lee Alexander, 25, of Indian Lakes Estates near Lake Wales, tried to flee, but hit Tarpley’s Corvette in the driveway. That’s when Tarpley reached into the open car window and plunged his sword into Alexander’s body, Hillsborough County sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.’

It gets stranger.

‘Japanese police arrested a 17-year-old boy today on suspicion of murdering his mother after he turned up at a police station carrying a severed human head in a bag.

Police in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture, 200km north of Tokyo, said they arrested the teenager, a student at a local high school, after officers found a beheaded body in the apartment where he lived.

The boy told police he killed his mother last night while she was asleep, Kyodo news agency said.’

‘Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture – but the gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept.

The country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols.

This is in a very large part due to Switzerland’s unique system of national defence, developed over the centuries.

Instead of a standing, full-time army, the country requires every man to undergo some form of military training for a few days or weeks a year throughout most of their lives.’

‘Women in Myanmar not only have to watch out for pickpockets when they’re commuting, shopping or walking down the street, but also hair thieves, a weekly journal reported Sunday.

Long-haired women in crowded areas have fallen victim to surreptitious hair snippers who steal their hair to sell, the Burmese-language 24/7 news journal reported. [..]

Many women in Myanmar have waist- or knee-length hair which they wear in a ponytail, making it easy for thieves to snip off the hair and sell it as extensions. [..]

The report said the price of hair has increased as demand for hair as an export or raw material rises. A viss (1.6 kilograms; 3.5 pounds) of hair is worth between 400,000 kyats ($320) and 500,000 kyats ($400), it said.’

‘Until recently, I had never heard of cluster headaches, and neither had my friend Bob, which isn’t his name for reasons that will soon be evident.

Bob was in his late 40s with no medical problems.

Out of nowhere he began having headaches. These were not the two-aspirin kind, or even migraines. They were monsters. I realized this one night at his house. For an hour he lay on the floor, screaming. We’re not talking moaning and grousing. Screaming.

Clueless, he went to the Web and discovered cluster headaches. They are hideous. His symptoms were par for the course. [..]

From Neurology, the magazine of the American Academy of Neurology: “The authors interviewed 53 cluster headache patients who had used psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to treat their condition.

“Twenty-two of 26 psilocybin users reported that psilocybin aborted attacks; 25 of 48 psilocybin users and seven of eight LSD users reported cluster period termination …”‘

There’s a video of what a cluster headache does to a person here. Doesn’t look fun at all.

(7.6meg Windows media)

‘A Mexican physician helped drug dealers avoid detection by replacing their fingerprints with skin from the bottom of their feet, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

The doctor, Jose L. Covarrubias, was arrested Wednesday in Arizona as he attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border a few hours after a grand jury in Harrisburg indicted him in connection with a marijuana dealing ring.

The indictment says Covarrubias, 49, of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, surgically removed the fingerprints of co-defendant Marc George, 42, of Jamaica.

“We heard those stories, but we didn’t believe them when we heard them during the course of the investigation,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Behe in Harrisburg. “We caught Marc George and we all became believers.”’

‘A Vancouver man was sentenced Friday to 13 months in prison for pretending to be mentally retarded in order to claim disability benefits.

Pete J. Costello, 28, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to defraud the government and to Social Security fraud. He began receiving disability benefits when he was 8. He was ordered to repay the $59,226 he has received since turning 18.

Costello, who cannot read or write, dictated a letter to his public defender that was submitted to the judge before sentencing and filed in court.

“I know that it was wrong to ‘act like a child’ in the Social Security office when that is not how I really am,” the letter said. “I feel very bad about this and want to do everything I can to pay this money back.”‘

Followup to Man Accused of Faking Retardation.

‘Without question, nobody deserves what happened to one teen at Palm Harbor University High School last month.

But, of all people, it turned out to be a shy freshman honors student who drank from an apple juice bottle filled with urine – a criminal prank by two other boys, officials say.

“He’s a good kid,” said the victim’s mother, Wendy Cason. “He didn’t deserve that.”

Two freshmen, both 15, stole the bottle from a campus vending machine in early April, poured out the juice, replaced it with their waste and put the bottle back into the machine, officials say.’

‘It happened last Friday when drivers on the motorway in Ferrol were surprised to see a disabled man travelling along the road in his motorised bed.

The paper says that 42 year old Antonio Navarro, who is 95% disabled, and who drives and controls his motorised bed with his mouth, had got drunk and was intending to visit ‘Jade’ a local whorehouse, but took a wrong turning off a local roundabout.

Police finally stopped him at 9pm after he had travelled some 10 kilometres along the motorway. Once he had taken the wrong exit he decided to continue along the road so as not to put other drivers in danger. Antonio told the paper that signs should be improved on the roundabout and across the town.’

‘A Texas mother who claims the family dog tore off her baby son’s genitals has been arrested and accused of mutilating the boy herself with a sharp instrument.

Katherine Nadal is now awaiting a court hearing on custody of the boy. She has been charged with injury to a child and is being held on $100,000 bail.

Child-welfare authorities said she told social workers she woke up from a nap in March to find that her small dachshund had attacked her son. But police said a veterinarian and a doctor have agreed the dog did not cause the injuries.

Police have said in court papers that the mother had used a sharp instrument to cut off the boy’s genitals.’

Followup to Baby Is Emasculated; Mother Blames Dog.

‘The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced results today of the investigation into the illegal promotion of OxyContin by The Purdue Frederick Company, makers of the widely abused, highly addictive pain pill.

“An investigation by OCI uncovered an extensive, long-term conspiracy by The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. to generate the maximum amount of revenues possible from the sale of OxyContin through various illegal schemes,” according to an FDA statement.

FDA today informed healthcare professionals of criminal charges and civil liabilities brought against Purdue Frederick in connection with several illegal schemes to promote, market and sell OxyContin, the company’s powerful prescription pain reliever that has caused addiction problems of epidemic-promotions in cities and rural areas across the United States.’

‘Microsoft’s Windows Update has a component called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) that downloads updates while you’re busy doing other things with your computer. If you get disconnected, the update will pick up where it left off when you get back on the network.

Sounds great, right? Well, generally it is. But since BITS is part of your operating system, your firewall doesn’t really check to see what it’s downloading. And while there is pretty much no risk of automatically downloading a virus or trojan through Windows Update under normal circumstances, hackers are starting to use BITS to download code to computers that have already been affected.’

‘Authorities were led on a high speed vehicle chase by an armless, one-legged man, and they said this wasn’t the first time the 40-year-old eluded police.

Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.

On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.’

‘A woman who had sex with her boyfriend’s brother in her darkened room late one night claimed she was raped, saying the man tricked her into the act by impersonating her boyfriend.

But Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court disagreed Thursday, citing a half-century-old state law that says it is not rape when consent to sexual intercourse is obtained through fraud or deceit. [..]

The woman told police she was asleep alone in the bedroom she shared with her longtime boyfriend when a man came in, climbed into bed and had sexual intercourse with her, according to the SJC decision.’

I thought he was going to smash it, but he didn’t. Still, unlucky. :)

(1.2meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘Riot police have been sent to a remote mountainous village in Papua New Guinea after a gun battle between police and members of a cult involved in human sacrifices, local media reported Wednesday. [..]

Black magic is widespread in Papua New Guinea, a jungle-clad, mountainous South Pacific island nation where some villages only encountered Western civilization in the 1930s. Women suspected of being witches are often hanged or burnt to death. [..]

Morobe’s chief police inspector, Augustine Wampe, said suspicions of cult activity started in April when a child was kidnapped and police were attacked trying to rescue the child. [..]

“Gunfire was exchanged and one of the policemen was injured in the leg with an arrow. Another policeman fell over a cliff.”

Police reinforcements were attacked and forced to retreat. The villagers then went on a rampage killing one man and chopping up his body and burning houses, Wampe said.’

‘Second Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world.

The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children.

The police are now trying to identify the Second Life members involved. [..]

Under Germany law possession of “virtual” child pornography is punishable by up to three years in jail.’

‘More than 7,000 – including rock star Pete Townshend – were said to have downloaded child-porn images from a U.S. website.

But an investigation has found that many of those charged as part of the police inquiry codenamed Operation Ore were innocent and their card details had been used illegally.

Simon Bunce, who was accused of using the Texas-based Landslide website, said he was certain his personal information had been used fraudulently. Police found no evidence on his computer but his credit card details were found on the site.

“Thirty-nine people committed suicide after being accused of what I was accused of,” he said. “I reacted in a different way. I investigated it diligently and I established I was the victim of credit card fraud.”‘

‘Texas State University’s plan to build the nation’s largest “body farm” of cadavers is on hold after the school scrapped its proposed site amid concerns that buzzards could endanger nearby planes.

The university will now scout a new location for what will be only the third body farm in the nation. The school had hoped to begin burying bodies later this year.

By burying cadavers and studying human decomposition, researchers aim to help police better solve questions like time and manner of death at crime scenes.’

‘Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a US Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified.

Sergeant Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians trying to surrender.

In dramatic testimony in a pre-trial hearing for one of the seven Marines charged in the November 2005 Haditha killings and alleged cover-up, Dela Cruz described his bitterness after a roadside bomb ripped Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, known as T J, into two bloody pieces.

“I know it was a bad thing what I’ve done, but I done it because I was angry T J was dead and I pissed on one Iraqi’s head,” said an unemotional Dela Cruz in a military courtroom in Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, California.’

‘Groups of elderly Australians are reportedly setting up backyard laboratories to manufacture an illegal euthanasia drug so they can kill themselves when they have had enough of life.

One group has already succeeded in producing the drug nembutal, which is used by vets to put down animals, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday night.

At least four other backyard factories were planned for major cities across the country, with a total of some 800 elderly people prepared to become involved in producing the drug.

Dozens of older Australians were also engaged in illegally importing nembutal from the Mexican border town of Tijuana, close to the US city of San Diego, according to the report.’

‘Prosecutors issued arrest warrants Tuesday for eight former prison employees accused of abusing inmates, including forcing some to clean toilets with their tongues.

The eight were among 13 prison employees who had already been fired from the 605-inmate medium and minimum security wards at the Hendry Correctional Institution in the Everglades.

The previous warden and an assistant warden resigned, and three others were reassigned after an inmate was beaten and choked by guards in March.’

‘A 17-year-old boy was growing marijuana on vacant property owned by Ocala’s deputy police chief, authorities said. Deputy Chief Greg Graham said he was told about the plants by neighbors on Saturday. He had bought the lot two months ago as an investment, the Ocala Star-Banner reported. Deputies with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office confiscated nine potted marijuana plants on the lot.

Graham said he has known the teen, who was not identified because of his age, for several years.

“I have no idea why he picked my property,” Graham said.’

‘The parents of a baby that died of starvation after being fed a vegan diet have been found guilty of malice murder, felony murder and first degree cruelty to children.

Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31, will get an automatic life sentence for the death of their 6-week-old infant, Crown. After being fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice, he weighed only 3 1/2 pounds when he died. [..]

Prosecutors said it was a chilling case of murder by starvation, a painful and prolonged death. Attorneys representing Sanders and Thomas told jurors the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to their vegan lifestyle. Vegans typically live free of animal products.

“They’re not vegans, they’re baby killers,” Fulton prosecutor Mike Carlson told the jury Tuesday during his closing arguments.’

‘A woman forced an 83-year-old housemate to smoke crack cocaine so she could steal personal information to get a credit card and run up more than $3,000 in charges, authorities said.

Pasco County sheriff’s investigators accused Theresa M. Stanley-Morgan, 41, of getting the older woman to smoke the drug at least twice to make it easier to exploit her financially.’

‘Local artist and drag performer Jojo Baby thinks he’s fairly open minded, but what he saw inside a Wicker Park apartment this week blew him away.

Baby was at eBay seller Brian Sloan’s apartment to buy vintage mannequins for his studio, where he creates dolls and puppets.

But instead, Baby said he saw human skulls boiling inside Sloan’s apartment. [..]

Sloan has a law degree but makes a living selling various items on the Internet — including a batch of vintage mannequins that were on the steps of his back porch. Sloan said the skulls are imported legally, but police still confiscated them.’

‘Police are seeking the vandals who spray-painted the words “Go Home” on a Samoan Shepherd who enjoys wandering, unleashed, though its Idaho neighborhood. As seen in the below evidence photos, the dog, named Wiley, had one word painted on each side of his body. According to a Bannock County Sheriff’s Department report, Wiley’s owner called cops late last month after discovering her dog “had been spray painted with gang graffiti.” Actually, it appears that the ambulating animal wasn’t tagged by an Idaho Blood or Crip, but rather by some annoyed neighbor or juvenile delinquent. A sheriff’s deputy advised Wiley’s owner, Marilyn Hardenbrook, to keep the dog in her own yard (and under her control while the pooch was “out and about”).’

‘A woman who claimed she was raped in her home by a man pretending to be a police officer today admitted in court that she made up the allegation. [..]

Before she went to a doctor to lay the false complaint May made numerous preparations.

Police said she cut her telephone line, pulled out clumps of her hair, rubbed her knees on the carpet until they bled and scratched her buttocks.

She also put a condom over a hammer handle and used it to create sexual attack trauma.’

‘James Dowdy has admitted his hankering for women’s hosiery has been his undoing, earning him three stints in prison and repeated scoldings from judges over the years. So police say it’s no surprise the 36-year-old man is knee deep in trouble again because of his lust for leggings.

St. Clair County prosecutors charged Dowdy on Friday with felony attempted burglary for his uninvited visit to a parked car and with misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for dropping stolen socks “in an unreasonable manner, as to alarm and disturb.”

“He’s obviously got some problems,” Belleville police Capt. Don Sax said Monday of Dowdy, who remains jailed on $50,000 bond. “We can’t crawl into his head and come up with a particular answer to why he does this. We have to assume it’s part of his sexual deviation.” [..]

“To the best of our knowledge, he’s just after the socks,” Sax said. “Generally, they are almost always female socks.”‘