moonbuggy

‘”I am not the Cookie Monster,” said Tory Caruth, laughing.

But cookies are why he spent time in the Will County Jail after the Girl Scouts sued him in small claims court.

Girl Scouts of Trailways claimed Caruth never paid for 118 boxes of cookies his daughter ordered five years ago.

The 40-year-old Joliet trucker is listed on permission forms as his daughter’s guardian responsible for payments. The 118 boxes were valued at $354 when the order was placed in January 2002. Caruth claims that money was turned in to the organization.

While his name is on the documents, Caruth said he never signed the forms, which state “failure to turn over or any misuse of these funds on my part will result in legal action taken against me by Girl Scouts.”

“I never ordered, never signed for and never received any cookies,” he said.’

‘An ex-con and former mental patient who won a landmark state Supreme Court decision in 2004 that allowed hundreds of mental patients to stop taking forced medication appeared in an Alameda courtroom Friday on charges that he killed his roommate in September.

Kanuri Qawi, 46, was charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of his roommate, John Laird Milton Sr., 59, whose body was found Sept. 13 in their home on Moonlight Terrace at Dignity Commons, a housing facility for veterans at Alameda Point, the site of the former Alameda Naval Air Station. [..]

The court said Qawi had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and had been medicated against his will between 1995 and 2004.’

‘After giving birth to a premature baby on an East Oakland street, police say the mother ripped the umbilical cord and walked away Friday afternoon, leaving the newborn boy dead or dying in a puddle of blood.

The 4:39 p.m. incident in the 1400 block of 65th Avenue left witnesses and veteran investigators stunned.

“It’s just crazy,” said Oakland police Sgt. Tony Jones of the homicide detail. “Once she started spitting out the baby, you have some obligation to get it some type of medical attention. She didn’t do that.”’

‘An abandoned consignment of marijuana with a street value of $20m (£10.3m) was found in California when a policeman went to check on a lorry.

The vehicle was unlocked and the engine warm, but no-one was in the cab.

The patrolman found plastic-wrapped bundles of the drug in the back of the rental vehicle near Los Angeles after smelling marijuana, AP said. [..]

He suggested the engine might have overheated, causing the vehicle to be abandoned along with three tons of marijuana on a slip road in the city of Ontario late on Wednesday.’

‘A Sikkim Police constable guarding the Dena Bank treasury at Daryaganj in central Delhi went berserk early Sunday morning, killing five of his mates after they allegedly tried to sodomise him while on night duty.

The police received a call at 4.52 am from constable Nari Lepcha, one of the guards deployed at the treasury, that his five colleagues had been murdered. After racking their brains for almost 12 hours, the police realised that it was Lepcha himself who had brutally murdered all of them.

After hours of questioning, Lepcha admitted that he killed his fellow guards because they tried to sexually assault him after consuming alcohol. [..]’

‘A 57-year-old Swiss man has gone on trial in Thailand on charges of insulting the king after allegedly defacing portraits of the monarch.

If found guilty, Oliver Jufer faces up to 75 years in prison – 15 years on each of five charges.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been on the throne for 60 years, is revered in Thailand.

He and other members of the royal family are protected by lese-majeste laws barring any criticism of them.’

‘The Israeli army is investigating whether its troops used two Palestinian children as human shields during a house search operation in the West Bank, after claims by the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem.

The use of human shields to deter gunmen from opening fire on soldiers has been banned by the Israeli supreme court and forbidden by the army. However, the practice, in which soldiers force Palestinians to approach, enter and search buildings where they believe a gunman may be hiding, remains common. [..]

Mr Amira’s cousin, 15-year-old Amid Amira, told B’Tselem that soldiers also forced him to search three houses, making him enter rooms, empty cupboards and open windows. And an 11-year-old girl, Jihan Dadush, told B’Tselem that soldiers took her from her home three days later, on February 28, forcing her to go into a neighbouring apartment ahead of them. [..]’

‘A 75-year-old man with terminal cancer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, and he never even got his $3 back.

John Paul Kent had prepaid $40 to gas up his Oldsmobile Delta 88 last summer at a gas station near his Jensen Beach apartment. He became angry when a clerk couldn’t open the cash register to give him his $3 in change.

Authorities said Kent left the store and returned with a nine-millimeter pistol. He then fired five shots into the floor.

This led to a six-hour stand-off with deputies outside his apartment, which was located in a retirement community.’

‘An accused child molester in Wisconsin cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet, then took a limousine to Chicago to appear on “The Jerry Springer Show,” authorities said. [..]

“A significant bond is legally necessary given the fact he absconded, admittedly for one of the more unique reasons I’ve heard in my time on the bench,” the judge said.

According to court records, Sims had been out of jail about three weeks when he cut off the bracelet and missed a court date September 6. His defense attorney at the time, Domingo Cruz, told the judge his client was seen getting into the television show’s limousine.’

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‘A Chandler man has been arrested after his condominium caught fire while he was cooking methamphetamine in a toaster oven, authorities said.

Jonathan Zaletel, 19, was arrested on suspicion of drug manufacturing, drug possession and criminal damage.

Zaletel was cooking meth at about 7 p.m. Tuesday in the 1200 block of North Alma School Road near Ray Road when his condominium bedroom closet caught fire, authorities said.

He unsuccessfully attempted to stop the fire with water and window cleaner. He then went to Wal-Mart to buy a fire extinguisher.’

‘A Los Angeles hospital confirmed on Friday that two U.S. women who became ill during a trip to their native Russia, prompting investigations by both countries, were suffering from thallium poisoning.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Marina Kovalevsky and her daughter, Yana, were receiving “appropriate treatment” for thallium poisoning. They have been listed in fair but stable condition. [..]

There has been no official explanation of how or why the two women, who according to family members do not work for either government and have no known political or business ties to Russia, were poisoned.’

‘Officials at the Grossmont Union High School District have sent letters home to parents, notifying them that a number of students have been caught on campus with medical marijuana cards.

District official Catherine Martin said they are concerned over the growing trend and the “apparent ease” with which teens are able to obtain the cards.

In the letters, parents, students and faculty are reminded that even if the cards are valid, it is against the law to have marijuana on school property.

Recently two East County teenagers were suspended for showing up at school high, with a medical marijuana card as their excuse, NBC 7/39 reported.’

‘Fran Bernstein wants what is best for her severely autistic, 48-year-old son.

So do those operating the Chicago group home where Bradley Bernstein lives.

But they disagree on what is the best way to respond when the stockily built Bradley begins a violent outburst.

His mother has long relied upon a small jolt from a cattle prod to calm her son down.

But disability advocacy groups, as well as the company running Bradley’s group home, Trinity Services, are shunning the shock punishments, which state legislators outlawed last year. [..]

“Most of the time, if he starts acting up and beating his head, we just show it to him and that’s sufficient,” Fran Bernstein said. “We had a judge sign an order saying it was OK to do with proper care, to let him live a decent life. The whole point of doing this was to protect him.”‘

‘Illegal drugs can be “harmless” and should no longer be “demonised”, a wide-ranging two-year study concluded today.

The report said Britain’s drug laws were “not fit for purpose” and should be torn up in favour of a system which recognised that drinking and smoking could cause more harm.

The RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs ,set up in January 2005, also called for the main focus of drugs education to be shifted from secondary to primary schools and recommended the introduction of so-called “shooting galleries” – rooms where users can inject drugs. [..]

Current laws, the panel claimed, were been “driven by moral panic” with large amounts of money wasted on “futile” efforts to stop supply rather than going after the criminal networks behind the drugs on British streets.’

‘Inmates in South Carolina could soon find that a kidney is worth 180 days.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would let prisoners donate organs or bone marrow in exchange for time off their sentences.

A state Senate panel on Thursday endorsed creating an organ-and-tissue donation program for inmates. But legislators postponed debate on a measure to reduce the sentences of participating prisoners, citing concern that federal law may not allow it.’

‘A man remained in jail Monday after Tampa police say he ripped off a large portion of his girlfriend’s scalp with a 6-inch kitchen knife.

After the Friday attack, 40-year-old Tina D. Robinson was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where surgeons attempted to reattach her scalp. Hospital officials would not comment on her condition Monday.

Police say Robinson and her 30-year-old boyfriend Jason Eric Tarvin had been drinking Thursday night and were intoxicated when an argument got violent.’

‘A renowned hedge-fund honcho hatched a heinous revenge plot against his former mistress by posing as her on the Internet – saying she wanted to be kidnapped and raped as part of a sicko sex fantasy, officials said yesterday.

Albert Hsu, 43, a wealthy, married dad of two and former Cub Scout leader, posted his fiendish ad on a hardcore, S&M Web site, Connecticut authorities said.

He allegedly included the woman’s name, photo, address, license-plate number, train schedule to and from work and even the rail car she usually sits in.

“The defendant set the victim up to be abducted and raped by a complete stranger,” prosecutor Ricki Goldstein said in Norwalk, Conn., Superior Court.’

‘It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked “top secret.” And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.

You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.

By all accounts, that’s what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew in August 2004. [..]’

‘A 24-year-old man called police to tell them he was trying to break into a church, but he wasn’t having much luck.

Police said the would-be thief’s call prompted them to show up at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, where they found him waiting. The man told them he had hoped to get married in the church and was trying to use a metal shovel to break through the doors. He told them, if anything, he figured they could help.

Officers search the man and found marijuana. He then invited them to his home, where he told them they would find more drugs.

They did: He showed them his stash of marijuana and stolen prescription drugs.’

‘It might have been one of the easiest drug busts in the history of the South Carolina Highway Patrol: A car with 43 pounds of marijuana crashed into a trooper’s cruiser, authorities said.

The easy bust happened after two patrolmen parked their cars in each lane of northbound Interstate 95 near Santee early Sunday morning following a series of wrecks that had tied up traffic, Highway Patrol Capt. Chris Williamson said.

A Chevrolet Malibu going about 70 mph hit one of the cruisers, causing minor injuries to the trooper behind the wheel, Williamson said.”

‘An 18-year-old man has been detained for repeatedly defecating in front of a cash machine in a bank vestibule in the southern German town of Eggmuehl.

A police spokesman said the man, who left his deposit at the bank eight times, was caught only after the bank installed video monitors to film him in action.’

‘A 12-year-old boy has been charged with sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in a car park in north Queensland.

Police said the woman had parked her car in a multi-level car park in Townsville yesterday about 10.30am (AEST) and was walking to the lift when she was approached by the boy.

The boy allegedly grabbed her around the throat and dragged her towards the stairwell, where he sexually assaulted her.

He also allegedly stole money from the woman’s handbag.’

‘Attempts to duplicate a stunt from Jackass landed one man in hospital with burnt genitals and left another facing criminal charges.

The men were trying to do a stunt from one of the hit show’s movies, in which a character lights his genitals on fire.

Jared W. Anderson, 20, suffered serious burns to his hands and genitals, according to the criminal complaint.

Randell D. Peterson, 43, who sprayed lighter fluid on Anderson and lit him on fire, was charged with felony battery and first-degree reckless endangerment in Eau Claire County Court.’

‘A 68-year-old grandmother convicted of growing cannabis at her Northumberland home has been given a 250 hour community service order.

Patricia Tabram, from Humshaugh, had denied charges of possessing and cultivating the drug when she appeared at Carlisle Crown Court.

She was arrested in 2005 when plants and growing equipment were seized. [..]

After the hearing she said: “I’m going to go on medicating.

“The police can come to my house every week. I’ll give them a cup of tea.

“I’ll give them a decent biscuit, which of course will be medicated and I’ll give them some cannabis so they charge me again and again and again.”‘

‘A woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to swinging her 4-week-old son like a bat to hit her boyfriend during a fight, fracturing the infant’s skull in the process.

Chytoria Graham, 27, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child under a plea agreement with prosecutors.

By pleading guilty, Graham acknowledged that on October 8 she grabbed her son Jarron by his feet and swung him, hitting her boyfriend and seriously injuring the child.

At Graham’s preliminary hearing in December, paramedic Betty Schau, who treated the baby, recalled that Graham was crying and disheveled when medical crews arrived. She testified that Graham told her, “I swung him. I swung him like a bat.”‘

‘Authorities on Tuesday were looking for a man who robbed a bank in Anchorage while swinging a flaming torch fashioned from a burning T-shirt and a yard-long metal pole. On Monday, the masked robber threatened to set fire to people, including the teller, and burn down the bank building in Fairview if his demands weren’t met.

The man stormed the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union branch at about 3:45 p.m., said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. He yelled at customers to get down on the floor.

He fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, authorities said. All customers managed to flee the bank, authorities said.

Police later recovered the still smoldering shirt outside the bank.’

‘An Iraqi national was detained and questioned at a passenger-screening area at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday morning after a suspicious item was found in the man’s rectum during a body cavity search.

The item, which is still being examined, poses no apparent threat, an FBI official said. [..]

Ethel McGuire, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said this afternoon that al-Maliki had “a magnet, wires and I don’t know what the other item was. It’s being evaluated as we speak.” After al-Maliki was searched, the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad was called to the airport to examine the suspicious item.’

‘Police say a man repeatedly stabbed his teenage wife, then gave the knife to his toddler son and told him: “Now you stab Mommy.”

Fermin Rodriguez, 21, attacked his 17-year-old wife Sunday night, after accusing her of cheating on him, police said. He slashed and stabbed her multiple times, then handed the knife to his 2-year-old son and told him to stab her, police said.

Police would not say whether the boy did as his father said.’