`For nearly 20 years – ever since Pete Costello was 8 – his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn’t read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car.
But now prosecutors say it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it.
“He’s like any other person trying to get out of a traffic ticket,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said Tuesday.’
‘A mother convinced Rock Hill police to arrest her 12-year-old son after he unwrapped a Christmas present early.
The boy’s great-grandmother had specifically told him not to open his Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which she had wrapped and placed beneath the Christmas tree, according to a police report.
But on Sunday morning, she found the box of the popular handheld game console unwrapped and opened. When the boy’s 27-year-old mother heard about the opened gift, she called police.
“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” said the 63-year-old great-grandmother.’
The Smoking Gun has the police report.
`One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard.
Messner is a big boy. He was 15 at the time he was brought into the woods to see the homeless man his friends had been beating. Even at that young age, he outweighed the victim, Michael Roberts, by 200 pounds when he jumped on his chest, crushing his ribcage. Roberts died. [..]
Messner and his attorney said he has already learned his lesson and is ready to go home to help others.
“I want to be an inspirational speaker for troubled teens,” he said Monday.’
`A St. Louis man was shot to death Sunday night over a warm beer, police said.
St. Louis police say a woman shot her husband, who was about 70 years old, four to five times in the chest after he tried giving her a warm can of Stag beer.
Police said the wife admitted shooting him about 5:40 p.m. in the kitchen of their home in the 5100 block of Terry Avenue. Police said the home had no electricity at the time.’
`The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.
The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.’
`Police are searching for the driver of an SUV who chased and fatally shot a 14-year-old boy he thought had thrown an egg at his vehicle early yesterday.
Danny Crawford, of 3217 Valley View Dr., died of a single gunshot wound in the upper body, according to Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis.
Danny’s body was found in an alley behind 28 N. Terrace Ave., on the city’s West Side. The shooting took place about 12:30 a.m.
He died at the scene, Lewis said.’
`A former Wind Gap man said he repeatedly sexually assaulted two young girls because his wife spent too much time playing bingo.
”I told her — she was going to bingo three, four times a week. I told her to cut down to once a week. She said if they had bingo every day, she’d go,” Floyd Kinney Jr., 49, said.
”So, because your wife went to bingo, these children suffered?” Northampton County Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden asked Kinney on Friday.
”Yes,” Kinney said.’
`The older woman began beating the man with a stick, while her daughter called police on her cell phone. The woman who was being assaulted ran away, and the older woman and her daughter started walking away too, when the naked man came after the daughter and tried to grab her cell phone. The mother then started hitting the assailant with the stick again, at which point the man turned on her and tries to snatch her eyeglasses off of her face. The daughter then managed to get the man off of her mother, at which point, police say, the man started singing and dancing in a circle.
Police arrived and the naked man started fighting with them, stricking one officer in the face and hitting another with a large stick. They finally manged to take the man into custody and took him to a hospital to be evaluated.’
Singing and dancing in a circle. :)
`A 4-year-old boy in Durham is being called a super hero. The young boy dressed up in a Power Rangers costume and protected his family as robbers got away with their belongings. [..]
In the most recent case, robbers forced their way into an apartment in north Durham on Friday and held a family at gun point. In a strange twist, 4-year-old Stevie Long may have saved the day. “I was saving everybody,” Stevie said. “I was the red ranger.”
His mother says he snuck away, and put on his Power Ranger costume and tried to fight the robbers.
His mom thinks he spooked the men and they ran away. The robbers did escape with money, credit cards and cell phones.’
`Jackson and his 29-year-old wife, who have been separated since July, have five children ranging in age from 1 to 13 years old, Shupe said. Jackson apparently started fighting with his wife after she and the children returned to their Conyers home on Thanksgiving.
At one point during the fight, Jackson allegedly attempted to stuff his wife inside the kitchen oven, which had been left on to heat the house, Shupe said. The woman escaped and went to the sheriff’s office with visible head injuries, Shupe said.
Investigators found Jackson hiding under a bed at his mother’s house in Decatur, where he had been living since the separation, Shupe said.’
`A man broke into a barn on Thanksgiving morning, spray-painted three pet goats and scattered pages of pornographic magazines on the floor, apparently to harass the property owner, police said Tuesday. [..]
Karst said he did not know specifically how the goats were harmed, but The Journal News reported on its Web site that a veterinarian said the goats became sick after eating the magazine pages. The vet, Stacey Dallas, also said the orange paint was on their genitals and described the act as torture.’
`Police have called for public help in locating three people involved in a Melbourne street assault.
Victoria Police today released images of the trio who targeted a group of men in York Street, South Melbourne, around midnight on Friday last week.
The incident followed a minor argument between the men and an Asian man as they waited in line to enter a nightclub, also in York Street. [..]
The group eventually took refuge in their car, but received injuries including black eyes, cuts, bruising and scratches with the most serious injury being a ruptured testicle requiring surgery.’
`Los Angeles sheriffs gun down Deandre Brunston in Compton, He was unarmed. The object in his hand was a flipflop he found on the porch. The dog was airlifted while Deandre was left to die on the ground.’
They don’t even bother to check his pulse or even go anywhere near him after they shoot him. Got the dog out of there okay though.
`A NSW north coast woman has been charged with bestiality and offensive conduct after allegedly being involved in an indecent act with a horse.
Police said they found the naked woman with the horse when they were called to a paddock in Wilson Street, Lismore at 9am (AEDT) on Monday.
“Police will allege a 35-year-old Casino woman was engaged in an indecent act with a horse,” a NSW police spokesman said.
“The woman was arrested and charged with bestiality and behaving in an offensive manner.”’
`Consider the Carrick woman whose cell phone was stolen Saturday from her car by an unknown man who reached into her front seat through an open window.
That evening the man called her other cell phone with the stolen phone and asked her if “the pictures on the phone were of her,” according to a report.
Seems the stolen phone featured naked pictures of a woman. The Carrick victim said the pictures were of her girlfriend and, when the caller asked, told him she was a lesbian.
The next day, she accessed her phone account on the Internet and downloaded a recent photo the man had taken with the stolen cell phone. That picture? A penis.
Detectives were investigating.’
`The investigation into the death of a baby who authorities believe was heated in a microwave oven was difficult because of a lack of research on the effect of microwaves on people, a coroner’s official said.
China Arnold, 26, was jailed Monday on a charge of aggravated murder, more than a year after she brought her dead month-old baby to a hospital on Aug. 30, 2005, police said.
“We have reason to believe, and we have some forensic evidence that is consistent with our belief, that a microwave oven was used in this death,” said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County coroner’s office.’
`Fort Worth investigators say a fight broke out near the Tumbleweeds Sports Bar on Thursday after a customer thought another had failed to wash his hands after using the bathroom.
Witnesses say the customer confronted the man and two of his friends, calling them names and telling them they were dirty. Witnesses say the man threatened to “slash their throats.”
Police say the man then hid in a shrub outside of the bar and charged the group as they left.
Authorities say one man is hospitalized with stab wounds.’
‘All you need is your own security tag, you set off the security alarm and then you try to get away from the security guard. [..]
You ain’t nicked nothing, but they’ll still chase ya, so leg it.’
There’s something hilarious about a man running around a shopping center being chased by a security guard whilst yelling “C’mon fatty!”.
(13.2meg Flash video)
see it here »
`Bryan James Hathaway, 20, of Superior, was arrested on “a misdemeanour charge of sexual gratification with an animal” after indulging in intercourse with said deceased deer on 11 October.
His attorney, public defender Fredric Anderson, last week filed a motion with a Douglas County court which argued “because the deer was dead, it was not considered an animal and the charge should be dismissed”. He wrote: “The statute does not prohibit one from having sex with a carcass.” [..]
Judge Lucci summed the matter up concisely with: “I’m a little surprised this issue hasn’t been tackled before in another case.” He then promised to render a decision before Hathaway’s next court appearance on 1 December.’
`A botched kidnapping ended with one of the assailants shooting himself in the groin, Wichita police said.
The man had just stuck the gun back into his waistband when it fired, shooting him in the left testicle. He cringed, causing the gun to fire again and strike him in the left calf.
When the shooting ended, the 23-year-old man managed to walk himself into the hospital for treatment, police said. He and his two accomplices, ages 18 and 20, were arrested for aggravated attempted kidnapping and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The men were attempting to kidnap a teen in a dispute over stereo speakers, police said.’
`The book, which was to have been published on November 30 by the News Corp-owned HarperCollins imprint ReganBooks, was touted as featuring Simpson discussing how he would have carried out the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, if he were the one responsible.
The book, titled If I Did It, was to have been preceded by a two-part Fox television interview of Simpson conducted by the publisher, Judith Regan. Fox, like HarperCollins, is a unit of News Corp.’
`The Drug Enforcement Administration agents were near the Philip Burton Federal Building at 1:15 p.m. when a man passed them on the 400 block of Turk Street carrying a cardboard box. The box, emblazoned with the logo of a common brand of hydroponics equipment, reeked of marijuana. [..]
The narcotics agents stopped the man and asked what was in the box. He showed them about 1.5 pounds of marijuana, 12 ounces of hashish and an electronic scale.
Then, in a move that apparently stunned the 20-year-old Eureka resident, the agents took his pot away. While his crime was too minor to prosecute under federal law, the federal government does consider marijuana to be contraband, McEnry said. [..]
Realizing the DEA did not intend to return his stash, the man then called 911 on his cell phone to report the incident to San Francisco police.’
`A constable who took a Taser to a central Auckland domestic dispute wound up shocking himself and a 16-year-old and later pepper-spraying an innocent 21-year-old woman.
The constable accidentally blasted himself with the Taser’s 50,000 volts as he reloaded the weapon while trying to stun a man at the centre of the domestic incident on October 1. One shot accidentally struck the man’s teenage son.
After five attempts to hit the man, the officer eventually used pepper spray. This hit the man’s 21-year-old daughter, also an unintended target.
The man eventually gave himself up. The constable, who had had Taser training, was not injured.’
‘Some dude tries to rob a store with a pretty big knife only to be trumped by the clerks friggin machete.’
see it here »
`A girl of two was crushed to death by her father’s lorry driven by her 11-year-old brother, a court heard yesterday.
Crystal Collier’s father Gary, 37, watched in horror as the adored youngster he called “my princess” was repeatedly hit by the wheels of the skip truck.
He will be sentenced today after earlier admitting manslaughter through gross negligence, and faces jail.’
`Bare-chested and fuelled by drunken bravado, he dangles from a 25,000 volt power cable.
If he had tried his foolish stunt at any other time, Shane White would have been fried.
Fortunately for him, however, he had unwittingly picked a seven minute period when the power was turned off – the first in 15 months. [..]
“It was completely and utterly idiotic. I know I’m a fool for doing it.”
White, unemployed, said he was so drunk on cider and beer that he had no memory of his actions until he saw the picture in a newspaper.’
`U.S. Coast Guards have seized a submarine carrying 3.5 tons of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica and arrested three Colombians on board, the Costa Rican Coast Guard said on Sunday.
The submarine appeared to be a makeshift vessel unlike military submarines or those used by oceanographers. It could only submerge 6 feet under water, Costa Rican Coast Guard spokesman Jose Antonio Fallas told Reuters.
The 45-foot-long vessel was found last Wednesday near the remote Coco Island, southwest of the Central American mainland, and had traveled hundreds of miles from Colombia on its way to the United States.’
`A seizure took over Beloungea’s body while walking through his suburban Detroit neighborhood last April. When an onlooker in a neighbor’s house saw Beloungea having the seizure, which includes rapid repetitive arm motion, she misinterpreted it as criminal conduct. Specifically, she thought Beloungea was masturbating in public.
With that misconception in mind, she called the Oakland Police Department. When police arrived on the scene, Beloungea was still undergoing his seizure, acting disoriented and not responding to questions.
When officers couldn’t get through to Beloungea they drew their weapons, shocked him with a high-voltage taser, hit him with a baton and wrestled him to the ground. They then handcuffed him and put him in a police car.’
`A man who mailed a bomb to a doctor because he was angry about how his penis enlargement surgery turned out was sentenced Tuesday to four years and 10 months in prison.
Blake Steidler, 25, of Reamstown, put the bomb in the mail on Feb. 11, 2005, in North Bloomfield, Ohio, addressed to the doctor in Chicago. After returning home, he called 911 and told police what he had done. The bomb was retrieved from the mail and destroyed; no one was injured.
Steidler pleaded guilty in April to use of a weapon of mass destruction and other charges. Defense lawyer Luis A. Ortiz said at the time of the plea that his client was mentally ill.’
Seriously tho.. Weapons of mass destruction?
