The Stupid Crimes & Misdemeanors Thread

[TexasStooge]

Theft charges for man who wrecked Ferrari

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - A Swedish former video game executive who destroyed a $1 million Ferrari Enzo in a 160 mile per hour crash was charged Monday with stealing that Ferrari and another one plus a rare Mercedes worth a total of nearly $4 million.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office charged Bo Stefan M. Eriksson with nine criminal counts including drunk driving, embezzlement, grand theft auto, and possession of a firearm. If convicted he faces 14 years in prison.

Eriksson, 44, was an executive for European video game company Gizmondo, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year with more than $200 million in debt.

Authorities said Eriksson was drunk at the time of the February crash and that he had imported his sports car collection to the United States in violation of a lease agreement with British financial institutions.

The Ferrari Enzo wrecked in the crash was one in only 400 ever made and was going well over 160 miles per hour when it smashed into a power pole on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on February 21. The crash ripped the car apart but nobody was injured seriously.

Eriksson was arrested in April and is currently in jail while immigration officials conduct a separate inquiry.

[TexasStooge]

Man Accused of Changing Traffic Lights

LONGMONT, Colo. (AP) - A man who said he bought a device that let him change traffic lights from red to green has received a $50 ticket on suspicion of interfering with a traffic signal.

Jason Niccum of Longmont told the Daily Times-Call that the device, which he bought on eBay for $100, helped him cut his time driving to work.

"I guess in the two years I had it, that thing paid for itself," he told the newspaper Wednesday.

Niccum was cited March 29 after police said they found him using a strobe-like device to change traffic signals.

"I'm always running late," police quoted Niccum as saying in an incident report.

The device, called an Opticon, is similar to what firefighters use to change lights when they respond to emergencies. It emits an infrared pulse that receivers on the traffic lights pick up.

Niccum was cited after city traffic engineers who noticed repeated traffic-light disruptions on certain intersections spotted a white Ford pickup passing by whenever the light patterns were disrupted.

City traffic engineer Joe Olson said traffic engineers plan to update the city's Opticon system this year to block unauthorized light-changing signals.
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Information from: Daily Times-Call

[TexasStooge]

Police Rescue Alleged 'Backhoe Bandit'

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - A man who tried to steal an ATM with a backhoe was arrested when he asked police officers who were chasing him for help after he jumped into the Kansas River, police said.

Police said the man, in his 50s, used the backhoe to break into a convenience store in Kansas City, Kan., then tried to drive away with the Automated Teller Machine. As the man tried to flee, the machine and 12 packs of soda fell from the backhoe, police said.

Police followed the man as he took the backhoe through a wooded area before fleeing on foot.

After jumping into the Kansas River, the man swam out about 15 feet from shore, then called for help, saying he was drowning, the police department said.

Two officers jumped into the river, rescued him and arrested him, police said.

The man was taken to a hospital after complaining of an ankle injury, police said. The two officers were unharmed.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Reported Carjacking a Drug Deal

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) - A man who reported he was carjacked cooked up his story after he later regretted selling his car to a teenager in exchange for a $150 bag of cocaine, police said.

Neal Stevenson, 21, told police Thursday evening the car was taken from him by force at the Fort Henry Mall.

But police found the 1999 Honda Accord being driven the next day and tracked it to a 16-year-old boy who told officers that Stevenson sold him the car for drugs — and produced the title signed by Stevenson.

"While at the mall he later felt like he got ripped off and came up with the story that he was a victim of a carjacking," Detective Lt. Ralph Cline said. "I would assume his high started leaving him ... he got mad and felt he got ripped off."

Stevenson was arrested on a charge of filing a false police report. The teenager, who was not identified, faces a runaway charge and new drug charges related to items found when he was questioned by police.
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Information from: Kingsport Times-News

[TexasStooge]

Restaurateur Pleads Guilty to Lewdness

NEW YORK (AP) - A restaurateur who admitted he exposed himself to a woman in a subway car, an act the woman captured with her cellular telephone camera, was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and ordered to undergo counseling.

Daniel Hoyt, 43, was sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on his guilty plea to public lewdness, a misdemeanor. He admitted he exposed himself while on the R train on Aug. 24, 2005.

Hoyt and Tolentin Chan founded the popular Quintessence raw-food restaurants on East 10th Street in the East Village and on Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side.

Judge Alexander Jeong rejected a request by Assistant District Attorney Andrew Zakrocki to follow a Probation Department recommendation and send Hoyt to jail.

"I will impose the sentence promised," Jeong said. He added that Hoyt has to continue once-weekly psychiatric counseling for the entire two-year probation period. The judge warned that a probation violation could get Hoyt 90 days in jail.

As Hoyt left court, he said, I apologize for my actions and I'm sorry for anyone I may have offended."

A court complaint says Hoyt committed four similar acts of public lewdness — one on a No. 1 or No. 9 train on Oct. 19, 2004, near West 72nd Street, and three others on R trains in the East Village on July 13, Aug. 19 and Aug. 24, 2005.

While Hoyt was in court, about a half-dozen women marched with signs outside the courthouse, denouncing the defendant. Their demonstration was in response to his alleged comments in a magazine interview, that some women liked what he had been doing and probably would want to date him.

One marcher was Thao Nguyen, 23, the woman who caught Hoyt "in flagrante" with her cell phone camera. She carried a sign that said, "Actually, if I met you in a bar I wouldn't date you."

[TexasStooge]

Man Accused of Repeated Flashing Arrested

HORATIO, Ark. - A man accused of repeatedly exposing himself to the same woman has been arrested after the woman took a picture of him naked standing on a highway and called police.

The man had exposed himself five times in the last six months to the woman as she traveled on Arkansas 41 for work. She did not know the man, police said.

"I think he had singled her out, and she was loaded and ready for bear the next time she saw him," Arkansas State Police Cpl. Ray Gentry said. "She slowed down in her car to about 40 mph and got a picture of him."

Robert Ernest Vallee, 37, of Lockesburg was arrested in Sevier County on two counts of indecent exposure stemming from incidents Thursday and Jan. 19 and one count of harassment. All are misdemeanors.

"He admitted he was the suspect in question and he had exposed himself to her. He admitted he was nude except for a shirt covering his face," Gentry said.

The woman said she didn't want to press charges.

Authorities also had gotten a complaint from a 17-year-old female of a man exposing himself. He reportedly would stand on the side of the highway next to his car.

Vallee was arrested Thursday after the woman called a dispatcher, saying a man in a silver Dodge Neon had exposed himself to her, according to a Sevier County Sheriff's Department report. The woman said the vehicle turned onto Arkansas 24 East and she waited for an officer at a Horatio convenience store.

Gentry encountered the vehicle traveling east on Arkansas 24 near its intersection with Arkansas 329 and stopped it.

"He had put his pants back on by the time I made the arrest. He was worried I was going to charge him with reckless driving for putting his pants back on while driving," Gentry said.

A Sevier County deputy took the woman from the store to the traffic stop and she identified the vehicle.

Vallee was taken to the Sevier County Jail in De Queen. He posted bond and was released from jail Friday.
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Information from: Texarkana Gazette

[TexasStooge]

Employees lock out alleged bank robber

TAMPA, Fla. (Court TV) - Rob me once, shame on you. Rob me twice? Not a chance.

That was the message to an alleged robber who returned for a second go at the Regents Bank in Tampa, Florida, and found the establishment's doors locked.

Roger Stottlemyer, 41, allegedly first robbed the bank on March 29. According to a police document, he presented a demand note to one of the clerks, received an undisclosed amount of money and escaped on foot.

When bank employees spotted Stottlemyer approaching the building again on April 7, they recognized him from the robbery the week before and locked the doors. They contacted the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office while the would-be robber fled in a black Ford Taurus, which employees described to deputies.

An alert was placed on the getaway car and a patrol car intercepted Stottlemyer a half-mile away from the bank. Stottlemyer was charged with attempted robbery after a demand note was found in his pocket. According to the report, he also admitted to returning to the bank a second time with the intent of robbing it.

Witnesses positively identified Stottlemyer as the suspect from the first holdup, and he was charged with robbery for that incident. He is currently in the Hillsborough County Jail.

[TexasStooge]

Man hangs underwear on park workers' trucks

WAUSAU (Court TV) - An alleged personal slight against Thomas Vogedes prompted a bizarre vendetta.

The 58-year-old Wisconsin man vandalized his adversaries' vehicles by hanging used underwear on the cars' side mirrors.

According to Wausau Parks Department supervisor Bill Duncanson, Vogedes, a regular visitor to Barker Steward Island Park, was verbally abusive to a park employee last summer. After Vogedes allegedly made sexually offensive remarks to the worker, Wausau Police were contacted, and officers gave the unruly park visitor a disorderly conduct citation.

After the incident, park employees arriving at work in the morning began finding women's bras and underwear, sometimes used, draped over the side mirrors of the park's trucks. Duncanson said the lingerie blitz occurred as often as three times a week and over the course of three months.

When park officials determined that the incidents were not part of an internal prank, employees set up a surveillance camera that twice caught Vogedes in the act. The tape was turned over to Wausau police, who arrested the "Underwear Guy" — Vogedes' public moniker before his capture.

Vogedes reportedly admitted to the attacks and that they were in retaliation over his treatment at the park. However, during his sentencing hearing, he claimed that he hung the undergarments only on the occasions caught on tape, and that another individual initiated the other attacks. According to Duncanson, Vogedes' story could not be verified because the other man implicated had died.

Vogedes was sentenced to six months' probation and ordered to stay away from the parks and park employees for six months.

[TexasStooge]

Fake cop pulls over actual police officer

CHICAGO, Ill. (Court TV) - If you're impersonating a police officer, what are the odds that someone you pull over could be an actual cop?

For Jose Santiago, those odds were very high.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Santiago, 33, was driving a white 1999 Ford Crown Victoria that looked like a squad car when he pulled over an off-duty Gurnee, Illinois, police officer on April 2.

Santiago allegedly blocked the other man's car into a parking space and began to question him about his driving. The off-duty officer asked Santiago several times if he was an officer, and the fake cop responded that he was. When asked to provide identification, Santiago refused, the report said.

The real police officer then identified himself and Santiago reportedly left the area. He was later arrested and is currently being held in the Gurnee Police Station.

[TexasStooge]

Woman Allegedly Smuggles Grenade Into Jail

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - A Salvadoran woman was detained after she tried to smuggle into the country's main prison a military grenade and marijuana hidden in her vagina, authorities said Wednesday.

Officials subsequently raised the security level at jails across the country, prison system spokesman Alberto Uribe said, adding the discovery showed "the inmates are planning something."

Lidia Alvarado, 44, was found hiding a cylinder containing the weapon and the drugs, as she entered La Esperanza prison on the northeastern outskirts of the capital of San Salvador, Uribe said.

She was turned over to police and charged with illegal weapons possession and drug trafficking, he said. Police who inspected the M-67 grenade said it was in working condition.

Alvarado was visiting two inmates, serving 25 and 30 years. Each had been convicted of rape, robbery and illegal arms possession.

Prison Director Wilson Galeas was quoted by the daily newspaper La Prensa Grafica as saying it was not the first time Alvarado had visited the two convicts.

[rainstorm]

Fake cop pulls over actual police officer

CHICAGO, Ill. (Court TV) - If you're impersonating a police officer, what are the odds that someone you pull over could be an actual cop?

For Jose Santiago, those odds were very high.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Santiago, 33, was driving a white 1999 Ford Crown Victoria that looked like a squad car when he pulled over an off-duty Gurnee, Illinois, police officer on April 2.

Santiago allegedly blocked the other man's car into a parking space and began to question him about his driving. The off-duty officer asked Santiago several times if he was an officer, and the fake cop responded that he was. When asked to provide identification, Santiago refused, the report said.

The real police officer then identified himself and Santiago reportedly left the area. He was later arrested and is currently being held in the Gurnee Police Station.

not too smart

[TexasStooge]

Texas Woman, 76, Faces Heroin Charges

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) - A 76-year-old woman accused of producing and selling heroin from her home has been arrested. Esther Gomez had allegedly been selling black-tar heroin out of her home for years, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Lt. Darrell Sanders.

On Thursday, Gomez was arrested after authorities received information that led to a search warrant. She was charged with possession with intent to deliver and released on a $20,000 bond.

Sanders said Gomez ran her business for about three hours each morning as she sat on her back porch.

"It's a good cover, right?" Sanders said. "Who would ever expect it?"

Officials said they saw "several transactions," and discovered inside her home 34 grams of black-tar heroin and six grams of cut heroin inside several plastic baggies in her purse. Officers also found a coffee grinder they said was used to cut the heroin.

Sheriff's deputies also seized a 2005 Lincoln Town Car, which had been paid for in cash, a 1983 Mercedes, and about $40,000 worth of jewelry, Sanders said. According to state law, any property purchased with illegal income is subject to seizure.
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Information from: San Antonio Express-News

[TexasStooge]

Carpenter Who Works Naked Is Arrested

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.

Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.

He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client's house to do electrical work because he didn't want to soil his clothes, police said.

Honniball said Thursday that working au naturel gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.

"In certain situations such as demolitions where you are smashing rock you want to be clothed and protected because this rock can harm you," he said.

Honniball was caught working naked in Berkeley three times in the last six years and put on probation for violating a city ordinance.

Honniball says he doesn't plan to do work in his birthday suit again.

Police said he apologized to the startled homeowner, but was fired. The homeowner paid Honniball for the finished work, but deducted $200.

"He kept out that amount to change his locks," Oakland Police Officer Jesse Grant said.
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Information from: Oakland Tribune

[CentralFlGal]

Phony doctor arrested after fake breast exams

Miami Herald staff - Broward Sheriff's Office deputies arrested a 76-year-old man Thursday who they say was going door-to-door in a Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood offering free breast exams.

Two women accepted the exams, BSO officials said.

At about 9 a.m., BSO investigators say, Philip Winikoff drove to an apartment complex near the 3200 block of Northwest 40th Street. Carrying a black ''doctor's'' bag, he walked up to the building and told a 36-year-old woman that he was in the neighborhood offering free breast exams.

The woman let Winikoff, of Coconut Creek, into her apartment and the phony doctor began the exam. The woman told police that after Winikoff touched her breasts, he moved his hand to her genitals and further assaulted her. Realizing he was not a doctor, she called BSO, but Winikoff had already left her apartment and found another victim; a 33-year-old woman in the same complex.

Deputies found Winikoff on Northwest 40th Street and arrested him.

Investigators say the second victim told them a similar story -- that Winikoff presented himself as a doctor and was in the area giving free breast exams. Again, the woman let Winikoff into her apartment and again, he sexually assaulted her.

Investigators believe Winikoff has likely victimized other women who may be embarrassed about coming forward. They are asking that anyone with information about Winikoff call Detective Joe Harris of the BSO Sex Crimes Unit at 954-321-4240.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14380228.htm

[rainstorm]

Carpenter Who Works Naked Is Arrested

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.

Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.

He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client's house to do electrical work because he didn't want to soil his clothes, police said.

Honniball said Thursday that working au naturel gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.

"In certain situations such as demolitions where you are smashing rock you want to be clothed and protected because this rock can harm you," he said.

Honniball was caught working naked in Berkeley three times in the last six years and put on probation for violating a city ordinance.

Honniball says he doesn't plan to do work in his birthday suit again.

Police said he apologized to the startled homeowner, but was fired. The homeowner paid Honniball for the finished work, but deducted $200.

"He kept out that amount to change his locks," Oakland Police Officer Jesse Grant said.
___

Information from: Oakland Tribune

he sounds cool

[TexasStooge]

Man glues hands and mouths of hostages

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) - A Southern California man took two men hostage at gunpoint, stripped them naked, bound their hands together with super glue and poured glue into their mouths, police said Friday.

Rene Avila, 36, was arrested early Friday after releasing his hostages during the night. They were treated at the scene and released.

The motive behind the bizarre incident was unclear but police speculate a possible relationship among the three may have triggered Avila's behavior.

"There was some kind of dispute there and he put super glue in their mouths before calling his sister," Los Angeles police LT. Ernest Eskridge said. "We don't know if that was his cry for help."

[TexasStooge]

Santa? No! It's Naked chimney guy!

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuters) - Believing they had a botched burglary on their hands, police in Hayward, California, called to a house instead found a naked man wedged in its chimney, a police officer said Monday.

"He didn't have a stitch on," Lt. Gary Branson of the Hayward Police Department said, referring to Michael Urbano.

The 23-year-old man came home early Saturday morning and, finding himself locked out and without his keys, tried to enter the single-story house through its chimney.

"He told us he took off his clothes because as he was going down the chimney the clothes would rub up against it and slow him down," Branson said. "If it was skin on cement he felt he would go down easier."

Urbano's effort ended disastrously when a cable-television wire he used to lower himself snapped. He fell and was wedged in a section of the chimney tapering into the home's fireplace.

For the next four hours he cried out for help. A neighbor called police and fire fighters, who dislodged Urbano, Branson said. Officers booked Urbano for being under the influence of drugs, he added.

[TexasStooge]

Inmate Gets More Years for Pot Request

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A judge changed a sentence from six months in prison to eight years after a teenager convicted in a drive-by shooting wrote a letter asking a friend to take over his marijuana dealings.

Aaron K. Lawless, 18, agreed to testify against two men who prosecutors say set up the shooting that killed 19-year-old Alisha Quillen last July. The two men were sentenced to eight years in prison while Lawless got six months. He had only 20 days left to serve.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz gave Lawless the shorter sentence even after learning he lied about his role in the shooting.

Leibowitz changed her mind about the sentence last week after authorities intercepted a letter Lawless wrote to a friend about "pushing some weed" while he is on probation.

[TexasStooge]

Bank robbery suspects flee in style

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuters) - San Francisco police arrested a man and woman suspected of robbing a bank and fleeing in style by using a limousine as their getaway car, officials said on Wednesday.

Roy Westry and Cynthia Johnson, both recent parolees in their 40s, were pulled over on Tuesday afternoon by police officers alerted to a nearby bank robbery involving a 2006 Cadillac limousine. The vehicle belonged to Westry's employer.

San Francisco Police Department inspector Dan Gardner was not surprised by the choice of getaway car.

"This is the second time in a couple of years that a limousine has been used as a getaway car in a bank robbery," Gardner said. "I've been doing this job a long time and nothing surprises me any more."

[TexasStooge]

Worker Locks Would-Be Robber Inside Bank

BALDWIN PARK, Calif. (AP) - A gunman who tried to rob a San Gabriel Valley bank Wednesday morning found himself locked alone inside the building by a quick-thinking employee, police said.

The man remained inside the Bank of the West hours later, authorities said.

"The suspect's basically locked in there by himself right now," police Capt. Michael Taylor said.

The employee, whose identity was not immediately released, was heading to the bank at around 8:30 a.m. to prepare it for opening when a man met her in the parking lot and forced her inside.

Inside, the woman told the gunman that she had to deactivate the bank alarm or police would arrive but instead set it to notify police, Taylor said.

The robber asked if she could open the vault but she said it required a second worker who would be arriving in five or 10 minutes, Taylor said.

The woman looked out a window and saw police show up but the robber "had no idea they were arriving," Taylor said.

While waiting for the second employee to show up, the robber told her "to go outside and to look around and to act as though everything was normal," Taylor said.

She went out but then locked the bank door and ran to officers.

"What she did was very smart," Taylor added.

Taylor said the gunman may be tied to other bank robberies in the San Gabriel Valley, about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.