The Stupid Crimes & Misdemeanors Thread

[TexasStooge]

'Bouncing Burglar' caught on tape

FORT WORTH, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A man earned the nickname the "Bouncing Burglar" after police said they found him trapped inside a liquor store he literally fell into.

Police said they found the burglar "calmly" smoking a cigarette inside Paul's Liquor Store in the 6200 block of Meadowbrook Drive after he broke through the ventilation hatch from the roof.

Video surveillance showed the man fall 20 feet below from the tile ceiling and then become knocked out for what police said was nearly five minutes after bottles of alcohol toppled on top of him.

Police said the suspect was then caught on camera stealing money from the register.

However, the suspect's getaway appeared even tougher than his landing into the liquor store. Police said he attempted to get out through the roof using a make-shift ladder, but fell once again.

He then proceeded to attempt break through the front door made out of Plexiglas using a beer keg and a cargo dolly, which both failed.

Police said he was found sitting on the beer keg and smoking a cigarette while waiting for someone to open the door.
_____________________________________________________________

ALSO ONLINE:

- Surveillance Video Footage
_____________________________________________________________

[Janice]

That was great........ next time he better get a better plan.....

[TexasStooge]

Student-released fowl close school

FORT KENT, Maine (AP) - Six high school seniors in Fort Kent were charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief after a class prank went awry and ended up shutting down the school.

The six boys ordered 10 goslings and 45 chicks from an Indiana company and then set them loose in Community High School early Thursday morning, school officials said.

The pranksters put the birds in the school gym, in classrooms, in lockers, in offices and into a drawer of a teacher's desk, said Principal Tim Doak. But the animals left their mark on floors, chairs and tables, forcing administrators to cancel school Thursday and Friday to clean up the mess.

The school will expect full restitution for cleanup costs, which are expected to run into the thousands of dollars, said Sandra Bernstein, superintendent of School Administrative District 27. The canceled days will be added to the end of the school year.

"It's comical when you start thinking of chickens in your school, but it's just another chapter in the book of school administration," Doak said.

A teacher discovered the intruders before 6 a.m. after entering the building and hearing the birds running around the hallways, Bernstein said. When students arrived, they were taken to the school gym, which had been sterilized, before being sent home.

A crew of about 10 was enlisted to clean and disinfect all surfaces where the birds left a mess — about 70 percent of the school. The birds pose a public safety hazard because of salmonella bacteria, Bernstein said.

"It's not funny when it's a public health risk," she said. "Salmonella is a very dangerous bacteria that can cause serious illness, particularly with anyone vulnerable or with immune system problems."

The animals, none of which were harmed, were boxed up and taken to the police chief's house, where they were expected to stay until they find new homes.

A court date has not been set and the incident is still under investigation, said Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud.
___

Information from: Bangor Daily News

[TexasStooge]

Police: Man used 'shoe camera' to look up skirts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Court TV/AP) — Not everyone has a lens on his shoe. So police say that's what got people suspicious after seeing Jeff William Jones at a county fair.

Jones, 45, was tackled by police Sunday after someone spotted him standing suspiciously close to a woman and he tried to flee. Police say they found a small camera strapped to Jones' waist with a wire running down his leg to his shoe, apparently for peering up skirts.

The witness "thought it was odd that the person appeared to have a video camera lens on his shoe," said Cal Expo Chief of Police Robert L. Craft.

Jones was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, using a concealed camcorder for sexual gratification and resisting arrest, Craft said.

[TexasStooge]

Woman ordered to pay fine for dumping leftover lettuce

EASTON, Pa. (Court TV/AP) — A woman asked a judge to toss her $173.50 fine for throwing lettuce out of her car, but he ordered her to fork over the green.

Dawn Higgins, who was cited Oct. 18 while parked outside a Wal-Mart near Easton, appeared in Northampton County Common Pleas Court on Thursday.

Higgins has said she took her daughters and a friend to the store, and they stopped at a McDonald's along the way. She said she pulled into a parking space to finish her meal but decided not to eat the half-dozen or so leaves atop her salad.

After failing to appear before a district judge on Dec. 22, Higgins discovered that she had been convicted in absentia and owed the state $173.50. She appealed, arguing that lettuce is biodegradable.

President Judge Robert A. Freedberg on Thursday found Higgins guilty after listening to her attorney pepper a police officer with questions about lettuce.

Higgins is mulling an appeal to state Superior Court "as a matter of principle," said her lawyer, Timothy Prendergast.

"Probably the most expensive McDonald's salad ever sold," he said.

[TexasStooge]

Bizarre protest under scrutiny

LAKE COUNTY Highland man vows more 'cat poop' mailings

CROWN POINT, Indiana (Northwest Indiana Times) - A Highland man, who claims to have mailed boxes of "cat poop sandwiches" to Lake County courts Monday to protest a small claims case, has locked himself in his home in anticipation of being arrested.

"I'm not coming out of this house," he said.

Richard Carroll, 54, is the same man who early last month sent a package to Lake Superior Court Magistrate Michael Pagano that a hazardous materials team examined.

Carroll, who insists he's not violent, said he believes he's making his stand. The six boxes mailed this week contained the excrement, bread and torn up money with some change thrown in, he said.

"They all say I'm crazy, but I'm crazy about my rights," he said.

Authorities said they are aware of his actions.

The owner of three cats, Carroll, who also goes by the name Vampire Killer, said he intends to mail similar boxes weekly. He claims he will only leave his home if police arrive with an arrest warrant and a federal agent.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Man who posed as station attendant sold cheap gas, then pocketed money

BALTIMORE, Md. (Court TV/AP) — A man pretended to be a station attendant and "sold" gasoline to drivers for $10 a tank, then pocketed the purchase money, police said.

Joseph K. Boulware, 41, was arrested May 19 at a gas station in West Baltimore where, police said, he dispensed 450 gallons of gas worth about $1,300.

Authorities said Boulware used a magnetic key and a code that effectively places a pump on standby mode, allowing him to dispense gasoline unnoticed.

Boulware had worked for gas testing companies, which is how police believe he obtained the key and code.

"He asks you, 'You want gas? I will fill you up for $10,"' said Mohammad Mehtabdin, manager of the Citgo station where Boulware was arrested. "Nobody will complain about that."

About 5:30 p.m. on May 19, a $71 charge for pump No. 8 showed up on the register inside the Citgo, catching sales associate Francis Okondu by surprise.

Okondu, Mehtabdin and three other employees confronted the man.

"I was working that night," said Mehtabdin. "He was going pump to pump. He was selling gas to the people. So our employees noticed. We asked him, 'What are you doing here?' He said, 'Nothing, nothing."'

Boulware was charged with theft, assault and possession of crack cocaine. His bail status could not be determined late Tuesday. Police say they are investigating other gas-pilfering schemes at as many as eight other stations.

"He had a lot of customers," Okondu said.

[TexasStooge]

Man arrested after ex-girlfriends out him as fake U.S. marshal

NEW YORK (AP) — To some, Richard Kudlik possessed the macho allure of a deputy U.S. marshal on a manhunt.

They say he had the badge, raid jacket, flashing lights on his Dodge pickup truck, even a gun. But the real U.S. marshals -- and a chorus of angry women -- say Kudlik was only acting.

Kudlik, 43, was arrested at his Port Jefferson, N.Y., home Wednesday after several ex-girlfriends outed him earlier this month on a Web site featuring a wanted poster. The site calls him a "lying, cheating U.S. Marshal impersonator" and reveals his true identity as a long-married maintenance man.

He pleaded not guilty to possessing a counterfeit U.S. Marshals Service badge and was released on $5,000 bail. His attorney did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Pamela Brown said she began dating Kudlik last year until she received an anonymous e-mail warning: "The man you're dating is not who he says he is."

She tracked down Kudlik's wife, who told her in a phone conversation they had been married 17 years.

Brown began networking online with other women who said they had been wronged by Kudlik, and on May 14 she launched the Web site off2hunt.com with photos of Kudlik. She estimates he used his phony persona to lure at least 10 other women into relationships in the past decade.

"I don't want another woman to go through what I went through," she said. "I hope this taught him a lesson and makes him get help. He's a sick person."

[TexasStooge]

Hot dog wrapper leads police to car thief

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) - Call it a case that a cop would relish.

Police caught a hungry car thief because he left his fingerprints on a hot dog wrapper found in the vehicle after he abandoned it, according to a complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

Joseph A. Dandridge, 21, of Milwaukee, was charged with felony operating a vehicle without the owner's consent.

According to the complaint, the sports utility vehicle was stolen in Milwaukee on Jan. 31 and abandoned in the suburb of Waukesha. A police officer found the car running and parked on a sidewalk. The hot dog wrapper was found inside and submitted to the state Crime Laboratory for testing, the complaint said.

The fingerprints matched ones already in the system by Dandridge, who has a criminal record, the complaint said.

The complaint said that Dandridge admitted stealing a vehicle that night and leaving it somewhere. But he did not remember whether it was that specific vehicle or anything else that happened because he had been intoxicated, the complaint said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[TexasStooge]

Police: Teen steals, crashes squad car

PEKIN, Ill. (AP) - A handcuffed teenager told police he was just trying to get home and get to bed when he stole and crashed a squad car after being arrested for leaving the scene of an accident.

"We don't have a lot of empty (jail) beds here, but we found one for him," Tazewell County Chief Deputy Dick Ganschow said.

Police say Joshua Hall, 17, of Manito, was belted in the back seat of the squad car when he somehow wriggled free, crawled through a small sliding door into the front seat, then drove away in handcuffs before crashing through two fence rows, a gate and into a row of trees.

"This is the kind of thing that you can joke about when it's over and no one ends up hurt, but this is a very serious incident that could easily have ended badly," Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston told the Pekin Daily Times.

Hall was first arrested early Thursday on suspicion of leaving the scene of an accident and illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor, police said. He was arrested at his home and taken back to the crash site.

Because Hall had injured his hand in the crash, a deputy bandaged the wound, then cuffed Hall's hands in front of his body instead of behind, Huston said.

After crashing about a mile from his first accident, he was arrested on charges of escape, aggravated possession of a converted vehicle, failure to wear a seat belt, reckless driving and another count of leaving the scene of an accident. He remains in jail on $25,000 bond.

[rainstorm]

Police: Man used 'shoe camera' to look up skirts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Court TV/AP) — Not everyone has a lens on his shoe. So police say that's what got people suspicious after seeing Jeff William Jones at a county fair.

Jones, 45, was tackled by police Sunday after someone spotted him standing suspiciously close to a woman and he tried to flee. Police say they found a small camera strapped to Jones' waist with a wire running down his leg to his shoe, apparently for peering up skirts.

The witness "thought it was odd that the person appeared to have a video camera lens on his shoe," said Cal Expo Chief of Police Robert L. Craft.

Jones was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, using a concealed camcorder for sexual gratification and resisting arrest, Craft said.

yikes

[TexasStooge]

Apology to victim lands thieves in jail

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Two women who grabbed the jewellery of another woman outside a Malaysian shopping complex at the weekend were caught after they stopped to apologise to their victim, state news agency Bernama said on Monday.

In the incident on the northern island of Penang, the women, aged 20 and 23, covered their victim's mouth while they apologised for taking her jewellery, saying they were single mothers who had to buy milk for their children.

But the woman screamed for help as soon as the thieves let go, and several security guards nearby caught them, the agency quoted a police official as saying.

[TexasStooge]

Serb burns car rather than pay fine

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serb man set his car on fire when he heard how much he had to pay to reclaim it after it was towed away for illegal parking.

An attendant told the daily Press the man was very calm.

"He went to his car, took a few things then opened the hood and set the engine on fire. When it was well ablaze he got back on his bike and rode off."
__________________________________________________________________

Don't wanna pay the fine? Don't do the crime. That's common sense.

[TexasStooge]

Delivery man admits swallowing, stealing ring

GUILFORD, N.Y. (AP) - A police official at the Chenango County Sheriff's Department said authorities plan to let 'nature to take its course' after a furniture delivery man gulped down a diamond ring.

The waiting game for the evidence began after Michael Kuchinski, 35, of Binghamton, admitted swallowing the $1,000 ring after seeing it on a bedroom dresser Tuesday afternoon.

Sheriff's deputies took the man to a hospital in Norwich, where doctors used X-rays to determine that ingesting the ring wouldn't harm him. Kuchinski was then admitted to the hospital after he said he felt ill.

Kuchinski was charged with larceny and criminal tampering, for delaying the recovery of the ring.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Mom asks son to sell pot for bail

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) - A woman who police say asked her son to sell marijuana to raise money to bail her out of jail faces an additional charge.

Elaine Baker is currently being held in the Clay County jail on two drug charges and child endangerment.

She made a call to her son, asking him to sell marijuana stashed in a refrigerator and post bond.

The call was monitored by police.

Authorities got a search warrant and found a small amount of marijuana in Baker's home on Monday.

Baker's son, Austin Tasich, was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Baker was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.
___

Information from: KICD-AM

[TexasStooge]

Speeding man was drying wet car

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Police confiscated the car and driver's license of a Dutchman caught speeding who said he only wanted to dry his car after he had washed it.

The 27-year-old was stopped in Amsterdam driving at 108 kph (68 mph), 50 kph over the speed limit, police said.

"Because he did not have his driver's license with him, his clean car was confiscated until he produces it," a police spokeswoman said.

[TexasStooge]

Police car gives angry man something to chew on

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - A man resisting an order to leave his home became so angry he bit the police car he was being pinned against, German authorities said Wednesday.

Police tried to eject the 42-year-old man after a report of domestic violence. He became aggressive and officers pinned him face down on the hood of their patrol car and he began chewing its police markings.

"He was so angry he gnawed at the bonnet and bit through the paintwork," said a police spokesman in the western city of Bielefeld. "Who knows, perhaps he was hungry too."

The hood would need its markings replacing and a new coat of paint, the spokesman said.

[TexasStooge]

Woman rams ex-boyfriend's car

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas - The hopes of any reunion of one couple likely ended in a head on collision on Thursday.

Dallas police arrested Valencia Jones after she went into a jealous rage.

Investigators say Jones saw her ex-boyfriend, Roy Anderson, driving his car with another woman next to him.

“Anytime you are trying to hurt somebody with a motor vehicle it's dangerous as a gun, when you are running into somebody," said one officer.

Police say Jones used this gold car as a weapon. It all began on the southbound lanes of Cockrell Hill Road.

Anderson told police that Jones drove up beside him, looking mad, and then intentionally sideswiped his car. He swerved, hitting a pick up truck. It turns out the truck was a police vehicle driven by a Dallas police officer. However, the attack didn't stop there.

Jones made a u-turn on Cockrell Hill road, and aimed straight for her boyfriend's car ramming into it.

She then exited the vehicle and began physically assaulting the man.

Investigators say Jones then turned her shoe on the female passenger, before officers could restrain her.

No one was seriously injured but Dallas police are charging Jones with three counts of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.

But this all may have been a big misunderstanding - it turns out the other woman was a co-worker and was getting a lift because her son had borrowed her car.

[TexasStooge]

Police: Woman hits breeder with Chihuahua

ST. PETERS, Mo. (AP) - A woman angry that her new puppy had died pushed her way into a dog breeder's home and repeatedly hit her on the head with the dead Chihuahua, authorities said.

The 33-year-old woman told police she had taken the puppy to a veterinarian, who said it was only 4 weeks old and needed to be returned to its mother. But before she could return the puppy, it died.

Early Wednesday, the woman went to the breeder's home, pushed her way inside and began fighting with the breeder as she tried to make her way to the basement to get another puppy, police said.

The breeder wrestled the woman out of her house to the front porch, where the woman then hit the breeder over the head numerous times with the dead puppy, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, citing police.

As the woman drove away, she waved the dead puppy out of the car's sunroof and yelled threats at the breeder, police said. She later called the breeder and threatened her and her family, according to court records.

Police said they are considering felony burglary charges and misdemeanor assault charges.
_____________________________________________________________

All that over a dead puppy.

[TexasStooge]

Sisters get into fistfight over candy

WOOD DALE, Ill. (Court TV) - Sibling rivalry sunk to a new low for two sisters from Wood Dale, Illinois.

Pamela Majdan, 23, and Joyce Majdan, 31, exchanged blows over who caught the most pieces of Twizzlers during a Memorial Day parade.

According to Wood Dale Deputy Police Chief Greg Vesta, the sisters and other family members were gathered in front of their apartment complex observing the parade when an argument broke out between the two women over who had the most candy from the collection that parade organizers were tossing into the crowd.

One sister accused the other of having caught more Twizzlers, Vesta said, and the women doused each other with water. Pamela Majdan allegedly threw the first punch.

A civilian member of the police department was in the vicinity of the fight and radioed for assistance. The two women were separated after they had both exchanged several punches, with Joyce Madjan receiving a large welt to the side of her face.

Pamela Majdan was arrested and charged with domestic battery. According to Vesta, the younger sister was charged for the assault because cross-complaints are not allowed in domestic battery disputes in Illinois.

"We charge the individual who takes the first aggressive step," the Deputy Chief said.

However, Joyce Madjan was also arrested when she refused to give officers her personal information. She was charged with attempted obstruction of justice.

Joyce Majdan posted $100 bail at the Wood Dale Police Department and was released on the same day. Pamela Majdan was taken to the DuPage County Jail where she posted $300 bail the next day.