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Strange Crimes

Its those quiet guys you have to watch but it was an impressive piece of kit though - most impressive picture attached.
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I suppose that if you're going to go postal, you might as well do it in style!
 
Corpse in bizarre bank con

--------------------------------------------------------------

By Hendrick Mphande

Loan sharks pushing a dead man in a wheelchair tried to withdraw his pension at a Port Elizabeth bank, a shocked client said yesterday.

The First National Bank customer yesterday described her disbelief on Friday at seeing two men, believed to be money lenders, and a woman pushing the corpse in a wheelchair into the North End branch "to make a pension withdrawal".

Police identified the dead man as Thozamile Patrick Apolis, 40, of Magi Street, Zwide, He had died of natural causes.

Mimi Maku, who witnessed the bizarre event unfold on her way to the bank before lunch, said she and other bank clients were still shocked about the incident.

She said she had recognised the men behind the wheelchair as loan sharks.

The scam began when the two men and woman arrived in a bakkie at the FNB branch.

"Immediately the three forced the body of Mr Apolis into a wheelchair and proceeded straight to the teller at the savings department," Maku said.

"When the teller asked the dead man to sign some documentation, the woman responded by saying Mr Apolis was sick and that she was his next of kin."

Maku said the teller had insisted that they wake up Apolis when another bank client decided to feel if the man in the wheelchair had a pulse.

Prior to their arrival at the bank premises, the three people had apparently taken Apolis's body to home affairs, also in the wheelchair.

Here, they tried to obtain an identity document for him so that he could "withdraw his pension money".

FNB provincial executive in the Eastern Cape, Gareth Davies, confirmed the incident in the bank last night.

Davies said one of the men, a Mr Manyonya, introduced himself to bank officials as a cousin of Apolis.

"The man was in a wheelchair when they approached our customer representative to make a pension withdrawal," he said.

"They went straight to the front. When the customer representative noticed no response from the man in the wheelchair, FNB staff immediately contacted Netcare 911."

After an ambulance arrived, Maku said it appeared as if the three people were trying to sell the wheelchair.

Police spokesman Thembi Gwe said police would investigate the matter if any complaints had been laid, either by the bank or by relatives of Apolis.
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http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1634075-6078-0,00.html
 
Although it appears in Ananova it was reported earlier elsewhere:

Bum rap: thieves steal portable loo with man inside

May 27, 2004

Minsk: Two Belarussian thieves stole a portable toilet with the occupant still inside, according to a report in the Segodnya newspaper.

The incident took place at a rural public transportation stop on the outskirts of the town of Gomel, near the Polish border.

The two suspects reportedly drove a tractor up to a free-standing chemical toilet and, using a winch and crane, ripped it from the pavement.

They then made a motorised escape with the toilet hanging from the rear of the tractor, not realising that inside was a 45-year-old local resident who had entered it while waiting for a bus. The occupant suffered a broken collarbone and other injuries when he jumped from the toilet after finding himself dangling at more than a metre over the ground and travelling at the tractor's top speed of 40 kilometres an hour.

Two suspects were apprehended soon afterwards. They could face up to 25 years in prison for kidnapping. - Sapa-DPA
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http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=2090604

Thieves steal toilet - with man still in it

Thieves who stole a public toilet in a Belarus city accidentally kidnapped a man who was sitting on it at the time.

Pravda reports that the thieves stole the portable toilet in the city of Gomel, Belarus, and loaded it on to their tractor trailer.

They played it so cool that passers-by presumed they were taking it away legitimately - but one man knew better.

He was sat on the toilet at the time and was startled to suddenly find himself being carried through the city on the back of a tractor.

The 45-year-old man was trapped and could not release himself until the rope the thieves had tied around the cubicle loosened because of the jolting ride.

He finally opened the door to find he was being driven at full speed through the city's suburbs. He jumped off the tractor and broke his collar-bone, SPB-Vedomosti reported.

The man reported the incident to the police and officers eventually tracked down the missing toilet to the house of a local resident.
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http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_983611.html?menu=news.quirkies

Emps
 
Snooty thieves return mobile phone

By Richard Hamilton
BBC News, Cape Town


The women, Tandeka Mazwane and Nomawethu Mgogoshe, were out walking in Motherwell in Port Elizabeth when they were attacked by two men who threatened them with knives.

The women were told to hand over everything they had of value.

"I could not scream because I was so shocked," said Ms Mazwane.

"They started searching us. They took my cell phone and gold chains."

Mobile nation

But the thieves were not impressed with her friend's mobile phone.

"We were so scared, but even more surprised," Ms Mazwane added, "when they looked at her phone and threw it back at her, saying they don't take cheap stuff."

Around 16 million people in South Africa use mobile phones, more than a third of the population.

A report last month by the International Telecommunication Union said Africa is the fastest-growing market for mobile phones in the world.

The two women said people who witnessed the crime came to their aid only once the two robbers had run away.
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BBCi 11/06/04
 
if only robbers around here were so discriminating - nearly all of my stuff is cheap and worthless, so i would have no need to fear muggers.
 
What was he thinking I wonder? That it was a tribute?

Clerk not amused by robber wearing Reagan mask

Friday, June 11, 2004
By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Nancy Bane instantly recognized the presidential mask of the man walking into the Econo Lodge Gibsonia around 10 p.m. Wednesday. She thought it was just tasteless, but it was worse than that.

The rubbery mask depicted former President Ronald Reagan, whose casket was on display then in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. Thousands of Americans queued to pay tribute to him there, millions more mourned his death from Alzheimer's disease, and now some joker seemed to be making fun of a national leader whom Bane, 47, a registered Democrat, voted for twice.

"I said out loud to him, 'That's not right, that's a sick joke,' " she recalled yesterday. "Then he pointed the gun and I realized he wasn't fooling around."

Normally a Halloween prop, the mask became a practical tool for a slender, 6-foot man who pulled out a long silver-and-black handgun and approached the hotel counter wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and white gloves.

He silently motioned with the weapon toward the cash register. Bane opened the drawer. The Reagan impostor grabbed its cash and fled, with no impersonation of the late president's soft-spoken folksiness.

"It was less than a minute, very quick," said Bane, who has worked only a few months as night auditor at the hotel on Route 8 in Hampton.

She said it was a high-quality mask, the kind whose character was instantly recognizable. Several stores contacted yesterday said such masks are less available at this time of year than around Halloween.

Costume World in the Strip District had a few other political masks sitting around -- a Nixon, a Carter, husband-and-wife Bushes and Clintons -- but no Reagans. Good ones generally cost around , or nearly one-third of what the robber swiped from Econo Lodge.

"They're really not very popular right now," the shop's acting manager, Jamie Smith, said of the masks. "We sold some last week for a thing at the Warhol Museum, some kind of fund-raiser."

The suspect may have made up in guile for what he lacked in taste. Hampton police Detective David Mitchell acknowledged that the use of the full-face mask makes solving the case more difficult.

He said inquiries would be made with local stores about recent sales of Reagan masks, though there's no telling how long the suspect could have possessed it.

"We're thinking it's probably not some older gentleman who had this lying around since the 1980s," Mitchell said.

He asked anyone who comes upon a Reagan mask in the trash or otherwise abandoned to leave it where it is and call 911 to report it.
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04163/330174.stm
 
fluffle said:
if only robbers around here were so discriminating - nearly all of my stuff is cheap and worthless, so i would have no need to fear muggers.
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When one of my friends lived in New York they used to leave their car open with a note saying something like "Come in and have a look around - there is nothing worth stealing".
 
Dozer rampage

http://komotv.com/stories/31578.htm

GRANBY, COLO. - Friends said Marvin Heemeyer hadn't been seen much lately, and now they know why: He was turning a bulldozer into an armor-plated vehicle that was impervious to SWAT team bullets.

......drove his contraption through town and within two hours had knocked down or damaged nine buildings before the machine ground to a halt in the wreckage of a warehouse. He then apparently shot himself,......

His buddy Pete Mitchell said his friend was probably smiling when the vehicle, equipped with a TV camera for guidance, busted out of the side of a garage.

"That's the kind of guy he was," Mitchell said, calling his friend "vindictive." (theres a vid but i cant get it to work)

Ive heard of some heated disputes with planners in the Uk but usualy they dont go this far.
 
Why oh why, didn't you name this thread Killdozer?

*slaps you upside yer head*
 
Hyena, Monkey Robbery Gang Arrested




June 17, 2004
Posted to the web June 17, 2004

Jare Ilelaboye
Katsina

Four armed gang who used a hyena and a monkey to rob their victims in Katsina State have been arrested by the police after a gun duel in Bichi, headquarters of Bichi Local Government of Kano State.

According to a statement made available to newsmen in Katsina, the robbers who were seven in number went to Kankia market in Kankia Local Government of Katsina State to display with the animals while they robbed their victims of N66,000 during their operation.

Shortly after their operation, the statement added, the robbers took to their heels and they were chased by the police down to Bichi in Kano State where they engaged the police in a gun battle which led to the death of two of the robbers.

During the battle with the police, the gang let off the hyena and monkey to fight with the police during which the animals bit one of the policemen who is now lying critically ill at the Katsina General Hospital.

Two of the robbers were killed while four of them arrested on the spot.

The police had however killed the two animals during the fight in Bichi.

Meanwhile, two robbers have been arrested by the police in Funtua for allegedly burgling the home of the former Minister for Special Duties during the Abacha administration in the country Alhaji Wada Nas.
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http://allafrica.com/stories/200406170377.html

I do wonder about the details of the actual crime and how they used a hyena and a monkey to rob people!!

Emps
 
No put the marshmallows down and step away from them

Wyoming vacationer gets 9-hour jail detour from cruise

By CATHERINE WILSON
Associated Press Writer


MIAMI (AP) -- A shackled teacher's aide tried to explain her predicament to a judge through tears Friday.

Vacationing from Riverton, Wyo., Hope Clarke said she had been rousted by federal agents at her cruise ship cabin door at 6:30 a.m. She was put in handcuffs on a bench warrant for failing to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate while staying at Yellowstone National Park last year.

The catch? Clarke said she had to pay the fine the same day for the federal offense of improper food storage before she was allowed to leave the park. Nonetheless, a warrant claiming she had not paid went into the federal law enforcement database.

Back in the United States from Cozumel, Mexico, on Carnival's Fascination cruise ship, Clarke was awakened, cuffed, turned over to federal marshals and brought to court in leg shackles and short shorts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Outerbridge conceded there were some "discrepancies." But he astonished U.S. Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan by suggesting Clarke should be released to appear in court in Wyoming to clear up the warrant.

O'Sullivan had a copy of her citation indicating the fine had been paid and thought that her time in jail more than covered the offense even if she hadn't paid.

"We apologize for what happened," the judge told Clarke. Turning to the prosecutor, he said, "This is a serious matter." He wants the U.S. attorney's office to follow up to determine what went wrong.

Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign ports and run random checks for warrants on passengers lists.

Zach Mann, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the arrest "an unfortunate set of circumstances." He added, "We were acting on what we believed was accurate information."

Clarke was let go more than nine hours after her rude awakening.
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http://www.casperstartribune.net/ar.../wyoming/c58a88aaae3ac9da87256eb7007b2ac1.txt
 
Pandas Defaced, Artists Devastated

At Least 7 Statues Vandalized in D.C. Since Last Month's Unveiling

By Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 15, 2004; Page B01

The attacks began almost as soon as the colorful panda sculptures took up their posts on street corners and city sidewalks.


Freedom -- a bronze-painted, teddy bear version of the statue atop the Capitol -- lost the eagle, Native American headdress and 13 stars that adorned her helmet, as well as the stars from her shield. Two colorful, prehistoric-looking birds were stolen from atop Cro-Magnon Panda. Ti-Bet Your Life, a Groucho Marx look-alike, was robbed of a pair of eyeglasses and the back part of a jacket.

At least seven of the 150 life-size statues produced for the PandaMania public art project have been vandalized since their unveiling last month, say officials with the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which is running the program.

Three were defaced with graffiti. A security camera at the World Wildlife Fund headquarters in Foggy Bottom captured a young man, beer in hand, prying a piece off the For a Living Planet panda at 2 a.m. one Saturday.

"It's a shame," said Tony Gittens, executive director of the arts commission. "It's people who don't have very good intentions."

Vandals also damaged several of the Party Animals donkey and elephant statues that were displayed across the city two years ago. Similar attacks have been reported in other cities that had launched public displays of animal art.

Gittens said yesterday that the commission had not filed a formal complaint about any of the incidents that had occurred over the past three weeks, although he has called police to ask them to watch out for graffiti on the statues.

Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman, contacted Gittens yesterday after being asked about the incidents. Gentile said police would take reports about the damage and alert officers across the city.

The statues are designed to be heavy, to limit the possibility of damage, and are coated with a solution that allows graffiti to be washed off. But there is no similar protective layer to wrap around the artists' hearts.

"I thought everyone would love my bear. I thought they were so totally cool that people would really love them and not hurt any of them," said Lynda Barry-Andrews, who said she worked 16-hour days for two months to create Freedom.

The statue was installed outside McCormick and Schmick's Restaurant at 901 F St. NW on May 21, a Friday, arts commission officials said.

Barry-Andrews said she went to the restaurant May 24 to have lunch with a friend and found the detached pieces scattered on the ground. Someone had found a way to remove the three-inch drywall screws Barry-Andrews had used to hold them in place.

"I'm . . . bitter about it," Barry-Andrews said. "I'll never do anything like this again."

Freedom will be repaired, then relocated to a hotel in Woodley Park. Commission officials, noting that the original location was near several nightclubs, said they believed the statue will be safer in a quieter area.

But not all of the victimized pandas are downtown. "Bear Naked Ladies," outside the Cleveland Park branch library, has graffiti scrawled across its nose.

Alexandra J. MacMaster, project manager for the arts commission, said she plans to remove the graffiti this week. She spent three hours Saturday scrubbing graffiti off two bears at Connecticut Avenue and L Street NW.

The damage captured on the World Wildlife Fund videotape appears accidental, said artist David Ciommo, who created the panda affected and has seen the tape.

It shows a young woman hugging the sculpture, while a man who is with her jabs at a piece on the base with his toe. When the piece comes loose, the woman runs. The man follows -- then returns, grabs the dislodged section, and disappears.

MacMaster said the artists are re-creating the pieces that have been removed from the bears but will wait to reinstall them until the statues are auctioned at the end of the summer.

Otherwise, MacMaster said, "it just does seem a futile exercise."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41824-2004Jun14.html
 
Car theft suspect pulls 'bizarre yoga move' in escape bid

Canadian Press
Jun. 22, 2004 07:25 AM


EDMONTON, Canada - A handcuffed car theft suspect pulled a Houdini Monday in a bid to get away from his arresting officer.

And the red-faced Edmonton city police officer who left him alone briefly with his hands cuffed behind his back had to explain where his suspect and his patrol car went.

Police say the suspect performed "a bizarre yoga move" to slip the cuffs in front of him and drive off with the arresting officer's car.

The suspect made his getaway when the police officer got out of the patrol car to sign some paperwork in order to have a stolen car towed.

"He was out there for less than a minute and the suspect just managed to pull off some bizarre yoga move and get his hands back in the front," said Edmonton police spokesman Dean Parthenis. "It was a freak set of circumstances."

"It's not everyone who can move their legs like that after being handcuffed."

The suspect lunged into the front seat and drove the car about a block before bolting. It took police an hour to track him down again in a residential neighbourhood.
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0622TwistedEscape22-ON.html
 
I loved the headline!!

Published June 22, 2004

Cow in police custody linked to headless chicken case


And you think YOU get strange phone calls ...

Bill Downs called to tell me that Eaton County sheriff's deputies were holding his cow as a material witness in the case of the decapitated chicken.

"They've got it locked up in Charlotte," Downs said, sounding more relieved than alarmed.

Eaton County Sheriff Rick Jones confirmed Monday that he had Downs' 300-pound concrete bovine lawn ornament, but preferred to call it "evidence of a theft" rather than a "material witness."

Said Jones: "While investigating the missing chicken head, the cement cow was located in the possession of one of the suspects."

The sheriff added: "It certainly is a strange story."

The chicken head, as you may recall, belonged to the 13-foot-tall mascot of Joe's Gizzard City, a bar and restaurant in Potterville. Vandals decapitated the chicken over the Memorial Day weekend.

Deputies found the smashed, charred remains of the head in a field.

Jones told me last week that he probably would seek a charge of malicious destruction against at least one Charlotte High School student.

The sheriff said Monday the charge has not been filed.

Part of the scenery

Downs' concrete cow was a familiar sight to travelers on Edgewood Boulevard near Washington Avenue. That's where Downs lives - on property that was once part of a farm.

"I have a barn," he said, explaining why he got the statue in the first place. "I thought I should have a cow."

After grazing peacefully on Downs' hill for about seven years, the cow disappeared about four weeks ago. Downs reported the theft to Lansing police.

Downs said that when he read my column about the missing chicken head, he had a feeling.

"I thought, 'If they find the chicken head, they'll probably find the cow, too,' " he said.

Then, about two weeks ago, a Charlotte High School student knocked on Downs' door. The teenager had come to apologize for taking the cow.

"He said he was on his way to the sheriff's office, to make a statement relating to the chicken head," Downs said.

Downs called the sheriff's department and learned that his cow was, indeed, in protective custody, where it would remain until the chicken-head file is closed.

The cow, by the way, has all its parts.

"They said it was in good shape," Downs said.
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http://www.lsj.com/columnists/schneider/040622_john_1b.html

Emps
 
Thief's bizarre secret agent claim

He stole £6,000 from employer

WHEN Alan Calcott gave himself up to police for stealing £6,000 pounds, he claimed he was a government secret agent and the theft was part of his double life.

But although he now admitted the theft from his employers at Blockbusters in Stevenage was motivated by debts, his barrister said Calcott still maintained there were matters in his background that he could not divulge because of the Official Secrets Act.

A judge who heard the case at Luton Crown Court on Tuesday said he did not think he had dealt with a case “quite so bizarre”.
Sarah Clarke, prosecuting, said 31-year-old Calcott was an assistant manager at the video store and last September 7 he sent his boss a text saying he would not be in work the following day as his mother had died. This was untrue, she was alive and well and living in Coventry.

But early the next day Calcott let himself into the store, stole £6,000 cash from the safe and replaced it with blank paper in the money bags. He left a note saying he had banked up and as a result the bags were handed over to Securicor, unopened.

“It was not until they were checked on the processing floor that the blank paper was found,” said Ms Clarke.

But Calcott had disappeared. By September 25 his partner was so concerned she reported him missing to police.

Almost a month later, he handed himself in to police, telling them he had been doing undercover work as a secret government agent.

To a psychiatrist and probation officer he maintained the story saying he stole the money to create a diversion while he went to America for six weeks to work on a project there.

Ronnie Bergenthal, defending, said: “I have asked him again today and he continues to say he is bound by the Official Secrets Act about matters in his past.

“But he does now give a different account of the reason behind the offence.

“He had become saddled with debt and because he is a very proud individual he was reluctant to indicate to others the true situation he was in.

“His partner was kept unaware and he was taking on very menial jobs and living a double life because of the debt.

“But having taken the money he was extremely ashamed and ran away to the United States. “His partner, the mother of his young son, did not know where he was and reported him missing.

“But he decided to return and give himself up albeit with a farcical explanation for why he took the money. The fact he felt the need to run away from his entire family demonstrates desperation in the extreme.”

Judge Ronald Moss said there was nothing in the psychiatric report to suggest there was anything wrong with him, or that he had had anything other than a normal family upbringing.

He told him: “You breached the trust placed in you by your employer and set up a devious cover story, including lying about your mother’s death. Then you invented unbelievable stories about secret services.

“The truth is you could not bring yourself to tell your family about your debts.”

Calcott, of Skegness Road, Stevenage, pleaded guilty to theft and was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was ordered to pay £6,000 in compensation over the next two years.
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http://www.thecomet.net/archived/2004/wk26_2004/news/asp/thief.asp
 
Nude man robbed of jeans and wallet

June 23, 2004 (Rapid City, South Dakota) — A man who answered the door in the buff has lost his jeans -- and his wallet.

Police say a Rapid City, South Dakota, man was robbed after he answered the door in the nude. The man told police he had been sleeping without clothes before going to the door.

Officers say the suspects hit him on the head and ran out with his wallet and pants.

The victim chased the crooks, but fell down the stairs. The man received some stitches at a local hospital and was released.

Police say they found the jeans but the wallet and the suspects are still missing.
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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/strange/062304_ap_sn_nuderobbery.html
 
Stripper steals hair

A hairdressing salon in Lillehammer is out a lot of money after a woman claiming to be a stripper walked out without paying for NOK 12,000 (USD 1,730) worth of hair extensions, newspaper Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen reports. The case bears a remarkable similarity to a theft of virgin hair last year.


The order was a record for the Studio M salon, which dropped their usual request for a deposit.

"We usually ask for a deposit when the customer is in and orders hair type and color. In this case, the woman knew everything about what kind of hair she wanted when she rang and ordered treatment, because she had had extensions earlier. It never occurred to me that she would run off," said hairdresser Jannicke Bjerke.

The session took even longer than usual, partly because the client had some hair that had to be removed before the extensions could be attached, partly because the customer took frequent breaks to smoke outside or have a quick shopping break with curling needles in her hair.

"She behaved a bit strangely, for one thing she had dark sunglasses on most of the time. While I was working I asked what she did for a living and she said she was a stripper," Bjerke told the newspaper.

Just before 5 pm, six and a half hours after they started, the stripper said she had to meet her boyfriend to get some more money. She never came back.

She left a jacket and a purse behind in the salon. The bag held only a mascara, the jacket a note with the telephone numbers of various hairdressers.

Bjerke believes it should be easy to identify the woman, who is 25-35 years old, about 170 cm (5' 7") tall and with a blend of blond and orange hair shorter on the left side - because she left before the right side was finished.

Last year a woman vanished in similar circumstances in Moss after having blond and orange hair extensions.
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http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article816646.ece

and the virgin hair theft:

Virgin hair thief sought

Police in Moss were hunting a woman who committed an unusual theft, making off with a hair extension involving nearly NOK 5,000 worth of hair from Indian virgins, newspaper VG reports. The thief disappeared during a break in the lengthy procedure at a hair salon.

After three hours of work attaching large amounts of virgin hair to her client, hairdresser Cecilie Corneliussen decided a pause was in order.

"We usually take breaks during such lengthy treatments. When she asked to take a quick trip to the kiosk across the street we didn't bat an eye. Besides, she left her purse behind in the chair," Corneliussen told newspaper VG.

But when the woman didn't reappear after half an hour the four staff at the Saksofon salon began to get worried, and found out that the bag left behind only contained a T-shirt.

A check revealed that the client had made the appointment under a false name, address and telephone number, but of course police have a detailed description of the thief.

"After all, I worked on her for three hours and could give a good description. Besides, she has a rare and ugly hair color - she wanted yellow-orange hair extensions and probably looks like a hulder (a wood nymph related to a troll)," Corneliussen said.

According to newspaper Moss Avis, the salon also wanted to warn colleagues to be on the alert for the woman, who is likely looking for another hairdresser that can finish the job on her hair.

The theft is covered by the same law that prevents people from walking out on restaurant tabs, and local police intend to follow through, especially with such a good description of the thief.
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http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article653016.ece
 
See the Blasphemy thread which contains all some discussion of the use of Indian's hair for hairpieces and how it possibly goes against Jewish law ;)

---------------------
Man tosses undies in reservoir, fined

June 28, 2004

ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A man who soiled his underwear and tried to dispose of the evidence by tossing it over the fence of the city's largest reservoir has been fined ,000.

The city bomb squad and hazardous materials crew responded after an Erie Water Works employee spotted a black bag near the 33-million gallon Sigsbee Reservoir last month.

The reservoir was shut down for several hours while the bomb squad X-rayed the bag and hazardous materials crews waited to test it.

Police tracked down Troy Musil, 18, of Erie. He told police he'd been ill and soiled his underwear. He changed at a friend's house, then climbed over two barbed-wire-topped fences to ditch the skivvies.

Musil pleaded guilty last week to defiant trespass. The judge gave Musil a 90-day suspended jail sentence and ordered him to pay 0 a month for 10 months to the emergency agencies that responded.

If he doesn't pay, the judge said Musil will be jailed. A telephone number for Musil couldn't be found.
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http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/06/28/man_tosses_undies_in_reservoir_fined/
 
And the award for "Most Embarrassing Moment" goes to...!
 
Enough to make you-

coat, SLAM.
 
No smoking. No mobile phones. And keep your pants on!!

Man Pumps Gas Without Pants

Tue Jun 29, 6:03 PM ET

Police are investigating after a gas station owner reported seeing a little too much of a customer pumping gas Tuesday morning.

"When I see this guy, I had to leap forward and make sure I was seeing. I thought, 'That is a bare butt,'" Joseph Glackin said.

It was a sight Glackin, a York County gas station owner, will never forget.

He was sitting in his office around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and the station had just opened. A motorist pulled up to the pumps, and pulled down his pants, News 8 reported.

"I could see everything," Glackin said.

When the motorist got out of the car, he was seen wearing a T-shirt and nothing else, News 8 reported. Glackin said he was naked from the waste down.

During the summer months, it is not unusual for the gas station owner to see people with revealing clothing, but he said he has never seen a naked man pump gas before.

While pumping gas, the naked motorist may have felt a little self-conscious. Glackin said he put on a pair of jeans, but apparently the pants didn't stay on for long. Glackin said he saw the man drive to the edge of the parking lot and then he saw a lot of movement. Glackin believes the man again pulled off the pants.

"After he got finished with that I saw him grab his shirt," Glackin said.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1025&ncid=1025&e=1&u=/wdiv/20040629/lo_wgal/2268837
 
Man tries to rob bank with bulldozer
Tue 6 July, 2004 11:09

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A Saudi man posing as a municipal worker used a bulldozer in an inept attempt to rob a bank's cash machine but fled when the police arrived, a local daily has reported.

The English-language Arab News said residents of the Red Sea city Jeddah called the police after being woken by the noise of the bulldozer, but did not realise for some time that the man was trying to rob the bank.

"It was disturbing. But it never crossed my mind we were watching a theft," witness Mohammed al-Assiri told Arab News on Tuesday. "With all that's happening this is the last thing we need."

Saudi Arabia has been rocked by a wave of shooting and bomb attacks attributed to al Qaeda in the past year, in which up to 85 police and civilians, many of them foreigners, have been killed.
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http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5595071&section=news
 
This is just mean:

Boy's 'voice' stolen by thieves

The mother of an autistic boy from Plymouth has said burglars who stole a computer speech machine have "taken away his voice".

The £1,800 Chat PC machine was taken from Elliot Walters, 12, just a week after he was given it.

The device enabled him to put his thoughts into words and take part in school for the first time in his life.

The local charity which provided the machine is now appealing for donations to buy Elliot a new machine.

'Absolutely devastated'

The computer was taken, along with other valuables, when thieves broke into the home of Elliot and his mother, Suzanne.

Suzanne said: "Everybody is absolutely devastated. It's unbelievable.

"He was so successful in using it and we were so pleased with the outcome. With this he could actually say: 'This is what I want'.

"He got to 12 years of age before we heard him make any vocal comments of his own choice. They have effectively taken away his voice."

Sir John Wilton, president of the charity Call South West, which provided the computer, condemned the thieves' "wickedness and folly".

He said: "It is absolutely vital to him. Without it, he cannot communicate his simplest needs. It enables him to communicate with teachers as well as friends and family."

Devon and Cornwall Police said the burglars broke into the Walters' house on Sunday afternoon while the family was out.

They also took videos, computer games, a clock, watches and jewellery.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/3860867.stm

Published: 2004/07/02 14:08:25 GMT

© BBC MMIV
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Charge follows bizarre hotel exit

One man goes out a fourth-floor window and another is found with a shotgun.

CARLY WEEKS, Free Press Reporter 2004-07-08 01:21:45



London police were trying yesterday to piece together what happened in a fourth-floor hotel room that led to one man plunging through a window and the discovery of a second man with a sawed-off shotgun. "Twenty-two years in this business, I've seen a lot of stuff, but not something like this," Saleem Jaka, general manager of the Radisson Hotel, said yesterday.

The bizarre series of events at the Wellington Road South hotel began when several people in a room on the fourth floor began arguing around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Everyone in the room "scattered" when the argument occurred, with one man leaving through the window, Const. Jeff Arbing said.

Police believe the man broke through the window, climbed down to the ledge of a third-storey window and dropped onto the roof of a small lean-to attached to the back of the hotel.

"For whatever reason, the guy decided the best way to leave the hotel was through the window," Arbing said.

At the scene yesterday, there appeared to be blood on one window and on the ground, along with broken glass on the roof of the lean-to.

After getting to the ground, the bleeding man went into the hotel lobby and asked staff members to call an ambulance.

The man was taken to hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries and released, Arbing said. Police did not release his name or age.

Police arrived within minutes and an officer noticed a man walking away from the hotel.

The officer began talking to the man because he looked suspicious and realized he was toting a sawed-off shotgun, Arbing said.

The man was arrested.

Investigators determined the shotgun was stolen from a Hensall home in 2002.

The man was also carrying a small number of pills.

The man carrying the weapon was one of the people inside the hotel room, Arbing said, but police don't believe he was hostile toward the man who fled through the window.

Investigators were interviewing witnesses yesterday to pin down who was in the room and what happened.

"Nobody's being very co-operative," Arbing said. "We've got all kinds of witnesses and right now I can't decide who's suspect, who's witnesses."

Jaka said the hotel room was registered to one person, but he didn't know who was staying there.

Joseph Suprenant, 21, of London, faces several charges, including carrying a concealed weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon and drug possession.
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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/07/08/531117.html
 
NJ Couple Indicted For Bogus Safety Device


Jul 7, 2004 4:56 pm US/Eastern

(NEWARK) Nine months after a plea bargain collapsed, a Sparta couple have been indicted on charges that in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks they tried to sell a device they falsely claimed would protect people against chemical and biological attacks.

Federal authorities maintain the device was actually a filing cabinet painted yellow with a siren and flashing red light attached and that Stewart Kaiser's fraudulent press release helped him sell his company's stock at inflated prices.

They also charge that his wife, Nancy C. Vitolo, lied to investigators by saying that 0,000 in checks sent by investors and made out to her was ultimately transferred to their company, Flanders-based R-Tec Technologies Inc.

Instead, the money went for personal expenses, aiding in the purchase of the couple's six-bedroom home in Sparta and purchasing items from Bloomingdale's, Fortunoff, Lord & Taylor, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Victoria's Secret, according to the three-count indictment handed up Wednesday by a federal grand jury.

Kaiser, 38, is charged with securities fraud, which carries up to 20 years in prison and a million fine, and obstructing justice, which carries up to five years and a 0,000 fine. Vitolo, 41, is charged with making a false statement, which carries up to five years in prison and a 0,000 fine.

Kaiser lawyer Mark O. Wasserman said, "He denies all the allegations contained in the indictment, and will defend them vigorously." Vitolo also maintains her innocence, said her lawyer, James T. Gibbons.

The couple have been free on a bail of 0,000 bond each set in November on an FBI complaint. Their prior court appearance was Sept. 22, when a plea bargain was scrapped after a bizarre daylong hearing that saw them rehire and then fire their lawyers.

The complaint and indictment outline a scheme that began when Kaiser started soliciting investors in January 1998, and ended soon after his press release of Sept. 24, 2001, promoting a device called the C-BAND, or Chemical & Biological Alarm and Neutralization Defense System.

C-BAND was actually filing cabinet from R-Tec's Flanders office, and R-Tec had no patent on any such technology, according to court papers.

R-Tec stock was trading at 46 cents a share on the day of the press release, but amid a 34-fold increase in volume reached .40 on Sept. 28, 2001 -- when Kaiser sold 50,000 shares he had placed in his mother's account two days earlier, giving him a substantial profit, court papers said.

R-Tec stock, which traded on the NASD Over The Counter Bulletin Board, is now essentially worthless, with operations ceasing following a raid in January 2002 by FBI and Postal Inspection Service agents.

Vitolo served as vice president, director and secretary of R-Tec. Under oath in September in court, Kaiser said he was never an officer in the company, just an "independent consultant."

Prosecutors responded that he chose not to have a title because of a prior bankruptcy. The indictment said Kaiser raised money from investors, attempted to develop products and issued press releases.

Kaiser was listed as the contact on the C-BAND press release, which touted the device as a self-contained unit that would alert people when it detects a "harmful bio or chem-agent" that could be easily installed in airports, malls and sports arenas. It would then "isolate and neutralize the harmful agents" by "using a series of high electromagnetic frequency signals."

On Nov. 15, 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered R-Tec to stop publicizing the device. The stock regulators determined that R-Tec had no plans to produce the device and lied about having patents for its components.
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http://1010wins.com/topstories/winstopstories_story_189170814.html
 
Seems an odd crime to charge him with (and a lesson to people with wireless networks).

Sat, November 22, 2003


Man takes wrong turn

Half-naked motorist arrested with kiddie porn

By SUN MEDIA



TORONTO -- A man caught driving naked from the waist down while watching kiddie porn on his laptop computer has become the first man in Toronto charged with allegedly stealing an Internet connection. Toronto police laid a theft of communications charge after busting a man driving the wrong way down a one-way street, downloading child porn using stolen wireless Internet signals.

The slow moving car was pulled over around 5 a.m. on Wednesday by a police officer who allegedly found the pantsless driver watching a movie of a 10-year-old girl performing fellatio on an adult on his laptop.

Police allege the man downloaded the movie using an Internet connection he intercepted from a nearby house.

Stealing Internet is becoming more common among perverts trying to avoid online detection. It's also a way they invade someone else's computer which could have serious ramifications for unsuspecting wireless Internet subscribers, police say.

CHILD-ABUSE IMAGES

The Toronto police child exploitation unit was called in after the arrest and with the OPP's Project P unit searched the unemployed man's Delhi home.

They recovered 10 computers and thousands of CDs and floppy discs which they suspect contain child abuse images.

It will take investigators numerous hours to search the computers and discs before they know exactly how many child abuse images the man allegedly had.

Walter Nowakowski, 33, of Delhi faces numerous charges related to child pornography and theft of communications.
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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2003/11/22/264909.html?+target=

Emps
 
It does what it says on the tin

The headline says it all:

Naked man 'waiting for rocket ship' found in synagogue's ladies room



By Gwen Arbuckle
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 8, 2004


A naked man found this morning in the ladies room of a Squirrel Hill synagogue was "waiting to catch his rocket ship," police said.

City police were called to Temple Sinai along Forbes Avenue to roust the man from the first-floor ladies loo at about 6:30 a.m. The man could not give them his full name and age. The white male is believed to be in his 30s or 40s.

Police arrived to find the man naked with his wet clothing nearby. Officers believe the man might have become drenched from wading in a pond or fountain on the synagogue grounds.

When officers asked the man why he was in the stall and why he wouldn't leave, police said he responded that "he was waiting to catch his rocket ship."

Police had to remove the stall doors and physically remove the naked guy. He was transported to Western Psychiatric Hospital in Oakland, where the man said he has been a patient in the past, officers said.

Officials at Temple Sinai said they would not press trespassing charges.
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http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/newssummary/s_202447.html
 
Drunken man uses frozen steak in car vandalism

Associated Press
Jul. 8, 2004 06:03 PM

GUELPH, Ont. - Other vandals use crowbars or bricks to smash windows, but Michael Cain's weapon of choice is a frozen T-bone steak.

Cain smirked in court on Thursday as the Crown attorney described how a stolen T-bone steak was thrown through a car window during a drunken rampage.

Justice Norman Douglas was not amused by the 18-year-old's alcohol abuse.

"If you don't get that drinking problem corrected you will be going down a slippery slope," Douglas said. "A man like you who drinks to the point where he doesn't remember what he did has a real problem."

Cain, 18, pleaded guilty to theft under ,000 for stealing the steak from inside a garage freezer during a break-in in the east-end Guelph on April 6.

He also pleaded guilty to four counts of mischief, as well as one charge of failing to comply with the conditions of his release.

He was given a suspended sentence on Thursday, 15 months probation and ordered him to repay 2.93 in damages from smashing the car windows.

In all, six cars were vandalized during the drunken attack.

The steak - still frozen - was returned to the owner intact.
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http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0708steak-theft08-ON.html

Would you really want it back?

Emps
 
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