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Strange Crimes

Explosive device wrapped it in kielbasa found; 2 accused

By PAUL PFEIFER, [email protected]
April 27, 2004

Two San Carlos Park teens were arrested Monday on charges they constructed a homemade explosive and wrapped it in a Polish sausage.

A tipster led Lee County sheriff's deputies at 8 a.m. to a wooded lot near the intersection of Coral Gables and Bradenton roads in San Carlos Park. The device was found about 15 feet from a school bus stop.

Robert Scott Stinnett, 13, of 9091 Coral Gables Road, and Josh Logan Lewis, 15, of 18201 Fern Road, were charged with one count of making a destructive device, a third-degree felony. Stinnett, a student at Dunbar Middle School, was arrested at his home, and Lewis was arrested at Estero High School, where he is a student.

The boys were turned over to the state Department of Juvenile Justice, said Cpl. Larry King of the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

The device was constructed of two aerosol cans and a 20-ounce bottle of an unknown liquid deputies later discovered was homemade napalm, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi said.

LiMarzi said the teens wrapped the device in kielbasa sausage so they could call it a "wiener bomb." LiMarzi said the two didn't have any plans for the device and stashed it in the woods. No attempt was made to detonate the device.

"If it had gone off in the woods, it probably would have started a fire," LiMarzi said. "It wasn't anything deadly, but it would have caused some damage."

Authorities evacuated six surrounding homes, though most of the occupants had already left for work, and escorted several neighborhood youngsters from the nearby bus stop. The Southwest Florida Bomb Squad deemed the device safe at 11 a.m.

Stinnett was arrested earlier this month on a burglary charge, and was also charged with aggravated assault in connection with a February domestic disturbance.

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/bonitanews/article/0,2071,NPDN_14894_2839370,00.html

A weiner bomb? They must have been up for hours laughing over that one.

Emps
 
Van thieves steal body

Greater Manchester police are searching for thieves who stole a funeral company's van with the body of a pensioner in the back.

'It was missing for more than 12 hours before police found it in a local street just before 6am yesterday.

The Silver Mercedes van with the coffin containing the body of Anne Hamer, 69, had been parked outside F Hamer Ltd funeral directors in Bury, Greater Manchester.

It was apparently unlocked and the keys were in the ignition when it was stolen.

Mrs Hamer - no relation of the funeral company's owners - was a resident of Walmersley for 30 years. She died at the Hope hospital in Salford, where the funeral directors collected the body on Monday afternoon and took it back to Bury.

Her sons, Andy and Tim Hamer, said: "We are glad it is all over. It has not been the easiest of times for anyone and to have this happen was unbelievable. We were stunned and in shock.

"She was a great person who will be greatly missed by an awful lot of people."

The sons said they had nothing against the funeral directors. "They were exemplary and they could not have done more for us," they said. "It must have been a very difficult time for them as well. As far as we are concerned, that is the end of the matter." '

An interesting coincidence is that the dead lady and the funeral directors have the same surname.
 
I'm sure I posted an earlier report on this (or I was tempted to) but the search turns up nothing so....

Shooter offers bizarre defense



By Karen Freifeld
Staff Writer

April 30, 2004, 7:31 PM EDT


The wild-eyed man who shot a bicyclist on the Williamburg Bridge last month claims he only stopped the rider because his feet hurt.

"I had no money to get back home to Brownsville," Julius Griffin, 47, told authorities after his April 11 arrest. "I had walked a little less than halfway onto the bridge when I heard someone come from behind me…My feet were hurting from walking all night and, right there, I decided that I needed his bike to get home."

Griffin was arraigned Friday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on a charge of first-degree robbery in an attack on Marcin Muchalski, 26, a Polish immigrant who was cycling from his home on the Lower East Side to a waiter's job in Williamsburg when he ran into Griffin.

Griffin had been charged with attempted murder, but those charges were dropped. He still faces up to 25 years if convicted in the robbery.

Muchalski, who was shot in the arm and leg, has said he offered Griffin his mountain bike, but refused to hand over his cell phone.

"Until the last moment, when he shot me in the arm, I thought it was just a toy," Muchalski said of Griffin's .38-cal. revolver.

Griffin gave police his own version of events.

"I pulled the gun out of the bag as he got closer," Griffin told police. "I then pointed the gun toward him and stood in his path. He came to a stop. I then told him to get off the bike and he got off and he tried to kick the gun and it went off.

"Before the gun went off, I had seen that he had a cell phone clipped to his pocket and I asked him to give it up and that's when he refused to give it up and he tried to kick my gun arm up. Then he tried to run past me and I went after him and I fired a shot at him as he had his back to me," he said.

"At that point, I picked up the bike and started riding toward Manhattan. I rode several feet when the bike got a flat," he said, adding that he then jogged off the bridge.

Griffin was arrested within an hour not far from the bridge.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-cell0501,0,4287460.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines
 
Attack of the cross dressing joyriders

There just seemed to be something thoroughly ridiculous about this story, and it kind of reminds me of that bit in Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead:


Cross-dressers stealing cars for nightclub jaunts, police say

The Associated Press

05/04/2004, 12:24 a.m. CT


BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- A group of joyriders has been taking expensive new cars from Alabama dealerships, then driving them to cross-dressing pageants at nightclubs before abandoning them, police said.

The thieves apparently just want the cars to drive to the clubs. "I guess they just wanted to look good when they got there," Birmingham auto theft Sgt. D.P. Smith said Monday.

The group has been giving dealers the slip in lots in Tuscaloosa, Selma, Montgomery, Huntsville and Birmingham. Investigators have recovered about 10 to 15 cars in Birmingham and as far away as New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn. Police also have the keys to at least 20 others.

"We need all dealerships to do an inventory of their keys and their cars. Cars may be missing, and they may not even know it," Smith said.

Investigators have recovered Acuras, Nissans, Volkswagens, Lincoln Navigators and others. Inside those cars, they found dealership pamphlets, business cards and more car keys. They also found makeup, women's clothing and pageant trophies, said Smith.

"It's just like a shopping spree for them," the detective said. "They take them on Thursdays or Fridays and then go to these shows around the Southeast on the weekend."

Smith said the thieves go to dealerships in a group, with two or three swamping a salesperson with questions and requests to see or test drive cars.

Meanwhile, another member of the group waits to see where the salesperson puts the keys. The thieves then take the keys and eventually drive away.

Sometimes the men are dressed as women, sometimes not, but their method has been consistent, Smith said.

Police have charged three men with receiving stolen property in the heists: Decarius Conner, 18; Anthony Erby, 18; and James Hopkins, 22. Erby and Conner are out of jail on bond. Hopkins, who is also charged with escape, remains at large.

Smith said others are involved and more charges could follow. "Hopefully this will slow them down," he said.

-

Information from: The Birmingham News
 
This was on the front page of the Birmingham News yesterday. I wasn't expecting to see that headline when I picked up the paper:hah: .

sureshot
 
Re: Attack of the cross dressing joyriders

BlackRiverFalls said:
Smith said others are involved and more charges could follow. "Hopefully this will slow them down," he said.

don't they khow you can't slow down cross dressers!

some people will never learn :rolleyes:
 
Breguet's Brazen Burqa Bandit

I have no idea what to make of this, perhaps he was shy or very modest or something :D

You would think the press would have got tired of the obvious puns by now though:


'DRAG'-NET FOR TRANNY TIME BANDIT

By LARRY CELONA, ALISHA BERGER and ADAM MILLER

May 14, 2004 -- This robbery was a real drag.

A man dressed in a head-to-toe green burqa and carrying a purse robbed a swanky Swiss watch store in Manhattan at gunpoint yesterday.

The suspect made off with $320,000 worth of watches from Breguet on Madison Avenue at 66th Street about 10 a.m., police said.

The oddly dressed customer walked into the swanky shop, wanting to see some watches for a friend.

After viewing two pricey styles, he agreed to buy them, cops said.

The brazen robber, who was also wearing sunglasses, asked to write a check and pick up the merchandise after the check cleared.

The suspect told the salesperson he had a checkbook in his handbag.

"He goes into his pocketbook to pull out what the employee thought was his checkbook - but instead pulls out a gun," a police source said.

The suspect announced a stickup and fled with the two watches - one an 18-carat white gold and diamond dazzler worth $210,000, part of the Classic collection, the other a platinum valued at $110,000 and part of the Grandes collection.

The cross-dressing robber discarded his veil and sandals outside the store and jumped into a waiting car with another person at the wheel.

No one was injured in the daring robbery.

Witnesses were shocked to see someone who was obviously a man draped head-to-toe in a burqa, the traditional garment women in Afghanistan were forced to wear under the rule of the Taliban.

"I knew he was a man because of his beard stubble," said a stunned witness who saw the suspect fleeing.
 
Slippery Grease Bandits Make Slick Getaway

Fri May 14, 7:53 AM ET


OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma police are looking for grease bandits who made off with 5,000 pounds (2268 kg) of used cooking oil and grease from three restaurants.

Police in Edmond, north of Oklahoma City, said on Thursday the grease bandits have hit an area of Mexican, Chinese and steak restaurants over the past three months.

The robbers took the used cooking grease that was stored in large cylinders in back of the restaurants.

The restaurants were planning to sell the grease to a recycling company and the total value of the stolen goods was about 0.

Glynda Chu, a spokeswoman for the Edmond police said the bandits had a good idea of how to get money in the used grease market, but she thinks it odd that anyone would put so much effort into making off with so much cooking byproduct.

"It would be a big chore to haul that smelly stuff away," Chu said. "They did, however, make a slick getaway."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...=757&e=1&u=/nm/20040514/od_nm/crime_grease_dc
 
Fromthe fornt page:

Frogman Living in Bog Arrested for Arson

Fri May 14, 2004 08:04 AM ET


BERLIN (Reuters) - A German frogman who lives on a swampy island and wears a combat-style diving suit and black face paint has been arrested for suspected arson attacks on two yachts, Berlin police said on Friday.

Authorities found the man's camp, equipment and a boat with a silencer on its engine after a tip-off from a forester.

"He wore combat-style aquanaut camouflage and launched his attacks from a swampy island," wrote Bild newspaper on Friday.

Police believe the man, 36, abandoned his flat in eastern Berlin in March to live in a tent on the boggy island in a lake south of the city.

A judge issued an arrest warrant after the two yachts were destroyed by fire, causing an estimated 8,000 in damage. He had already been arrested in March for breaking and entering a pleasure boat.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5147142
 
I'm unsure what Doctor Chaos's plan was here - possibly just chaos I suppose - sunds like a proper supervillian!!

Posted May 15, 2004


Judge orders trial to proceed in vandalism spree


Hobart man called ‘Dr. Chaos’ caused 28 power outages

By Mike Hoeft
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

MILWAUKEE — The federal trial of a former Hobart man charged with a rash of vandalism in Northeastern Wisconsin will proceed to sentencing next month.

Joseph Konopka, 27, known as “Dr. Chaos,” faces six federal charges, including arson, software piracy, destruction of property and vandalism. The charges stem from a crime spree where power substations, radio transmitters and utility facilities were damaged.

Konopka pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2002 and faces up to 90 years in prison. He later wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee asking to withdraw his plea and fire his lawyer.

Adelman on Friday denied Konopka’s motion to withdraw the plea.

That means the case will proceed to sentencing probably in June, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Steve Ingraham.

Federal prosecutors recommended in the plea agreement that Konopka be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Konopka already is serving 13 years for hiding bottles of cyanide in the tunnels of Chicago’s subway system.

Adelman will decide whether Konopka’s sentence in the Wisconsin cases is to run consecutive or concurrent to the Illinois sentence.

Prosecutors said Konopka was responsible for 28 power outages affecting 30,000 customers and 20 other service interruptions in 1999. Damage was estimated at 0,000.

http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_16121259.shtml
 
A nude day on Muni bus


By J.K. Dineen | Staff Writer
Published on Friday, May 14, 2004

A Bayview District woman is undergoing psychiatric evaluation after attempting to hijack a crowded Municipal Railway bus while stark naked, according to police.

At approximately 3:50 p.m. Monday, the 250-pound woman, who would not give her name but appeared to be about 35 years old, jumped on a bus without paying at Third Street and Palau Avenue, according to police.

The woman, who was initially clothed, got off at Third Street and Williams Avenue but quickly started to complain that she had left her baby on the bus. After determining that no baby had been left on board, the driver was preparing to pull away when the woman again jumped on the bus and lay down on the floor, police said.

As the driver attempted to call Muni headquarters to report the incident, the woman yanked him out of his seat and followed him out onto the sidewalk, where the driver attempted to call 911.

"At this point, she sat down on the sidewalk and took off her clothes completely and got back onto the bus without any sort of resistance," said police spokesman Dewayne Tully.

The woman pushed the accelerator several times and was screaming, "Oh, I want to drive. I want to drive," Tully said.

A fellow passenger finally managed to pry her from the seat, and she was put out on the sidewalk, where she put her clothes back on and waited for authorities to arrive.

The suspect, who appeared to be drunk, also threw a can of beer at another passenger, police said.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/051404n_muni
 
Skinny R.I. Burglar Strikes Again

Updated: Tuesday, May. 18, 2004 - 5:07 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The skinny burglar strikes again. The hungry criminal who police believe is responsible for eight break-ins at businesses on the South Side is now being linked to four new crimes in the Olneyville and West End sections of town, The Providence Journal reported.

Police said the territory is new, but the method is the same.

The thief squeezes down ventilation shafts or kitchen vents, or smashes a small hole through a wall, to get in. He or she normally grabs cash, cigarettes and food. The robber has eaten a watermelon, a mango and even cooked a meal at one restaurant on Cranston Street.

The strange behavior has police baffled. Due to the way the thief is entering the buildings, security alarms aren't being triggered.

Last Wednesday, the burglar tunneled through a ventilation shaft and stole women's hair extensions from B.E.T. Beauty Supplies on Broad Street. On Thursday, the thief slid down a shaft and crashed through a ceiling to enter Mian Garden Chinese Restaurant on Manton Avenue. The criminal then ate a watermelon and stole some cash.

On Sunday, the burglar squeezed down a vent at Heng Express Restaurant, cooked a meal on the stove and left. And Monday, the thief smashed a hole in the cinderblock wall at the International Specialties store on Cranston Street. The individual fled with cash, cigarettes, a few bags of Doritos, a can of soda and some jewelry.

Richard Moravec, owner of the International Specialties store, said he couldn't figure out how the thief entered.

"I looked up in the ceiling, the doors, and everything looked fine," Moravec said. Then he saw the hole in the wall.

"He had to work awful hard to break through that brick," he added.

http://www.wtop.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=205480
 
Mowing over property line leads to arrest


By Gary Craig
Staff writer

(May 17, 2004) — Most people would welcome a neighbor mowing their property.

In Ontario County, it got Rosemarie Cherry arrested.

Grass grand larceny?

Illegal lawn laundering?

Nope. Cherry was charged with trespassing after she and her mower went where sheriff’s deputies allege she shouldn’t have.

As a news release from the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office succinctly stated about Cherry: “Subject arrested after she went over onto an adjacent neighbor’s property and mowed several feet.”

According to her husband, Dale Cherry, an ongoing dispute with the adjacent property owner is at the core of the criminal charges.

Dale Cherry was, in fact, charged with harassment last week after an incident that he said is also an offspring of the dispute.

His wife, he said, was not arrested while mowing. Instead, the charges were levied after she’d completed the deed. She was issued an appearance ticket and is scheduled to appear later in Bristol Town Court.

Dale Cherry said his wife has mowed the same strip of land for years. The couple lives at 6970 Tilton Road in the town of Bristol.

Joe Green, who owns the adjacent property, would not comment. Dale Cherry said both sides in the quarrel have enlisted lawyers and it may end up in a civil lawsuit.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&e=1&u=/nm/20040518/hl_nm/violent_images_dc
 
Penguin Abduction?

I'll bung it here:

Most odd.

Boy arrested over penguin theft

A 15-year-boy has been arrested in connection with the theft of a penguin called Piglet from a North Yorkshire sea life centre.

Piglet and her partner George are among seven Humboldt penguins at Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary.

She was taken on Sunday night but later rescued when her distress calls were heard in the Barrowcliffe area.

Both Piglet and George are on antibiotics to help them recover from the ordeal.

Staff will not know for another few weeks whether they will pull through.

A spokesman for Scarborough police said the teenager was helping them with their inquiries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/3734109.stm

:confused:
 
DanHigginbottom said:
No, you fools, don't you know what's happening? They weren't stolen! The nightmare has returned to me! They've come to life!
I'm still horrified by the first portion of this thread. The question, Dan, is why did they choose to come back? :eek:
 
'I'm drunk, officer, but my donkey's in charge': South African man

Thu May 20, 8:06 AM ET


JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A man was fined nearly 300 dollars (250 euros) for drunk driving a donkey cart in a small South African town and then telling police he was unconcerned "because the animals knew the way home."

Hans du Toit was stopped recently in the town of Philipolis, about 650 kilometres (400 miles) south of Johannesburg, when traffic officials noticed his donkey cart swerving all over its one main road.

He was told not to continue driving, the Afrikaans daily Beeld newspaper said on Wednesday.

"But when the policeman left, I decided: 'I know this road and so does my donkeys. If I don't find it, my donkeys will," Du Toit said in a statement before court.

"The drive was a bit haphazard and I was stopped again by the police," he added.

Du Toit's wife was called and she unleashed the animals.

Traffic officials and the court took a stern view and sentenced Du Toit to the fine or two years in jail, of which 21 months were suspended for four years.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...p/safrica_crime_offbeat_040520120600&e=5&ncid
 
Now, that's just silly. The streets laid out by the burros of drunken muleskinners in downtown San Antonio are some of our most scenic.

We have one major street (St. Mary's) that goes north, south, east, and west all on the space of a mile. I used to live on it and am very fond of it. Once you've faced the challenge of following a road such as this, no directional task daunts you.
 
Man driving mower on street gets DUI charge

By William Lamb
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/21/2004



Police in Fairview Heights arrested a man this week for riding his lawn mower on a residential street while under the influence of alcohol as he cradled his toddler daughter in his lap, authorities said Thursday.

Paul Schwarztrauber Jr., 46, of the 200 block of Orlando Court, has been charged with felony DUI and driving while his license was revoked, said Fairview Heights police Lt. David Fellows. He was being held at the St. Clair County Jail in lieu of ,000 bail.

Fellows said police were called to Judy Lane and Palmetti Street about 8 p.m. Monday by a neighbor who told police that Schwarztrauber was riding his mower in the street. The intersection is around the corner from Schwarztrauber's house, police said.

After a battery of sobriety tests, "we found him to be intoxicated," Fellows said. He added that officers were alarmed that Schwarztrauber was riding with his 14-month-old daughter on his lap.

"It's an unusual event, the first one I can recall in 23 years," Fellows said.

Although it is not necessary to have a valid license to operate a riding mower, Schwarztrauber was charged with driving with a revoked license because "lawnmowers aren't supposed to be on the street," Fellows said.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...=Man+driving+mower+on+street+gets+DUI+charge+
 
Post Office tells couple: "Next time send some money"

Tue May 25,12:42 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - An elderly British couple expressed their shock after discovering that a card posted to them had been opened by mail workers who added an abusive note expressing regret that no money was inside.

William and Grace Kill from Oxfordshire, southern England, found the note inside a card posted to them a month previously by a church congregation, thanking the couple for giving a talk.

The note read: "Dear customer, we had to open this letter to check for money or credit cards, there were none, so you can have the fucker back!!!

"Next time, make sure there is some money!! Love, Royal Mail."

Mr Kill, 72, said both he and his 69-year-old wife were badly shaken by the incident.

"We were disgusted and upset -- it made you feel sick," he said.

"When something goes into the hands of the Royal Mail, you trust them but this is like having someone burgling the house."

The Royal Mail, Britain's monopoly letter service which currently faces serious allegations about poor service, has apologised and promised an investigation.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&e=9&u=/afp/britain_post_offbeat
 
Last update: June 2, 2004 at 12:08 AM

Big wheels, young boys and trouble

David Chanen, Star Tribune
June 2, 2004 DAMAGE0602



One can only imagine what goes on in the minds of 10-year-old boys. It's a Sunday afternoon. You somehow get into a fenced construction site filled with big cranes and bulldozers. You manage to find some ignition keys, hop up on the seat, start the engine and away you go.

You knock out power to a radio station, seriously damage construction equipment and level a trailer. Your day ends in the back of a squad car.

To the two 10-year-olds, it may have seemed like a romp in a giant sandbox full of toys. But, Minneapolis police say, that romp did more than 0,000 of damage at the Heritage Park housing development near Hwy. 55 and Lyndale Av. N.

Police say one of the boys drove several hundred feet in a 100,000-pound excavator during the demolition derby.

The boys, who live within blocks of the site, snapped a power pole in half, knocking out power to KMOJ-FM radio for 17 hours. They confessed to police after they were arrested Sunday evening. The boys, who won't be identified because they aren't adults, can be charged with a felony-level crime in Juvenile Court.

Police told RC Williams, operations manager for KMOJ, that the damage will exceed 0,000. When police arrived at the scene, they asked Williams if the destruction had been caused by a storm.

"I don't think the kids realize the magnitude of what they did, but they will soon enough," Williams said. "The cab of the equipment they were driving was crushed in. I'm amazed they got out without being hurt. It was an ugly scene."

Police initially responded Sunday afternoon to a report of a downed power line in the Heritage Park development at Girard Terrace and 5th Av. N. Officers found extensive property damage, including overturned construction equipment. A dump truck and a large crane were stuck in deep mud with their lights on, police said.

A short time later, the two boys were found rummaging through the van of a KMOJ employee in the station's parking lot, which is about 1,000 feet from the construction site. The van owner hung on to one of the boys and the other was caught a few blocks away, said Police Department spokesman Ron Reier.

One of the boys had several sets of keys with him, but it was unclear whether the keys had been left in the construction equipment or in a construction trailer, Reier said. A witness told police about seeing the boys do damage and one of the boys made a spontaneous statement to officers of "his knowledge of the massive vandalism," Reier said.

The boys couldn't be prosecuted if they were younger than 10, according to state law, said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. Police may refer the case to child protection if necessary. Any charges and the outcome of the case will not be made public because of the boys' age, Klobuchar said.

A track backhoe and a bulldozer rented by the city of Minneapolis were among the equipment vandalized between 3 and 6 p.m. Sunday. The backhoe has a broken windshield that will cost about 0 to fix and the bulldozer had "quite a bit of damage," said Steve Kotke, director of property and equipment services for the city.

"This is heavy equipment," he said. "There are lots of levers, switches and pedals. I'm just surprised they could even operate any of it."

There is a chain-link fence around the construction site and some nearby streets are blocked off, but "it's not Fort Knox," said Bart Anderson, vice president of Veit & Co. Inc., which had five pieces of equipment damaged.

Anderson believes the boys got on a large excavator and "just started pounding on things." The excavator didn't belong to Veit, but there were various levels of damage to a 50-ton crane, an all-terrain forklift, a construction trailer and job box owned by the company.

"This will cost us many thousands of dollars," Anderson said. "Everything is replaceable. Fortunately, nobody got hurt."

While the vandalism won't put construction behind schedule, KMOJ's Williams said he is still calculating how much revenue his radio station lost by being off the air for 17 hours. Repair crews worked through the night to restore power by 8:30 a.m. Monday.

The community station was to do heavy on-air promotion of the '80s funk band Dazz Band concert at the Escape Ultra Lounge on Sunday just a few hours before the lights went out.

"I don't know who these boys were," he said. "But kids hang out and they see the construction equipment. It looks pretty inviting."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4806557.html
 
Woman attacked at home, then told to cook

Woman reports attack

By KEITH EPPS


Date published: 5/22/2004

Call at 3 a.m. starts strange series of events

A Prince William County man is facing charges after a bizarre incident in which a Stafford County woman was beaten with a pellet gun and a hockey stick, then forced to prepare a meal.

Jesse B. Muckenfuss, 37, of Woodbridge is charged with attempted breaking and entering, malicious wounding, driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, refusal to take a breath test and driving on a suspended license.

According to sheriff's Maj. David Decatur, the woman let an acquaintance come to her Quarry Road home after he called about 3 a.m. Sunday and said he needed to talk to her about something. They are not romantically involved, Decatur said.

Shortly after the woman answered a knock on her door, the man slapped her across the face and accused her of saying bad things about him, Decatur said.

The woman told police she had no idea what the man was talking about. He pulled out a pellet gun and struck the woman in the head several times with it, Decatur said, then hit her arms and legs with a regulation-sized hockey stick.

Eventually the man got inside the injured woman's home, where he forced her to prepare him a meal.

Decatur said the man proceeded to play "mind games" with the victim, telling her that he was high on crack cocaine and not sure what he might do next. He also brandished a steak knife toward the victim as he ate the meal she'd fixed, Decatur said.

Police said the woman tricked the man into stepping outside to smoke a cigarette, then slammed the door behind him and ran to press a panic alarm in her home.

The man banged on her door with the hockey stick for several minutes before leaving, Decatur said.

Deputy C.P. Roach spotted the suspect's vehicle on Quarry Road and stopped him. He later found the pellet gun and the hockey stick outside the victim's home.

Decatur said the victim had visible injuries, including what appeared to be a couple of broken fingers.

Muckenfuss was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.


http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2004/052004/05222004/1373083

Try saying that last sentence quickly 10 times. ;)

Emps
 
Shed thieves clean up after raids

Police are hunting a pair of burglars who like to give sheds a spring clean.


Since April, there have been 25 shed burglaries in the Hasland and Boythorpe areas of Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

According to officers, the thieves who visit every shed in a single street, even pick up things off the floor and tidy them away.

Two men have been captured on film and officers are seeking to trace them. Shed owners are being warned to step up security measures.

Whole streets

PC Graham Kelsey, crime reduction officer for Chesterfield Police said: "Although some fishing tackle, a compressor and small hand tools have been taken from two sheds, it would appear that the burglars are very particular in what they are after.

"Normally, shed burglars have the lawnmower, strimmer and electric hedge cutters and flee, having done one shed per street in an area.

"These two are going down entire streets doing every shed."

At one recent burglary, two men were recorded on a CCTV system going from garden to garden in the early hours of the morning.

Officers are seeking to identify the pair.

Owners of sheds are being advised to take some precautions to hinder burglaries, such as multiple locks on the door.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/3711059.stm

and the associated report today:

Police puzzled by screw thieves

Burglars have left police baffled by breaking into sheds and stealing nothing but the screws from the doors.


The thieves ignored cans of beer stacked in one shed in favour of the screws, Derbyshire Police said.

Another shed's contents went untouched but its door was left off the hinges.

The incidents happened in the Chesterfield area, where police recently reported a number of burglaries in which sheds were tidied up by the intruders.

Pc Graham Kelsey, Chesterfield crime reduction officer, said: "Although we have got used to burglaries where nothing is stolen, it is unusual for the burglars to ignore beer in favour of hinge screws.

"This particular burglary was one of two that occurred on the same night in the same area.

"Nothing was stolen from the other address," he said.

Police are still trying to catch two suspects in the "tidy shed" burglaries who were caught on CCTV in May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/3769441.stm

:confused:

apologies if these have already been posted elsewhere.

*I posted this on Dumb Criminals, I should have known there would be a strange crimes thread somewhere, Doh!*
 
Killdozer

Emperor said:
Last update: June 2, 2004 at 12:08 AM

Big wheels, young boys and trouble

David Chanen, Star Tribune
June 2, 2004 DAMAGE0602



One can only imagine what goes on in the minds of 10-year-old boys. It's a Sunday afternoon. You somehow get into a fenced construction site filled with big cranes and bulldozers. You manage to find some ignition keys, hop up on the seat, start the engine and away you go.

............

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4806557.html

And it seems like a trend:

Bulldozer Rampage In Granby

Jun 4, 2004 5:36 pm US/Mountain

GRANBY, Colo. (AP) A man who lost two bitter battles with town officials plowed an armor-plated bulldozer into the town hall, a former mayor's home and at least five other buildings before the machine ground to a halt in the wreckage of a warehouse, authorities said.

No injuries were reported in the rampage Friday, but officials declined to comment on the condition of the bulldozer driver, identified by the town manager as muffler shop owner Marvin Heemeyer. He was still inside the bulldozer cab early Saturday.

Authorities detonated three explosions and fired at least 200 rounds against the heavy steel plates welded to the bulldozer. The first two detonations failed, but the results of the third were not immediately known.

Undersheriff Glen Trainor said the dozer's armor plates consisted of two sheets of half-inch steel with a layer of concrete between them.

Grand County Emergency Management Director Jim Holahan said Heemeyer was armed with a .50-caliber weapon but appeared to be deliberately avoiding injuring anyone.

Residents of this mountain tourist town of 2,200 described a bizarre scene as the bulldozer slowly crashed through buildings, trees and lampposts, with dozens of officers walking ahead or behind it, firing into the machine and shouting at townspeople to flee.

"It looked like a futuristic tank," said Rod Moore, who watched the dozer rumble past within 15 feet of his auto garage and towing company.

One officer, later identified as Trainor, was perched on top, firing shot after shot into the top and once dropping an explosive down the exhaust pipe.

"He just kept shooting,'' Moore said. ``The dozer was still going. He threw what looked like a flash-bang down the exhaust. It didn't do a thing.''

A flash-bang produces a blinding flash and earsplitting boom designed to stun a suspect.

"Gunfire was just ringing out everywhere," said Sandra Tucker, who saw the bulldozer begin the rampage from her office on Main Street. "It sounded to me like an automatic rifle, firing about every second."

At least 40 deputies, Colorado State Patrol officers, federal park and forest rangers and a SWAT team from nearby Jefferson County were on-scene.

Town manager Tom Hale said Heemeyer was angry after losing a zoning dispute that allowed a cement plant to be built near his muffler shop. Heemeyer also was fined ,500 in a separate case for not having a septic tank and for other city code violations at his business, Hale said.

When he paid the fine, he enclosed a note with his check saying "Cowards," Hale said.

"We felt he was venting his frustration that he didn't get his way," Hale said of the note. "We didn't think he was going to do something like this."

Trainor said he believes Heemeyer spent months armoring the bulldozer, and investigators were looking into whether he had help.

Hale said owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer's disputes.

The buildings included the cement plant, a utility company, a bank, a newspaper office, a hardware store and warehouse, the home of former Mayor L.R. ``Dick'' Thompson and the municipal building, which also housed a library.

Crumpled patrol cars and service trucks lay in the dozer's path. A pickup was folded nearly in half and had been rammed through the wall of a building.

Gov. Bill Owens traveled Friday night to Granby, about 50 miles west of Denver and 10 miles south of Rocky Mountain National Park.

State aid will be available to help rebuild local government buildings, and state officials will help businesses seek federal help, said Mike Beasley, director of the state Department of Local Affairs.

The rampage began shortly before 3 p.m. William Hertel, owner of High Altitude Audio, said the bulldozer drove by his business at mid-afternoon, crushing aspen trees and light poles.

"I was up on the roof when he came by. I got down and got my wife and kids out of the back of the building," Hertel said. He said he had heard numerous shots.

The scene was reminiscent of a 1998 rampage in Alma, another town in the Colorado Rockies. Authorities said Tom Leask shot a man to death, then used a town-owned front-end loader to heavily damage the town's post office, fire department, water department and town hall.


http://news4colorado.com/topstories/local_story_156173524.html

Bulldozer rampage


Story by None
June 4, 2004


GRANBY -- An armed man barricaded inside a fortified bulldozer went on a rampage Friday, firing shots and knocking down buildings as he plowed down the streets of this Colorado town.


Witnesses said numerous shots had been fired, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.


"He's got gun turrets, he's even got the tracks covered up," witness Scott Schaffer told KUSA-TV.


State Patrol Maj. Jim Wolfinbarger said officers told him the driver had aimed his weapon at propane tanks at times. Gov. Bill Owens alerted the National Guard and was prepared to send troops to Granby but local authorities had not asked for that help, spokesman Dan Hopkins said.


Authorities with the Grand County sheriff's office and town police did not immediately return calls. The State Patrol said all roads in and out of the town 50 miles west of Denver had been closed.


Jefferson County officials said their SWAT team had been called in to help.


William Hertel, owner of High Altitude Audio, said a man he did not recognize drove in the bulldozer at mid-afternoon. He said the machine took out a wall of the library and part of a new bank building, then kept going.


The bulldozer crushed the aspen trees and light poles in front of Hertel's Main Street business.


"I was up on the roof when he came by. I got down and got my wife and kids out of the back of the building," Hertel told The Associated Press. He said he had heard numerous shots.


Granby, a town of 2,200 at nearly 8,000 feet, is a few miles north of the Winter Park ski resort and not far from the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.


The bulldozer knocked out natural gas service to City Hall and a cement plant, Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz. He said one truck and a wall of the utility's service center had been damaged.


County manager Lurline Curran said there were no reports of injuries, but she heard there was heavy damage to six or seven buildings, including the town hall, a newspaper office and a construction business.


"And right now he's said to be wreaking havoc at the Gamble's store," Curran said from her office in White Sulphur Springs, 10 miles west of Granby.


"He started on the west end of Granby and moved methodically to the east. It appears this individual has a plan in mind," she said.


County employees moved a large piece of highway equipment in the way to try to stop the man, but he simply turned around and kept plowing into buildings, Curran said.


Winter Park Town Clerk Nancy Anderson, who lives in Granby, said she could not reach family members.


"There is a vague idea of who this might be," Anderson said. "It may be the same man who sued the town of Granby a few years ago."


The scene was reminiscent of a 1998 rampage in Alma, another town in the Colorado Rockies. Authorities said Tom Leask shot a man to death, then used a town-owned front-end loader to heavily damage the town's post office, fire department, water department and town hall.

http://www.greeleytrib.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040604/NEWS/106040037

Armored Bulldozer Rampages Through Granby

Heemeyer Apparently Had Disputes With City Over His Business
Wayne Harrison and Kim Ngan Nguyen, Staff Writers

POSTED: 3:30 pm MDT June 4, 2004
UPDATED: 11:32 pm MDT June 4, 2004

GRANBY, Colo. -- A bizarre situation developed in the small mountain town of Granby, Colo., Friday afternoon, when a heavily-armed man with an apparent vendetta knocked down five buildings with his homemade armor-plated bulldozer before losing hydraulic fluid and becoming stuck inside a large warehouse.

The massive, heavily modified D-5 Caterpillar was finally stopped around 4:40 p.m. and since then law enforcement officers have been assessing the situation, trying to get inside the vehicle.

Jim Holahan, the emergency manager for Grand County, said that there has been no contact with the driver and it is very quiet inside the vehicle. He said officers are trying to find a way to break into the bulldozer, which had been welded shut from the inside with heavy steel and concrete.

"There's no way out or into that vehicle," Holahan told 7NEWS.

A shot was heard coming from inside the bulldozer, the station reported.

Just before 10 p.m. the bomb squad detonated several explosives, trying to blast the steel contraption apart. The SWAT team is still in tactical mode because it is not known if the man inside is dead or alive or if the bulldozer is rigged with booby traps, 7NEWS reported.

The driver of the bulldozer has been identified as Marvin Heemeyer, the 51-year-old owner of a muffler shop in town. He has a grudge with town officials and was not happy with some of their recent zoning decisions, towns people told 7NEWS.

Heemeyer recently sued the owner of the town's cement plant over the land dispute and lost.

"He and Cody were at odds with one another and he ended up losing that in court, and I think he was just mad," said Casey Farrell, owner of Gamble's General Hardware Store, a business that was destroyed during the rampage.

"He's a person who had a business here in the county and was put out of business so I think he's just got some vengeance with the town and the people who represent the town," Granby resident Alicia Draper said.

Residents believe that it may have taken Heemeyer at least a couple of weeks to plan his alleged attack, since the vehicle was so heavily fortified and nearly impenetrable -- a virtual custom-made tank. The machine had large steel plates welded onto it and had areas for the driver to shoot out of, areas that one witness described as "gun turrets."

"It's an ugly beast. It's pretty sealed up," Draper said.

The one-man destruction derby began around 3:15 p.m. when the bulldozer began barrelling through the library and town hall, which are in one building, and also smashing through the two-story Sky-Hi newspaper office, demolishing it.

"He'd go forward, ram it as hard as he could and then he'd go in reverse, and then do it again," a witness said.

The bulldozer plowed through the Mountain Park cement plant and adjacent Mountain Park Electric, clipped an Xcel Energy service building -- damaging its natural gas lines -- and ran over at least three police cars that had been put in its path to block it, witnesses said.

The driver also hit the town's fire station (pictured, left) and the new Liberty Bank building, heavily damaging it.

The bulldozer driver then headed west out of town, pursued by law enforcement vehicles.

"There were SWAT officers that were surrounding the vehicle and they'd open fire and it was steel-plated, so the bullets just bounced off, basically," witness Mathew Lopez said.

The bulldozer driver also fired back at officers with his 50-caliber machine gun, authorities said. At one point, when he had been swarmed by officers, the man fired several shots into a couple of propane tanks but the tanks did not explode.

A short time later, the bulldozer turned around and headed back into town, moving down the side of the Gambles store. The bulldozer became stuck in a rear building behind the hardware store when its hydraulic fuel line was severed by debris. That's when the Grand County Special Response Team moved in.

At one point, the Grand County Road and Bridge Department moved a large earthmover (pictured, left) into the rear path of the bulldozer, in an effort to block it. A smaller bulldozer was moved into the front path of the larger machine, but that did little to slow down the dozer.

"The piece of equipment is so big it's hard to stop," said Lurlene Curran, the Grand County manager, while the bulldozer was moving down the main street in town. "We're doing everything we can to stop this chaos."

From AirTracker7, the scene looked like a tornado had swept through, with selected buildings damaged and demolished. But it wasn't a natural disaster that had occurred, as evidenced by the bulldozer tracks streaking its way through Main Street.

"He has systematically severely damaged the town of Granby," said Curran.

"The hit to downtown Granby is huge. We just embarked on an ambitious downtown redevelopment effort and this will not help," Granby Mayor Ted Wang told 7NEWS. Wang said the Liberty Savings building that was damaged was just erected within the last year.

Although there was an incredible amount of damage to the small mountain town of 1,500, luckily, there were no reports of injuries.

Several eyewitnesses told 7NEWS that the scene in the downtown area was chaotic as numerous law enforcement officers converged on the area, shooting at the bulldozer in an attempt to immobilize it as it carved out its path of destruction through town.

Residents in the downtown area received reverse 911 calls and were evacuated from the area or put in lockdown mode as bullets flew between the bulldozer and law enforcement. One resident estimated that at least 100 rounds were fired in the streets. All of this chaos occurred during a very active part of the day, so some say it is a miracle that not one person was hurt.

To help in the continuing investigation, the Colorado State Patrol closed U.S. Highways 34 and 40 around Granby. The mountain town is located just south of the intersection of the two highways, about 50 miles west of Denver. Travelers who want to visit Grand Lake for the weekend are being detoured around town.

Gov. Bill Owens flew over the area in AirTracker 7 to assess the damage.

"It's amazing what one person can do. It's tragic. And we're going to be here and try to help," he said.

The Colorado National Guard had been put on standby for the situation but were never called. Owens said state assistance will be available to help the town rebuild its city hall and library. The cost of the damage to the tiny town has not been estimated.

Some residents told 7NEWS that it doesn't shock them that Heemeyer may have gone on a revenge-inspired rampage.

"He seems to be a normal guy; he's just different," Draper said. "I've talked to some people and this is not surprise to see him do this."

Others said that they knew he had a very open grudge against the town council, but they never thought he would take it this far.

Granby Attack Mirrors Alma Incident

The bulldozer attack in Granby is reminiscent of a 1998 heavy equipment attack in the Park County town of Alma.

In that case, a 50-year-old man was accused of shooting and killing the former mayor, firebombing town hall and then driving a stolen front-end loader into a number of buildings, including the post office, fire department and water treatment plant.

The man also burned down his own home and was captured after running into the nearby forest. Thomas Leask was sent to the state mental hospital, where he remains today.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3383547/detail.html

The killdozer sounds like somehting out of the 'A Team' - I remember one episode where they converted a forklift into a tank oh hold on that was every episode (apart from the disappointing one where they actually found an old tank).

Emps
 
Man in Colo. Bulldozer Rampage Found Dead

40 minutes ago

By P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press Writer

GRANBY, Colo. - Crews using a crane Saturday removed the body of local man who tore up a good part of this mountain resort town with an improvised tank.


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.

Heemeyer on Friday plowed the armor-plated bulldozer into the 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, said Grand County Sheriff Rod Johnson. No one else was injured.

City officials said he was angry over a zoning dispute and fines for city code violations at his business in the town about 50 miles west of Denver.

Heemeyer's buddy Pete Mitchell said his friend was probably smiling when the tank, 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."

Heemeyer loved to weld, and this surely was his masterpiece, probably constructed over a several-month period, he said.

Town manager Tom Hale said Heemeyer was angry after losing a zoning dispute over land near his muffler shop. Heemeyer also had been fined ,500 in a separate case for not having a septic tank and other city code violations at his business, Hale said.

When he paid the fine, he enclosed a note with his check saying "Cowards," Hale said.

Heemeyer's first target was a shop at the cement plant, which sat about 100 yards from where he built the amored-plated bulldozer. He also damaged a newspaper office, town hall-library, bank, hardware store and a utility office.

Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary at his corrugated-metal building, where he kept cars, snowmobiles, boats, and now it seems a bulldozer. Mitchell said Heemeyer hadn't been seen much of late.

His skills as a welder were legendary, Mitchell said.

"He could change a muffler by himself in 20 minutes," Mitchell said. "No wasted motion. He knew what he was doing."

Investigators believe he spent several months planning and building the quarter- to half-inch concrete box that no police bullet could penetrate. Described by some witnesses as resembling a large dumpster, up close police could see the details of Heemeyer's handiwork, hydraulic lines and a radiator. Heemeyer had installed TV cameras connected to three monitors so he could see where he was going.

"How he built this was amazing," said Grand County Commissioner James Newberry. "This was a very intelligent man. Once you saw the way his workshop was set up it's possible."

After blasting the box three times police discovered hinges that allowed them to pull out an air conditioning unit and get into the box. Crews had to use a crane to remove Heemeyer's body. Police initially believed he had welded himself shut.

Once inside, investigators discovered four weapons, a .50 caliber rifle, two military style assault rifles and a handgun.

The time of death was under investigation. Officers heard a shot fired from inside the box around 4 p.m. Friday. His death was confirmed about early Saturday morning, and the body removed later Saturday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...p_on_re_us/bulldozer_rampage&cid=519&ncid=716

Its those quiet guys you have to watch but it was an impressive piece of kit though - most impressive picture attached.

Emps
 
Probably fits under here because it is strange and crime related:

Fitting response to robbery

07jun04

AN AUSTRALIAN man on holiday in southern China scared off a gang of robbers by faking an epileptic fit.

On a visit to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, Tom Beckett was lured into a dead-end alley by two women who claimed to be showing him the way to a DVD store.

Instead of the promised shopping tour he was taken hostage in a nearby building by five men.

The robbers searched Mr Beckett and, finding a bank card, demanded the pin number. But the quick-thinking Aussie feigned an epileptic seizure, Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post reported.

The robbers poured water over him and massaged his chest, but nothing seemed to work.

They gave up, stole his watch and some cash, then escorted him out of the building and set him free.

http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9766032%5E401,00.html
 
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