We begin with 17-year-old Hayden Godfrey, a Smithfield, Utah, high-school student who felt sad because some girls at his school didn't receive flowers for Valentine's Day. Since age 14, he had given flowers to dozens of girls there anonymously, but this year he decided to expand the scale. By working as a grocery bagger, McDonald's cook, and dish-washer, he earned the $450 necessary to buy a carnation for each of the 834 female students. Volunteers distributed the flowers. Godfrey later wrote: 'I don't think anything can compare to seeing every girl in your life holding a flower as they walk through the halls.'
Malachi Love-Robinson has a history of dressing up as a doctor, and
last February I reported on him doing so at a Florida hospital. No
charges were filed then. Now that he's turned 18, he has upped his
game, by setting up his own medical clinic, with which he claimed to
be a registered physician. He rented space at a building used by
doctors near West Palm Hospital, and thus New Birth New Life
Holistic and Alternative Medical Center & Urgent Care was born.
After a tip-off led to his arrest for both practising without a
medical licence and stealing cheques from an 86-year-old patient,
Love-Robinson said that he was 'deeply saddened and a little
disrespected' by the charges.
Reuters reports on 21-year-old Dustin Taylor's decision that the police were the best people to contact for removal of his handcuffs. He and his wife had lost the key after 'doing some kinky things' the previous night. The police obliged Taylor, visiting his Fort Smith, Arkansas, home to remove the handcuffs, but Taylor was soon wearing a proper, police-issue pair: a routine search for Taylor's name in a police database revealed an outstanding warrant for his arrest.
Knowing that they were both intoxicated, Wisconsin thirty-somethings
Jason Roth and Amanda Rose Eggert wanted to do the responsible thing when
they needed to get home with their 11-month-old baby. Therefore, they
gave their pickup truck keys to their nine-year-old daughter and asked
her for a ride home. Police soon responded to a call about an erratic
driver. The adults have entered a 'not guilty' plea with the Polk
County court to charges of recklessly endangering safety and
neglecting a child.
Eggert also faces charges connected with fisticuffs - she had cut
her hand while snowmobiling earlier in the day, then started a fight
with the paramedics.
About a year ago, Noela Rukundo attended her step-mother's funeral in
her native Burundi. Her husband, Balenga Kalala, rang that evening
from Australia and suggested that she deal with her sadness by getting
some fresh air. Outside, she was kidnapped by gunmen, who later asked
what she had done to merit a contract on her life, and she soon heard
Kalala say 'Kill her' on speakerphone.
When she came around after fainting, she was told 'we don't kill
women and children' and that 'we just want you to go back, to
tell other stupid women like you what happened'. Rukundo said that
she knew Kalala to be violent but never thought she'd be his target.
Three days later, Kalala - who had since paid an additional fee for
the murder - was at home after receiving donations from mourners.
Rukundo revealed herself and had him escorted from the property.
He insisted that he was innocent until the police played incriminating
phone conversations: the hit men had given Rukundo a memory card and
records of his payments. Kalala then begged for forgiveness and
explained that he'd thought Rukundo wanted to leave him.
He has now been sentenced to nine years in prison. Rukundo
meanwhile is seeking a new place to live with her eight children,
explaining that various members of Melbourne's Congolese community
are upset at her for reporting Kalala to the police.
A man staggered down a street in Kuwait and then climbed on top of a car to perform a twerking-style dance. With traffic at a halt, the unidentified man climbed back down and washed his hands in a puddle. He then turned his hip-waggling to a police officer standing on the sidelines, next to his patrol car. The man then expanded his moves to kicking the cop in the face. After the officer hit the ground, members of the public rushed in and were able to delay things long enough for the miscreant to be arrested. Alcohol is believed to have been involved.
When Kent and Jill Easter arrived at their son's Irvine, California,
school to collect him from after-school tennis lessons, he wasn't
in his usual spot. The class's volunteer supervisor, PTA president
Kelli Peters, suggested that perhaps he had been slow to queue up
afterward. The couple, both lawyers, took this as a dig at the boy's
intelligence, so they decided to get back at her. Over the next
year, in 2010-11, they claimed that Peters had caused the boy to have anxiety
attacks by leaving him unattended for extended periods, accused her of
stalking the family, and finally planted drugs in her car.
The last of these played out with Kent using a fake Indian accent to
report 'drugs, all over the place' in Peters's car. Officers worked
out that the call had been made from near his law firm and that the
drugs bore the Easters' DNA. Now, Kent's licence to practise law has
been suspended, and now-ex-wife Jill has been disbarred. Together,
they must pay $5.7 million in damages.
After the ruling, Peters said: 'I wouldn't have gone this far had
they said they were sorry. This was [...] about standing up to people
that pick on other people.'
Mississippi's Audy McCool, 52, and his son Michael, 29, visited McLemore Arms, a gun shop in Pearl River County, to collect the firearm they had dropped off for repairs. When the clerk told them that the weapon couldn't be repaired but they'd still have to pay the $25 service fee as agreed, they were unhappy, so she summoned her husband, shop-owner Jacob Edward McLemore, who arrived with his teenaged son to resolve matters. The resolution didn't go as she had hoped: four handguns were drawn - in unknown order - and Michael allegedly shot Jacob and his son several times with a .40-calibre pistol. Both died on the scene. Audy and Michael suffered life-threatening gunshot injuries and were taken to an area hospital. Police are investigating.
Want more?
Follow the link for earlier
clippings.
Want later clippings? Take a look at the
March pile.
Go to the Clippings index page
© 2016 Anna Shefl