Madison, Wisconsin, police chief Mike Koval has reported on a man who turned himself in for having committed a 'sex offence'. The 32-year-old man explained to authorities that he had attached a camera to his shoe in order to capture up-skirt vistas. The man was merely 'counseled on his actions' and released. Koval explained why: his foot hadn't actually shot any footage. In a trial run with the device at the man's home, the camera battery exploded, injuring him badly enough that he received hospital treatment.
Sherman Hopkins, Jr, entered a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, home with a stolen
pistol, confiscated the resident's mobile phone, and demanded that the man
turn on a computer. His next instructions came from a piece of paper
in his pocket, which described how to transfer an Internet domain name
between two accounts held with registrar GoDaddy. Hopkins was after
the victim's domain name doitforstate.com.
According to the local US Attorney's office, the 43-year-old Hopkins
became upset when the victim was prompted for the new owner's mailing
address and phone number. Hopkins pistol-whipped him and used a stun
gun on various parts of his body. When these actions didn't cause the
transfer requirements to change, Hopkins cocked the gun and a struggle
ensued. After being shot in the leg, the victim gained control of the
weapon, fired several times at his attacker's chest, and then rang
the authorities.
The armed home invasion and associated goings-on have earned Hopkins
a 20-year federal prison term.
In Bensalem, Pennsylvania, a man foiled his own attempt to steal a pickup truck that was sitting in the owner's driveway with its key in the ignition. Security camera outside the home captured the would-be vehicle thief's attempt to overcome the one kink in his plan: he had to make a three-point turn around the car that was parked behind the pickup. This attempt included repeatedly hitting the other car. The man ultimately gave up and fled on foot, leaving the local police the ongoing task of tracking him down.
Montana's Samantha Ray Mears is accused of lying in wait behind her
ex-boyfriend's bedroom door with a machete until he returned home,
then ordering him to undress and have sex with her. He later stated
that he complied, apart from a pause during which Mears, still holding
the machete while sitting atop him, bit him on the arm and bade him
continue. An argument broke out as soon as the sex act was complete.
The altercation ended with the arrival of the Great Falls police, whom
the ex-boyfriend had summoned when stepping away for a moment to ring
'Doug'.
Mears, 19, had had a seven-year relationship with the man, during
which she accumulated various charges of assaulting him. As for her
version of recent events, she claims that he kidnapped her and then
gave her a machete for self-defence.
A man walked into a Huntington Bank branch in Columbus, Ohio, and handed the teller a hold-up note. Deeming the stack of money she then passed to him insufficient, the 51-year-old robber demanded more, from the 'electronic cash recycle' machine in the lobby. The teller explained that the system requires a driver's licence before it will dispense cash, whereupon he handed over his driving licence. David Menser left with the additional loot he desired, and the police later tracked him down and arrested him.
Ohio's Jaime Revis uses butterflies in her photography, so she was pleased when staff at Cincinnati's Krohn Conservatory told her that she could have the dead butterflies they sweep up that would otherwise get discarded. She later explained that she had been acting on this information when she stepped over a stone barrier and lifted a blue morpho butterfly from the exhibit there. After Revis, 36, was caught with four stolen butterflies, she agreed that this 'misunderstanding' constituted misdemeanor theft, and she was sentenced to probation. Revis agreed to a lifetime ban from the conservatory and to receiving critical-thinking lessons.
Finally, authorities heard yelling at a supermarket near the scene
of a bank robbery they were investigating in Dover, New Hampshire.
Entering the supermarket, they saw a man's legs dangling above the
seafood and deli area. The legs withdrew while officers were clearing
the premises, then their owner fell partially through the suspended
ceiling above the refrigerated meats.
Once officers coaxed 30-year-old Eric Lombardi down, he explained
that he had panicked when seeing police cruisers, since he was on bail
in another town. Lombardi has been charged with criminal mischief,
trespassing, and resisting arrest. And the bank robber was arrested
later in the day.
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