If I get arrested for stealing a car, that boosted vehicle probably isn’t waiting outside the police station for me to drive away in when I make bail. But a man in New York City who was recently arrested for stealing a home from its rightful owner was able to move back into the house he’s been accused of taking. [More]
Crime & Fraud
News Flash: Eating Your Breathalyzer Results Will Not Get You Off The Hook For Drunk Driving
By 11.4.14
I can remember being a kid and thinking the best way to get rid of paper evidence like a bad report card would be to just shove it in my mouth and eat it. Fortunately, I never got a (really) bad report card [pats self on back] so I didn’t have to employ that method, but police in New York say one driver pulled over for speeding went the route of turning possibly damning breathalyzer results into a comestible. [More]
Passenger Arrested For Groping, Kissing, Putting Headlock On Flight Attendants
By 10.30.14
A Delta Air Lines passenger on board a flight from Atlanta to Denver apparently didn’t get the memo that the days of people looking the other way while you sexually harass a flight attendant are far in the past. Furthermore, if you double-up on your creepy actions by messing with two (2) attendants — and you put one of them in a headlock while trying to kiss her — you’re going to be arrested when that plane lands. [More]
Town Creates Nation’s First “Craigslist Transaction Safe Zone”
By 10.30.14
While the vast majority of purchases made via Craigslist go down without a problem, those don’t make the news; it’s the rare case of people getting scammed or attacked that earns the headlines. In an effort to reduce the chance of those sorts of incidents, one Pennsylvania community has created what it claims is the nation’s first Craigslist Transaction Safe Zone. [More]
Reminder: Don’t Post Photos Of Your Paycheck On Social Media If You’d Like To Avoid ID Theft
By 10.29.14
One way to be sure you aren’t sharing your financial information with the entire Internet? Don’t post it on social media by way of a paycheck made out to you. Yes, you should be proud that you’re raking in the dough. But if you want to keep your identity safe, plastering it on the web is not the way to go. [More]
Police Bust Man For Swiping Shoppers’ Wallets From Strollers At Whole Foods
By 10.29.14
It’s not exactly taking candy from a baby, but plundering strollers to make off with parents’ wallets is still pretty darn low. Police had been on the lookout for a 60-year-old suspect caught on surveillance cameras in Whole Foods stores in New York City reaching into strollers and snatching wallets, and now they say they’ve found their man. [More]
Police: Regretful Thief Returns Money To Gas Station Hours After Robbing It, Apologizes
By 10.27.14
There’s regretting past misdeeds, and then there’s feeling immediately so sorry for doing someone wrong that you return to the scene of the crime to set things aright. The latter was the case for a 23-year-old in California who police said robbed a gas station convenience store and then came back to apologize with the cash later. [More]
American Airlines Flight Forced To Return To Gate After Passenger Discovers “Al-Quida” WiFi Network
By 10.27.14
While there’s no rule that WiFi networks need to employ good spelling, naming a plane hotspot “Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork” isn’t going to help anyone. And it’s because of that poorly chosen/thick-headed decision that an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to London last night had to turn back before it even got started. [More]
Your Electric Company Will Not Call And Demand Payment By Prepaid Card
By 10.24.14
While your local utility could call you up and demand immediate instant payment using a prepaid debit card before shutting off your natural gas and power, they will never actually do that. The owner of the Squeeze Inn, a fantastically-named restaurant in California, learned that the hard way when he panicked and sent $1,000 to scammers claiming to represent Pacific Gas & Electric. [More]
Man Sleeping In His Car At McDonald’s Drive-Thru Charged With DUI After Trying To Pay Cops For Burgers
By 10.24.14
On the one hand, it’s only right and proper for a fast food customer to pay for his four cheeseburgers. But when one man tried to pay the police attempting to wake him up from his slumber in the McDonald’s drive-thru lane, even that honorable effort was overshadowed by the fact that he allegedly drove drunk to get there. [More]
FTC: Tech Support Representatives Pretended To Be From Microsoft, Facebook, Scammed $2.5M From Consumers
By 10.24.14
It makes sense that consumers with a lack of computer knowledge would seek services and assistance from well-known tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook. So it should come as little surprise that a shady company would use this information to dupe consumers out of millions by pretending to be from the popular tech firms selling support services and software. [More]
Feds Searching For Graffiti Artist Vandalizing National Parks And Leaving An Instagram Handle Behind
By 10.23.14
The idea of leaving a place better than when you found it is a fine idea when it comes to things like tidying up a campground before you take off, but that does not mean painting graffiti all over our nation’s parks and wild places. But hey, leaving your Instagram handle on those paintings is a nice touch that should help out authorities when they come looking for you. [More]
Company Touting Work-From-Home Opportunities Must Pay $25M To Consumers Who Made No Money
By 10.22.14
Here are a few clues that the employment “opportunity” you received in that email is a scam: 1) you’re required to pay your new employer hundreds of dollars for a starter kit or computer program; 2) once that program was purchased you’re encouraged to buy more programs for thousands of dollars; and 3) your new employer promises that you’ll be able to make thousands of dollars in a short period of time without ever leaving your couch. That’s about how it worked for a company the Federal Trade Commission recently ordered to repay consumers $25 million. [More]
FTC Fines Company $10M For Achieving A Trifecta Of Annoyance: Mobile Cramming, Spam Texts And Robocalls
By 10.22.14
There are few things worse than getting incessant robocalls. Unless you’re getting robocalls, spam text messages and being charged for mobile cramming. The Federal Trade Commission says all of those horrible, terrible, no-good, very-bad elements were part of a massive scam affecting millions of consumers. And now the companies in charge of the alleged scam are paying a hefty penalty: $10 million. [More]
Store Clerk Fends Off Would-Be Robber By Spraying Her With Insecticide
By 10.21.14
Necessity is the mother of invention, as someone famous and ancient once said, and Plato would be right in the case of a convenience store clerk faced with a would-be robber. She says she didn’t know if the woman demanding money from the register was armed, but darned if she wasn’t going to arm herself… with a can of bug killer. [More]
Diner Arrested After Her “Husband,” Jesus Christ, Fails To Show Up With Promised Cash To Pay The Bill
By 10.21.14
It doesn’t matter if you believe in Jesus (either as the son of God and/or as historical figure) or not: The issue of a hefty unpaid restaurant tab for food and booze hinges on the fact that Jesus Christ failed to show up and pay the bill of a woman claiming he’s her husband in the eyes of the law, a husband that she allegedly promised would walk in any minute to settle her tab with cold, hard cash. [More]
Chili’s Cook Fired Because Even “Sexy” Staff Need To Wear Shirts In The Kitchen
By 10.20.14
While it’s up to an individual to decide whether or not they want to take shirtless photos of themselves and post the evidence on the Internet for all to see, when you pose for those pics in the kitchen of the restaurant where you work, you might end up losing more than your shirt. Such is the fate of a Chili’s cook who just got the boot over a so-called “Sexy Cooks of Chili’s” photo shoot. [More]
Former Nursing Home Manager Accused Of Stealing $460K From Residents
By 10.20.14
Authorities in Michigan say that a manager of a nursing home spent several years siphoning off residents’ funds, making herself wealthier to the tune of nearly half a million dollars in the process — and she wasn’t caught until after she’d already been fired. [More]
