Cats! We love’em. Well, lots of us do. But despite that urge for a cuddly companion to call your own, it’s good to remember that you should always be careful when buying pets from someone you don’t know. One woman looking to bring two new kittens into her home found that out the hard way when she sent $3,000 to a stranger, and got exactly zero cats in return. [More]
Crime & Fraud
Police Chase Down Stolen Doughnut Truck [Insert Obvious Joke Here]
By 10.1.14
Police chasing after doughnuts — am I stuck in one of Uncle Larry’s jokes? No, not this time: Someone stole a van full of doughnuts and led police on a merry chase for it through Portland, OR, before cops were able to apprehend the suspect and make him drop a pilfered pastry he was apparently munching on during the pursuit. No doughnut left behind. [More]
Home Depot Pepper Spray Spat Sends 4 To Hospital
By 9.30.14
The good news: It’s a Home Depot story that doesn’t involve your credit or debit card information being stolen. The not-so-good news: More than a dozen people at a California Home Depot had to be treated after a customer decided that it would be a good idea to use pepper spray on another customer. [More]
Woman Pulled Over For Drunk Driving Admits She Was Trying To Find Pizza Online
By 9.30.14
We as a society are trying so hard to fight distracted driving by warning about the dangers of using your phone while you’re behind the wheel — but it seems we have to expand the message from “Don’t text/use social media/email” while driving to also include, “Don’t try to order pizza online while you maneuver a huge hunk of metal through the world.” And don’t drink and drive on top of that (or at all). [More]
Teens Introduce Themselves On Camera, Try Bending iPhones At The Apple Store
By 9.29.14
While bendgate continues to swirl around Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus, something else is being warped — the minds of today’s youth, who somehow believe committing criminal damage at a retail store is going to solve all bendy problems. It won’t — and showing your faces on camera and introducing yourselves before you do something like that is going to create an entirely different problem for you, kids. [More]
Safeway Employee Convinces Shoppers To Not Fall For $4K Scam
By 9.26.14
If you work at a store and some customers come in trying to put thousands of dollars on prepaid debit cards, you’d probably get the sense that something is amiss. The question is: Do you do anything about it or just help them put the money on the card and hope they aren’t being scammed? [More]
Trucker Abandons Trailer With 35K Pounds Of Raw Chicken After Failed Ransom Attempt
By 9.25.14
Warning: If the thought of rotting chicken is something that will put you off your lunch, stop reading now. Because law enforcement near Missoula, MT have quite a bit of a smelly headache to deal with, after a trucker abandoned a trailer packed with 35,000 pounds of raw chicken at a truck stop on Tuesday. [More]
Virgin America Flight Diverted After Passenger Masturbates, Tries To Open Exit Door
By 9.24.14
A Virgin America flight from Boston to Los Angeles had to stop in Nebraska on the way. Because while self-love is perfectly acceptable and healthy, it should not be attempted on a plane full of people, and followed by an attempt to exit out the emergency door. You know, planes being public and in the air and all. [More]
9% Of Americans Are Bad People, Think It’s OK To Use Phone At Movies
By 9.23.14
If you’re reading this in your office or on the train, take a second to look around you. About 1-in-10 of the people you see are horrible human beings who think it’s okay to use their phones during a movie. And if you’re reading this at the movie theater, there’s a good chance you’re one of these people. [More]
That Amazing $70K Work-At-Home Job Probably Isn’t Real
By 9.23.14
If the following comes as a surprise to you, that’s okay. This is why Consumerist exists. Today, we’re here to remind you of the following: if someone e-mails you to offer a work-at-home job promising a nice middle-class income for only a few hours of work every week, it is probably a scam and you should run away. [More]
Drug Ring Bust Exposes Food Truck Selling Tacos With A Side Of Meth
By 9.23.14
It’s no Los Pollos Hermanos, but Mexican food and methamphetamines have met once again, this time outside the fictional bounds of Breaking Bad, on a taco truck in Denver. Of 17 people there recently indicted on charges related to trafficking/selling meth, one was accused of shilling meth right from the taco truck where she worked. [More]
You Won’t Get Through Airport Security With 58 Bricks Of Pot, 2 Guns And 350 Rounds Of Ammo, FYI
By 9.22.14
Don’t let the headline mislead you: It’s pretty much guaranteed you won’t get through airport security with 57 bricks of pot and any amount of guns and ammo. But the point here is that someone actually tried to hide all those very prohibited objects in luggage. Transportation Security Administration agents put the kibosh on that over the weekend at John F. Kennedy International Airport in NYC. [More]
Failed Stowaway Tries To Hide In Plane’s Wheel Well For Free Ride From Orlando To NYC
By 9.19.14
Just because one person survived flying miles above the ground in the wheel well of an airplane doesn’t mean everyone should try it. Luckily for a shirtless, barefoot man who police say tried to stowaway in a JetBlue plane’s wheel, he never left the ground. [More]
Judge Hits Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme With $40.7 Million Penalty
By 9.19.14
If someone convinces you to invest with him by promising returns of 7% weekly, and that he’s never lost money and there’s no risk, you should be incredibly concerned about giving him your money, regardless of whether it’s a dollar or a Bitcoin. But the operator of a Bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme in Texas was able to rake in millions based on completely empty promises — and now has to pay it all back. [More]
Court Shuts Down $11 Million High School Diploma Mill
By 9.19.14
Not everyone graduates from high school, but for nearly a decade, a company in Florida has been offering what it claims are “official” diplomas from “accredited” schools to consumers who took an online test (and paid betweeen $200 to $300). Except federal authorities say these diplomas are as bogus as they sound, and this company has allegedly scammed consumers for at least $11.1 million. [More]
No, You Can’t Shampoo Your Hair With Mayo (Or Anything) In Public Fountains
By 9.18.14
Sure, public fountains look just like giant showers, but the thing is, they’re not. They’re available to the public for viewing, listening to, sometimes throwing money into, but definitely not for bathing. Not with mayonnaise in your hair, not for any other reason. [More]
Court Shuts Down Payday Lenders Who Made Millions Off “Loans” Borrowers Didn’t Ask For
By 9.17.14
Whether you think that payday loans are a necessary financial offering for people with bad credit to get low-value, short-term loans or a predatory product that only results in more debt for the nation’s poorest consumers, you’d agree that no loans should be doled out without the borrower’s approval. But one network is accused of putting unauthorized payday loans in consumers’ bank accounts so it can eventually siphon off even more money. [More]
Scammers Made $60K Taking Rental Deposits For Other People’s Apartments
By 9.17.14
There is a longstanding, if sketchy, tradition in New York City of people signing a lease on an apartment with the sole intent of subletting it for a profit. But where that crosses the line from sketchy to just plain evil is when you’re merely using someone else’s home as a showcase to rack up thousands of dollars in ill-gotten deposits from hopeful tenants. [More]
