In Texas, there’s a real-life cop who moonlights as a superhero. While off-duty, he dresses as characters including Batman, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk, and visits children in hospitals. While he was visiting a safety event at a Walmart store, though, he foiled a real-life crime. [More]
cops
Whataburger Employee Refuses To Serve Police Officers, Gets Fired
By 9.16.15
If this is a fast-food trend, it’s one that deserves stern disapproval from both a human and a business perspective. A few weeks ago, an Arby’s employee reportedly refused to serve police officers food. Now after a Whataburger employee reportedly told two cops that the restaurant wouldn’t serve them, the company has apologized and says that the employee who refused the cops has been fired. [More]
Police Ask Waze To Remove Speed Trap Alerts To Protect Cops
By 1.26.15
The navigation and traffic app Waze is sometimes very helpful to help motorists avoid snarled traffic, construction, and road hazards. One of its features has some police officers worried, though. They worry that the feature that allows Waze users to alert each other to speed traps could endanger the lives of police officers. [More]
Michigan Cops Playing Sneaky Santa Pull Over People To Give Them Gifts Instead Of Tickets
By 12.10.14
What’s the worst thing you can see in the rearview mirror? Police lights flashing as a cop tells you to pull over (that or an avalanche/tornado/mob of goblins chasing you). So for Michigan drivers who stopped for the long arm of the law realized they were getting a treat instead of a ticket from sneaky Santa police, Christmas came extra early. [More]
Police Somehow Not Fooled By $100K Maserati Painted Like A Cop Car
By 8.12.14
Cop car paint colors? Check. Some sort of shield with some sort of saying on the side? Done. K-9 and 9-1-1 decals in appropriate spots? Got’em. Yet somehow, police in Massachusetts realized that a Maserati isn’t likely to be a real cop car. Because hello, $100,000 (give or take a few thousand) sports car, you’ve clearly got better things to do than impersonating a police cruiser. [More]
Police: Grandma Used Shoplifting Tips From TV's 'Cops' To Get Stuff To Bake With Grandson
By 5.31.12
Picking up some great DIY tips from TV shows is all well and good when say, landscaping the garden or learning how to crochet tea cozies. What isn’t a great move is getting ideas on how to shoplift after watching Cops a few too many times, even if it’s so you can bake with your grandson. [More]
Student Uses Smart Phone To Beat Speeding Ticket
By 2.24.11
A student describes how he was able to get out a speeding ticket by whipping out his Android. [More]
Philly Police No Longer Going To Waste Time On Fender Benders
By 4.30.10
Philly police say they are no longer going to waste time and resources responding to minor fender benders in which there are no injuries and the cars can be safely driven away. [More]
Update On Woman Sent To Jail For Using Gift Cards At Best Buy
By 2.4.10 — Updated: 3.13.15
Last month, New York City’s NY1 news channel produced a news segment on the woman who was arrested for paying with AMEX gift cards at a Best Buy. If you read our earlier post with Ilona’s email, you already know most of the basics, but you can see the problematic gift cards and hear Ilona describe the experience in her own words. It turns out that after she was released, she went back to Best Buy for either a refund or the DVD player, but had to leave without either one–she was told she’d have to contact American Express to resolve the problem. [More]
Best Buy Sends Customer To Jail For Paying With AMEX Gift Card
By 2.2.10
Update: The news channel New York 1 has prepared a video segment about Ilona’s experience with Best Buy and the NYC police.
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A shopper just told us that last night last month at a Best Buy in NYC, she was taken to a back room, then cuffed by police officers and taken to a precinct for “further investigation,” because she tried to pay with an American Express gift card her father had bought for her.
Sprint Served Customer GPS Data To Cops Over 8 Million Times
By 12.3.09
An Indiana University grad student has made public an audio recording of a Sprint employee who describes how the company has given away customer GPS location data to cops over 8 million times in less than a year. Ars technica reports that “law enforcement [officers] could log into a special Sprint Web portal and, without ever having to demonstrate probable cause to a judge, gain access to geolocation logs detailing where they’ve been and where they are.” Update: Sprint says the 8 million figure refers to individual pings of GPS data, and that the number of individuals involved is in the thousands. [More]
Get Your Own Ill-Gotten Gains At PropertyRoom.com
By 7.28.09
Homer Simpson: Well, I bet there’s drug dresses and drug vacuum cleaners too.
Gym Member Catches Thief In The Act; Gym Staff Too Lazy To Help
By 7.8.09
We’re pretty impressed that this member of the Washington Sports Clubs at the DC USA Mall helped catch a thief. We’re a little stunned, however, that the staff at the gym let the guy enter in the first place without making sure he had a membership, or that they did nothing to stop him as he ran out with someone behind him yelling, “Stop! Thief!” Thankfully an off-duty cop pursued and apprehended the guy, and the member got back his wallet. But what’s the point of a gym membership and a staff if you’re completely on your own once you get there?
Wendy's Employee Gets Prison Time For Putting Hair In Burger
By 6.2.09
Remember Thomas Bender? He was the Wendy’s employee in West Virginia who garnished a police officer’s sandwich with a ball of pubic hair earlier this year. He’s just been sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years probation.
REI Says ATM Photographer Is Welcome In Their Store Any Time
By 5.15.09
REI’s Director of Corporate Communications contacted us with an official statement about the recent showdown between two Loomis security guards and a customer with an iPhone at one of their Seattle stores. She says despite the document Shane says he was forced to sign at the police station, he is not banned from their stores. Below is REI’s official statement.
Loomis Rent-A-Cops Have Shopper Cuffed, Hauled Away Over ATM Photo
By 5.11.09
While Shane was standing in the customer service line at a Seattle REI, he watched two Loomis employees open and change out the cash in an ATM machine. Shane took a photo of them with his iPhone. This apparently freaked out the Loomis guards, the REI security staff, and then the Seattle police, who put handcuffs on Shane, drove him to the police station, and then made him sign a statement that he wouldn’t return to a REI store for a year. You might have noticed in that summary that they didn’t actually bring any charges against him, which should make it clear to anyone who wants to side with the faux Po-Po that what Shane did wasn’t illegal, that the rent-a-cops should be fired, and that REI and Loomis owe Shane a big apology.
Walmart's Prescription Drug Couriers Arrested For Speeding, Smoking
By 4.26.09
When you think “prescription drugs,” you think of clean, sterile facilities, not three stoners driving 100 mph down I-15 with $30,000 of Walmart’s prescription narcotics in the backseat. Cops pulled the trio over, which included two illegal immigrants, and called Walmart to confirm that these were the folks employed to deliver their dirt-cheap drugs. “They said yeah they were expecting a delivery and the driver was late.”
Cops Find "Ball Of Pubic Hair" In Wendy's Sandwich, Act Surprised
By 3.21.09
A pair of West Virginia Wendy’s employees are facing misdemeanor charges after dropping a “ball of pubic hair” into a police officer’s sandwich. 32-year-old Thomas Bender admitted to garnishing the sandwich, and 20-year-old Joshua Monroe “admitted he encouraged Bender to do it.” The officer, though, saw this coming…
