Sometimes gas siphoning thieves are found when they accidentally get gas in their mouths when trying to initiate the transfer from a gas tank to their canisters. This one was caught after the gas station owner got suspicious about the minivan sitting on his lot. When police arrived, they opened the doors to find a generator-powered vacuum slurping up 250 gallons of diesel from the station’s tanks into the plastic drums inside the retrofitted van. [More]
crime
Daycare Owner Doped Kids To Make Them Go To Sleep
By 9.9.11
A daycare owner in Texas was arrested by police for mixing antihistamines into the kids’ milk to make them fall asleep. [More]
Man Arrested At Winn-Dixie With Lobster, Shrimp, And Pork Down His Pants
By 9.8.11
If you’re going to shoplift two lobster tails, two bags of shrimp, and a pork loin from a grocery store, what’s the least obvious way to do so? Shove them in your shorts, of course. A MIssissippi man is accused of shoplifting after allegedly doing just that. [More]
Federal Prosecutor Is Latest Credit Card Skimming Victim
By 9.6.11
ATM credit card skimming has gotten so pervasive that thieves managed to snag the digits of U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan, a federal prosecutor, and lift $1,000 from her bank account. [More]
Fake Utility Workers Stealing Thousands In Jewelry From Customers
By 8.18.11
Thieves have been dressing up as local utility workers for BGE in Maryland. [More]
Man Finds Camera Hidden In Starbucks Bathroom, Doesn't Even Get A Free Coffee For It
By 8.12.11
A plumber is pissed after finding a camera hidden inside a Starbucks men’s room. First it was the camera, then it was the employees’ blase attitude, then it was the police seizing his laptop. And he didn’t get a thank you from Starbucks for his deed, not even a free coffee. [More]
Wedding Photographer Convicted For Not Turning Over Photos To Couple
By 8.11.11
This story is sweet justice for anyone out there who’s gotten married and had to beg and plead just to get their photos back: a South Carolina wedding photographer was sentenced to two years of house arrest for not turning over the photos he took of a couple’s wedding, even though they had already paid him $2,450. [More]
Extreme Couponer Arrested For Stealing 185 Newspapers
By 8.10.11
A woman who “just loves to save money” is in legal trouble after surveillance cameras caught her stealing bags of unsold newspapers from newspaper boxes. Her goal was to snatch up as many coupon inserts as possible. [More]
Comcast Repairman Charged With Stealing Jewelry From Customers, Including Cancer Patient
By 8.8.11
A Comcast technician in Georgia was charged with stealing from his customers homes when he went to make repairs, including jewelry from a recovering cancer patient. [More]
Elderly Woman Dies From Heat After Her A/C Was Stolen
By 8.5.11
Two days after she reported her central air conditioning had been stolen, a 79-year old woman in Texas died from heat-related causes. [More]
Guy Arrested For Posing As Drug Rep To Steal From Samples Cabinet
By 8.3.11
As we all learned from watching Love and Other Drugs, there’s plenty of good reasons to keep drug sales reps out of doctor’s offices. They use persuasion and charisma, and sometimes less savory methods, to get doctors to prescribe the drugs they’re pushing, privileging profits over patients. But rather than just be worried about what they’re putting on the doctor’s shelves, doctors should be also worried about what the salespeople might be taking off. That’s the case with a man who was arrested in Northport, New York, for posing as a drug sales rep and then stealing meds from the sample cabinet. [More]
The Black Money Scam
By 7.26.11
It’s called the “black money scam.” The scammer shows the victim a briefcase full of black bills. The victim is told the money has been dyed black so that it could escape the notice of customs. But to turn the money back into usable cash, you need to use an extremely expensive solution, which the scammer is happy to sell for $100,000. [More]
Thieves Decide They Want Zipcars' Wheels Right Now
By 7.22.11
Looks like some thieves took Zipcar’s slogan, “Wheels when you want them,” too literally. [More]
Do Not Sell A $5,000 Dump Truck For $450 In Scrap Metal
By 7.21.11
Back in May, the owner of a 1977 International Harvester dump truck valued at about $5,000 parked it in his Syracuse, NY driveway. Neighbors told police that someone came with a flatbed truck, loaded up the dump truck, and took it away. Did they buy the truck? Repossess it? No. The couple are accused of stealing the truck, then selling it for about $450 in scrap metal. [More]
Chihuahua Emasculates Armed Robbers
By 7.19.11
When you’re evaluating which pooch is worth the most bounce per ounce, consider the mighty chihuahua. Often itself the brunt of humiliation by being tied up in pink ribbons and carried around in tiny backpacks by humans who consider it fashionable, the chihuahua is actually a fierce and loyal companion capable of fending off attackers many times its size. Witness the ferocity and devotion of the chihuahua in this video showing one running off two masked thieves robbing a smoke shop. They may have a shotgun but he’s got moxie! [More]
Philly To Warn Those Who Text And Walk
By 7.19.11
Don’t text and walk at the same time without looking ahead in Philadelphia. The city is giving out warnings to pedestrians who walk down the street with their heads down while tapping into their phones at the same time. [More]
Police: Alleged Shoplifter Stuffed Beef Down His Pants
By 7.14.11
What probably started as a normal day at a South Carolina grocery store ended with action and intrigue after employees noticed a man leaving the store with several packages of tenderloin stuffed down his pants. According to the police report, a manager confronted the man in the parking lot, reaching inside his waistband and pulling out a tenderloin. And then things got interesting. [More]
Four Charged In Alleged $2.5 Million Reverse Mortgage Racket
By 7.11.11
For their victims, the phone call sounded like salvation. Seniors, living on a fixed income and having trouble with the bills, they were glad to hear someone offering them a reverse mortgage that would allow them to turn the equity in their house into cash. But the four mortgage professionals charged with perpetrating a $2.5 million reverse mortgage fraud scheme are anything but angels. Their aftermath has left those who signed up with them impoverished and close to foreclosure. [More]
