On Christmas Eve in Batavia, N.Y., an elderly Walmart greeter asked a 26-year-old customer for the receipt for her electronics purchases. Instead, the customer allegedly punched her in the face and tried to flee. A mob of customers chased her and prevented her car from leaving the parking lot, and she’s now in jail, charged with two counts of assault. Here’s the unusual part: the customer had receipts for all of her purchases. [More]
crime
Theft Victim Catches Guy Returning Her Stuff To Macy's
By 11.9.11
Rachel thought she would never see her stuff again. Someone had stolen the Christmas gifts she left on the backseat of her car parked in front of her house overnight, along with her iPod. It was $460 out the window. But when she went back to Macy’s to replace some of the gifts, her Spidey-sense started tingling. [More]
Man Tries To Rob Burger King With A Sock
By 11.9.11
You know the economy is bad when crooks can’t even afford decent stick-up weapons. Police have arrested a man who tried to rob a Burger King, using a sock. [More]
Shadow Economies: Harvest Organs From The Poor For The Rich
By 11.4.11
Living in abject poverty, $10,000 is a beguiling promise. All you have to do is give up one kidney. It’s ok, you have another one. But a Bloomberg Markets Magazine investigation shows how gangs around the world prey on the poor and use threats and violence to get them to give up their organs, which they can then resell for upwards of $150,000. This isn’t just happening in some ice-filled bath in China: this week, a Brooklyn man plead guilty to selling black market kidneys to people in New Jersey. [More]
Phony Bedbug Exterminator Steals Jewels
By 11.3.11
New York Police are warning Queens residents to be on the lookout for a jewel thief in bedbug exterminator’s clothing. [More]
Paypal Links Account Missing $2,000 To Yours, Demands You Pay
By 11.3.11
Reader Ben awoke to a rude discovery. Somehow another account had been linked to his Paypal account, and the new account was $2,000 in the red. Paypal was knocking on Ben’s door, telling him to pay up, or else. They locked up his account and froze his cash. When he protested, they treated him like a criminal. [More]
Senator Is Victim Of Credit Card Fraud, Thieves Rack Up $12,000 At Walmart
By 10.28.11
It’s a measure of the brazenness and ubiquity of identity theft that a U.S. Senator has become the latest victim of credit card fraud. Thieves stole the credit card numbers belonging to Senator Daniel Inouye (D) of Hawaii, embedded them on the magnetic strip of a fake credit card, and went on a $12,000 Walmart shopping spree. [More]
Man Accused Of Tossing Molotov Cocktail At Taco Bell For Not Giving Him Enough Meat
By 10.28.11
There’s better ways to lodge a complaint against Taco Bell than by lofting a Molotov cocktail at the drive-thru window, but filling out a suggestion card wasn’t the one this incensed Georgia customer chose at 5am. [More]
Stolen 5,300 Pound Copper Church Bell Recovered Near Scrapyard
By 10.27.11
Ding dong, are you missing a bell? Acting on a tip, police recovered a 5,300 pound copper bell that was stolen last week from the garden of St. Mary’s Cathedral in West Oakland, California. [More]
Copper Traded For Crack
By 10.26.11
Some enterprising drug dealers are helping copper thieves cut out the middleman. They’re accepting copper pipe as legal tender in exchange for crack cocaine. [More]
The Most Shoplifted Food In The World? That's Right, "Cheese."
By 10.26.11
The First WorldWide Shrinkage Survey is not about taking a scientific approach to a Seinfeld plot line. Instead, it measures shoplifting around the globe. “Shrinkage,” in retail parlance, is when people take things from stores without paying for them. And according to their study, the most shoplifted item in the world in 2011 was cheese. [More]
Man In "ZZ Top Beard" Tries To Rob 2 Banks In 10 Minutes
By 10.25.11
A man sporting a “ZZ Top” style beard is wanted in Philadelphia after he robbed two different banks in 10 minutes. [More]
Thieves Stealing Pickup Truck Tailgates
By 10.24.11
The movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” is a lot more plausible if instead of stealing the whole car, you only focus on one smaller aspect of it. That’s what thieves in Oswego, IL are doing, stealing just the tailgates from pickup trucks. [More]
Man Finds Parts Of His Stolen 1949 Ford Shoebox On Craigslist
By 10.21.11
Craigslist is a great place to find stuff. Like parts from the 1949 Ford Shoebox that was stolen from your driveway. [More]
4 Suspects Arrested For Keeping People In "Dungeon" To Steal Their Social Security Checks
By 10.20.11
Four suspects have been arrested after being accused of a diabolical scheme where they locked up people in a basement and stole their Social Security checks. [More]
How To Lock A Bike Properly
By 10.6.11
Bicycle mechanic for three decades Hal Ruzal shows you how to lock up your bike properly, so while the cops are using bait bikes to catch bike thieves, you can keep on riding high. [More]
Campus Cops Catch Bike Thieves With "Bait Bikes"
By 10.5.11
With a high concentration of bicycles and larges crowds to hide in, campuses and universities have been a favorite target for bike thieves. Sometimes they take just one, sometimes a crew comes and cleans out a whole rack. Now campus police at the University of Minnesota are fighting back with “bait bikes.” [More]
Teen Freed From Coke Machine He Tried To Steal From
By 9.28.11
The recession continues to inspire people to do stupid crap to avoid paying money. This week’s case in point, the teen who got stuck in a Coke machine after he tried to get a free can of soda. [More]
