Cops Cause Lighter to Explode Then Over-react
Oct 4, 4:54 PM (ET)
ROSEMEAD, Calif. (AP) - Sheriff's deputies who mistook an exploding cigarette lighter for gunfire dived to the ground and called in reinforcements, shutting down a neighborhood for hours.
"We have a lot of unusual things happen in our business, and we expected the unexpected. It's better to be safe than sorry," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Craton said.
The lighter belonged to one of two people stopped midday Wednesday for loitering and drinking alcohol in Zapopan Park. During questioning, "a lighter was placed on the hood of a radio car," sheriff's Capt. Richard Shaw said.
"The Bic lighter exploded, and shrapnel went everywhere," Shaw said. "Two deputies and the suspects went down to the ground. They all believed they were being fired on." Reinforcements were called in and the neighborhood was locked down for two hours. Deputies clutching shotguns and pistols leaned on squad cars and a command post went up at a nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot.
Paramedics and dozens of deputies were on hand as helicopters buzzed the area. Two hours later, a special enforcement officer discovered the culprit - the Bic lighter.
New E-mail Scam From New Jersey
Oct 4, 5:01 PM (ET)
By WAYNE PARRY
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - E-mail scams seek to separate people from their money by promising a share of unclaimed lottery riches, bounty from a dead fugitive, work-at-home schemes and other enticements.
But an Ocean County man recently got an e-mail with a stereotypical Jersey twist: Gimme your money, and I'll cancel the contract someone put out to kill you.
Harry E. Whitworth, 72, of the Whiting section of Manchester Township, opened his e-mail Tuesday to find a curious screed from a man named Eddy.
"I know that this may sound very surprising to you but it's the situation," the e-mail began. "I have been paid some ransom in advance to terminate you with some reasons listed to me by my employer."
The price to call off the hit: $8,000 - half of which is to be paid up front as a sign of good faith. Sort of.
The e-mail also warned him not to tell friends or relatives, since they might be part of the plot to kill, too.
"I kind of knew it was a scam," said Whitworth, a retired accountant who lives with his wife in a senior citizen development. "The prosecutor's office came over to see me and asked if I had been involved in anything in the past that might have caused this to happen." Whitworth did some Internet research of his own, and found that someone has been running a similar scam in Arizona, with nearly identical e-mails full of typographical errors and misspellings.
The e-mailer promises to send the recipient a videotape of "his employer" putting out the contract on the recipient's life.
But there were no instructions on how to comply with the demand for cash, and no timetable on when it had to be paid in order to avoid sleeping with the fishes.
Capt. Michael Mohel, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said the case remains under investigation but declined further comment.
The FBI received 115 complaints of similar e-mails reaching people across the country in less than a month last winter, according to its Web site. The e-mails vary only in the amount of money demanded, ranging as high as $80,000.
Some even incorporate personal information about the recipient that is widely available from online databases, the FBI said.
Another Rare Good News Story
Oct 4, 8:41 PM (ET)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A county garbage operations employee found a plastic bag on the road stuffed with $65,000 Thursday - and immediately turned it in to authorities. It turned out the money had fallen off a Loomis armored car a half hour before Debbie Cole found it near the Pinellas County solid waste operations facility where she works. First she thought it was a turtle in the road.
The 53-year-old Largo woman found the bag just before 7 a.m., full of enough $50 and $100 bills to pay her salary for two years. She immediately contacted a supervisor, who called deputies. It's not clear how the bag fell from the truck, said Mark Clark, spokesman for Loomis, a Houston-based cash-handling company.
Cole's boss, Bob Hauser, said he can't give her a raise or a bonus for her good deed because she's a government employee. But maybe, he said, he can arrange some extra time off. Cole, who grew up in Long Island, said she was raised to be honest. She said she raised her four daughters the same way.
Did she think for just a minute about keeping the money? "Everyone keeps asking me that," Cole said. "To be honest, no. It didn't even cross my mind."
Stupid Criminal in the News
Oct 3, 9:49 PM (ET)
TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) - Mooning a police officer was community activist Steven Lee Myrick's undoing. Myrick, 41, was convicted by a jury Tuesday of raping a Hawthorne woman during a burglary seven years ago.
The crime was unsolved until he exposed his bare buttocks years later and a DNA sample collected by officers linked him to the rape.
Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding Myrick guilty of residential burglary and two counts of rape.
He faces multiple life terms when sentenced Nov. 5 because jurors found true special allegations that a gun was used, the burglary was gang-related and the rape occurred during a burglary while the victim was tied up, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Jodi Link said. "Thank goodness for DNA," Link said.
Defense attorney James Cooper wouldn't comment on the verdict.
After Myrick was convicted of mooning officers outside his Watts housing project during a demonstration, he was required to submit a DNA sample for a law enforcement database.
Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/504/law_enforcement_police_corruption_drugs
Scheming cops, greedy cops, rogue cops ripping off dealers, and, of course, yet another jail guard falls prey to temptation. Let's get to it:
In Zanesville, Ohio, two Zanesville police officers and a Zanesville hospital police officer were arrested Monday for allegedly extorting one drug dealer and plotting to rip off another one. Officer Sean Beck, 28, the alleged ringleader, Officer Trevor Fusner, 30, and hospital police officer Chad Mills, 29, all face federal charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Beck had extorted $7,300 from one drug dealer in exchange for his help ripping off another one and enlisted the other two to help him out. But that rip-off never occurred because Beck got greedy, hit his extorted drug dealer for another $1,000, and the dealer then snitched him out.
In Detroit, a Detroit police officer was indicted last week for stealing six kilograms of cocaine from a department evidence room. Officer Vincent Crockett, 39, is charged with possessing cocaine with intent to distribute and stealing government property. The cocaine went missing in March, and Detroit narcotics officers eventually enlisted the FBI in the investigation. If convicted, Crockett could face up to life in prison and a $4 million fine.
In Chicago, a former Chicago police officer was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for shaking down drug dealers with other corrupt officers. Former officer Erik Johnson faced up to 11 years, but got a break at sentencing because he helped investigate the leaders of the rogue cops, then-Officers Broderick Jones and Corey Flagg. His testimony also helped to convict Eural Black, Johnson's former partner and the only officer among the five charged to go to trial. The others have all pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
In Largo, Florida, a jail guard was arrested Tuesday on charges he sold drugs to inmates. Kevin Rix, 24, who has been a corrections officer since 2005, worked at the Largo Road Prison, where a three-month undercover investigation found that Rix provided drugs to inmates in exchange for cash, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He is charged with unlawful compensation, introducing contraband into a prison system, and trafficking in cocaine. He was last reported to be on the other side of the bars at the Pinellas County Jail.
