LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS
If you’re trying to smuggle a half-kilo of cocaine through airport security, you might want to try harder than an unnamed middle-aged man from Colombia, who was detained in late June at Barcelona-El Prat airport in Spain, according to Spanish police. The man arrived at the airport on a flight from Bogota and seemed nervous – and no wonder, what with a comically “oversized toupee” under his hat, Reuters reported. Spanish police searched him and found a bundle of cocaine, worth about $34,000, taped to his head.
PRECOCIOUS
Four Australian kids took running away from home to a new level on July 13 when they wrote a goodbye note and absconded with cash, fishing gear, and an SUV belonging to one of their parents. The three boys and one girl, aged 10 to 14, left Rockhampton in Queensland and headed south to Grafton, a trip of more than 600 miles. Along the way, they twice bought gas without paying and survived a short police chase in New South Wales, which was terminated by the highway patrol “due to age of the driver and road conditions,” acting police inspector Darren Williams told Fox News. Around 10:30pm on July 14, police finally caught up with the kids, who locked the doors and refused to exit the car. An officer broke a window with a baton to gain entry. The young thieves will be charged, but they couldn’t be questioned until their parents showed up.
THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES
A Delta Airlines flight from Puerto Rico to New York was forced to return to San Juan on July 3 after Carlos Ramirez, 30, “became unruly,” Reuters reported. “I am God!” Ramirez shouted, according to Puerto Rican police. “San Juan is going to disappear tomorrow. I came to save the world, and I am going to end terrorism.” Flight attendants and passengers restrained the man until the plane could land, then Puerto Rico police took him into custody. The cockpit remained secure during the fracas.
IT’S RAINING MEN
In southwest London, as an unidentified man sunbathed in his backyard on June 30, he was startled by the body of another man that apparently fell from an airplane, landing just three feet away in his garden. Police believe the body was that of a stowaway on a Kenya Airways flight, who fell out as the plane lowered its wheels on the approach to Heathrow Airport, some 10 miles away. The resident “didn’t even realize what it was to begin with. He was asleep and then there was a huge impact,” a neighbor told Reuters. A Kenya Airways spokesperson said the 4,250-mile flight from Nairobi takes about nine hours, and upon arrival at Heathrow, workers found a bag, water, and food in the plane’s landing gear compartment. The stowaway has not been identified.
CRIME REPORT
When Flagler County (Florida) Sheriff’s officers pulled over Derick McKay, 36, for speeding on July 11, they noticed he seemed… uncomfortable, and although the deputies smelled marijuana, he denied having anything illegal. But when McKay got to the police station (having been arrested for driving on a suspended license), he admitted that he did have some narcotics hidden between his buttocks. Indeed, Fox 43 reported, McKay produced more than a dozen small baggies, including: a baggie of crack, eight baggies of heroin, two baggies of Molly, a baggie of marijuana, 12 Lortab pills, and 12 Oxycodone pills.
TECHNO-WEIRD
The New York Post reported on July 14 that more than 4,000 Swedes have willingly had microchips implanted in their hands to replace credit cards and cash. The chips also help people monitor their health and can be programmed to allow access into buildings. Jowan Osterlund, a former body piercer who pioneered the chips, says the technology is safe. But British scientist Ben Libberton, based in Sweden, said he worries that people aren’t considering the potential dangers, including the unwitting dissemination of data about a person. “Do I get a letter from my insurance company saying premiums are going up before I know I’m ill?” he wondered.
BRIGHT IDEA
Rapper, sports agent, and self-proclaimed “Mr. Alabama” Kelvin James Dark, 37, of Talladega, Alabama, was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 10 after allegedly throwing multiple kilograms of suspected methamphetamine off a high-rise balcony onto a street below. In a press release titled “It’s Raining Meth,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said its agents were searching the property as part of a smuggling investigation when the drugs went overboard. Agents were able to recover the drugs, valued at an estimated $250,000, and also found two semi-automatic rifles, a handgun, marijuana valued at $60,000, and a “substantial” amount of cash, AL.com reported. Dark and 33-year-old Tiffany Peterson of Atlanta were arrested for trafficking meth and marijuana, among other charges.
EWWWWW
This summer’s “who’s pooping in the pool?” mystery is taking place in the Buckingham Woods neighborhood pool in Macomb Township near Detroit. The serial offender has caused the pool to close several times, and the neighborhood association is taking action – and taking names. “We are reviewing attendance logs and recorded video,” a July 12 statement read, according to the Detroit Free Press. And the Macomb County Health Department is working with the pool to keep the water free of pathogens such as E. coli. Further, the association has hired a pool attendant to be on-site through the end of summer. (UPDATE: On July 18, the association announced the offending swimmer had been identified and banned, saying it is now “looking at the various options for restitution.”)
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