Dumb criminals

[Gillianren]

I think I'd put it in a separate sentence. I don't think how long they were married is as important as that they aren't anymore, and what I was taught in journalism class was that you put the most important information first. And if they were divorced, say that instead.

[Fazor]

I think I'd put it in a separate sentence. I don't think how long they were married is as important as that they aren't anymore, and what I was taught in journalism class was that you put the most important information first. And if they were divorced, say that instead.

I didn't have too much of a problem with how it was worded, just "looked funny." Though you could certainly argue that if it looks funny, you should probably reword it. I agree that the duration of their marriage isn't really very important to the story. I'd have probably opted to just leave it out.

Including irrelevant information and/or cramming too many descriptors into a sentence or article is something I see all the time. It's also something I'm guilty of on my website. I've tried to make an active effort to edit that back. I know more and more I find myself removing entire sentences and thoughts during the editing phase, and I think it's really helped. Now if only I could make the stuff that remains better.

[HenrikOlsen]

"wife of 25 years from whom he'd recently been separated"

Or is that language unfit for a newspaper?

[Gillianren]

No, that's fine.

[NEOWatcher]

I agree that the duration of their marriage isn't really very important to the story. I'd have probably opted to just leave it out.

Actually; it gives some insight for whether it was a "snap" situation (or event) or if they were already volitile people that couldn't handle marriage.

[Fazor]

Actually; it gives some insight for whether it was a "snap" situation (or event) or if they were already volitile people that couldn't handle marriage.

Only if you also include some description of the marriage up to that point. Otherwise you're just leaving us to assume it was a volatile marriage for 25 years.

[Jeff Root]

I thought the 25-year figure was very important. My guess was
that the guy changed recently, thus the separation after such a
long time together.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[NEOWatcher]

We haven't had one in a few months, so here's one...
Facebook Photo Sinks Man Who Stole Police Gas
Ok; getting caught on Facebook seems somewhat common nowadays.
But; stealing from the police?

On a side note, I get disappointed at those people that a joke is ok in any context. In this story you will see his response with "lol" in it.
Sorry guy, it's not a joke... it's a crime. Admit it.

[DoggerDan]

[QUOTE=NEOWatcher;2009571]We haven't had one in a few months, so here's one...
Facebook Photo Sinks Man Who Stole Police Gas

So clean... Real life isn't anywhere near this clean.

[Trebuchet]

What's the first thing you should do when the cops are chasing you and you've made it to the state border and they break off the chase? Why, stop on a bridge and jump into a river, of course!

Linky

[Perikles]

When the police knocked on the door of a serial burglar, he automatically asked "have you come about the burglary?". Actually, no they hadn't, it was just routine. Oooops. Daily Mail

[swampyankee]

There does seem to be an entirely new species of stupidity: recording (I almost said "filming," to show my age) oneself while committing a crime. Two people in this area recorded themselves abusing children:
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/crime/c...ed-child-abuse
and
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/27...es-ire-mother/

[Tog]

I'm not sure if this was an actual crime or not. Is there such thing as attempted theft by deception?

Yesterday morning, about 4 AM, a guy walked into the hotel and told me his mother had forwarded him a coupon for our hotel. I asked him to forward it to the hotel so I could see it. He fiddled with his phone for a while, then got it to go though. Here is the text. The only changes I made were to remove the hotel name, and the forum removing the extra spaces between some of the words.

Enjoy a complimentary room at ANY!! of are great location across the Nation. Good for two night @ no cost or deposit thanks for your last stay. Are team at <hotel name> would like to apologize for any issues that came up we hope that have resolved them. . Sincerely <hotel name> people relations Manager

P.s Note for front desk put room charge under Hospitality no billing card need just I.d info obtained.

At the top was "letterhead" made from cropping the hotel name and phone number from a website.
We're not a chain. We're a single property independent.
He got "are" vs. "our" wrong twice.
I'm not sure what a "people relations Manager" is, but I want that on a business card.

Sadly, there are people working here I think would have accepted it.

[Jim]

I hope you told him, "Oh, that's not us. That's the one in [insert name of nearby town]."

[DonM435]

I hope you told him, "Oh, that's not us. That's the one in [insert name of nearby town]."

Or do a Tony Perkins impression and say "You'll have to clear this with Mother, just walk this way ... "

[Fazor]

I've never thought of that. Typing my own kupons. Geneous! I can saves LOT moneys! Everthings all for-hundred persent off! Woohoo!

[Tog]

I hope you told him, "Oh, that's not us. That's the one in [insert name of nearby town]."

He had that covered with the "any of are location" bit.

Or do a Tony Perkins impression and say "You'll have to clear this with Mother, just walk this way ... "

He beat me to that one too. He said we sent his mother the coupon and she forwarded it to him. When I refused it he said something like, "My mother will be really upset you wouldn't honor this. She'll probably call here tomorrow."

The guy is 30 years old and he threatens to tell his mom I wouldn't take his art project at face value.

The upside to this is that the boss got such a kick out of it that he called me at home to talk about it. I asked how professional I needed to be in these situations and he basically said I had a free hand.

We had a pharmacist at the grocery store who would see a forged prescription and tell the person trying to pass it things like, "This couldn't look more fake if you wrote in crayon,' or "Would you trust someone stupid enough to take this to actually give you what you think you're asking for?"

I don't have a whole store full of back up and an alarm button, so I don't know that I'd go that far with it, but on the right night...

[John Mendenhall]

I'm not sure if this was an actual crime or not. Is there such thing as attempted theft by deception?

Yesterday morning, about 4 AM, a guy walked into the hotel and told me his mother had forwarded him a coupon for our hotel. I asked him to forward it to the hotel so I could see it. He fiddled with his phone for a while, then got it to go though. Here is the text. The only changes I made were to remove the hotel name, and the forum removing the extra spaces between some of the words.



At the top was "letterhead" made from cropping the hotel name and phone number from a website.
We're not a chain. We're a single property independent.
He got "are" vs. "our" wrong twice.
I'm not sure what a "people relations Manager" is, but I want that on a business card.

Sadly, there are people working here I think would have accepted it.

Our you sure there ain't people working there that would have sended it to his Mom?

[NEOWatcher]

Teen bank robber brags on YouTube (cnn video)

I've seen slip ups being put on youtube, but this one is a complete description. Including wearing the same clothes.

She lost custody of her child (before this), but the story didn't say why. For some reason, I think I know why.

[Solfe]

This one got me. The article describes the police spotting a car behind an closed business and the person in the car was arrested for DWI.

I thought "Gee, maybe she was passed out or something." No, she was driving behind the buildings. There are no details, but perhaps she thought that DWI in a parking lot was better than on the street?

*Edit - changed abandoned building to closed business.

[Solfe]

I'm not sure if this was an actual crime or not. Is there such thing as attempted theft by deception?

It's fraud and depending on how it is done, it could be several other crimes too.

Fake coupons are easy to implement, but usually fail in execution. The problem is a retailer or business may let the presenter of a fake coupon walk away, which encourages the criminal to try again and again in an effort to find a gullible victim. This is the point where the execution fails. Should a victim report the crime to the police, the police are going to look for other victims. The criminal may find that they received one free thing but actually committed a crime at each and every attempt, successful or not. Having the police crawl all over your activities in an attempt to find possible crime(s) is reason enough not to try it, in my book.

A few years ago, retailers in my area got stung by fake coupon scams. The fakes were rejected by the manufacturer so the retailers were burned. The coupons used were specifically designed to target bulky, mid-range priced items and never covered the full amount of the item. A coupon for a $10.99 product would only cover $9.99. Since there was a balanced to be paid, with tax, the suspicion on the con-artist was reduced to almost nothing. The products were usually hard to steal and shipped without packaging - such as 2 gallon bottles of detergent. An investment of a printer, tank of gas, $2.00 per item, a pallet, and some shrink wrap allowed the "consumer" to obtain whole pallets of products for resale to a smaller retailer. Sometimes the small retailer was in on the scam or were more victims.

The whole thing is a carpet bombing of chaos and criminality because it screws up so many different things. The retailer has detect something happening slowly on a daily basis, the manufacturer takes a credibility hit when they don't honor fake coupons, the small retailer looses money and goods (if they weren't in on the fraud) and the would-be criminal may find that each "slight misrepresentation" of a coupon is several crimes rolled into one, especially if they fence the goods themselves.

That guy is lucky you let him walk.

[SeanF]

This one got me. The article describes the police spotting a car behind an closed business and the person in the car was arrested for DWI.

I thought "Gee, maybe she was passed out or something." No, she was driving behind the buildings. There are no details, but perhaps she thought that DWI in a parking lot was better than on the street?

*Edit - changed abandoned building to closed business.

Maybe she was trying to avoid a school bus?

[Solfe]

Did anyone see the story about the copper thieves at the Westway Baptist Church? (No link. Any more than that and I will run right into the no religion policy. Make sure you look up a link with video.)

The thieves were caught on surveillance cameras cutting what they thought were the lines into the building. The next step was to cut the wires at the breaker box. The church deacon put it best: "He blew up!" The wire cutters used in the crime were still on the scene, welded to the lines. The various videos all stop when the sparks fly, but I have no idea why there is no body. I guess he did walk away... or vaporized.

Shall we count the ways this went wrong?

Clueless, check.
Didn't look for cameras, check.
Cut wrong wires, check.
Made a second and different wire cutting error, check.
Never heard of Zeus, check.

That sums up the "dumb criminal".

[NEOWatcher]

(No link. Any more than that and I will run right into the no religion policy. Make sure you look up a link with video.)

I believe(pun intended) that being a church has nothing to do with it, so here's a link I found.

I guess he did walk away...

That would be my guess. Since it was dark, the sparks are really going to make a good display in comparison. If he was insulated from the wire cutters, then I would think it wouldn't be much more than what a welder or grinder experiences.

Shall we count the ways this went wrong?

From what I saw in the pictures, there wasn't a long length of wire there anyway. I wonder how much he thought he would get.

[Fazor]

This happens a lot. Guy not far from our house friend himself to oblivion trying to take what he thought was dead wire from a power substation. Handful of other non-leathal injuries just in the last year from dopes cutting into stuff that aught not be cut into.

Hopefully the stricter scrap-metal dealer laws that passed here recently will help cut down on this stuff. Aside from the criminal, we have a regular parade of guys in pickup trucks -- usually in teams of two -- trolling the streets and alleys checking out what's being thrown out. Nothing legally wrong with doing that, but sure doesn't help the area's image / resale value on homes.

[swampyankee]

But; stealing from the police?

One of the suburban police departments had a lot of problems, which started with one of their officers stealing from a local restaurant. On video. One would expect that a police officer would realize that security cameras are pretty ubiquitous.

[NEOWatcher]

One of the suburban police departments had a lot of problems, which started with one of their officers stealing from a local restaurant.

Interesting... a response to an 8 month old post with a nearly 6 year old article.
Either you have a good memory, or you're not up to date on your reading.

“The tape seems damaging,” the officer’s lawyer, Hugh F. Keefe, said this week. “Of course, we have a defense.”
But neither Mr. Keefe nor Officer Gambardella, 48, who was accompanied to court this week by his pregnant wife, Kathleen, gave any indication what that defense might be....

... because they are still trying to think of one.

I also thought it was amusing that they seperated these two statements:

Lenny and Joe’s Fish Tale along Route 1 in Madison, 20 miles south of New Haven, is not a place for high-end dining. The lobster special, at $12.99, comes with French fries and coleslaw.
...
Mr. Schreck is not exactly thrilled with the publicity surrounding his fast-food seafood place

It's that bad, is it?

And since I was curious, his final plea was "no contest" and was convicted but not jailed. Too bad the story never answered "why?"

[Solfe]

Geeze. Stealing lobster. What was he going to do with it all?

Back to stealing. Some Knucklehead is stealing historical markers. They're stone, so there isn't a heck of lot that can be done with them.

[swampyankee]

Interesting... a response to an 8 month old post with a nearly 6 year old article.
Either you have a good memory, or you're not up to date on your reading.

Both, actually

Actually, the food at the restaurant (they've also got a drive-in) is quite good. It's not going to be mistaken for Zinc or Union League, but the food is well-prepared, in the tradition of shoreline seafood restaurants.

In a more up-to-date "stupid criminal" story: another guy tried to steal copper wires from a electrical substation. He was reported to have serious burns, which may mean he'll be lucky to have elbows, let alone hands.

[Solfe]

Years and years ago, I worked at the local electrical company. There was always a rumor that a homeless person was sleeping on some of the equipment in a substation because it was warm. The stories always involved the man touching stuff that would kill you, but he suffered no harm.

Totally an urban legend, because I heard the same story about 10 different ways.

Insert LotR picture: "One does not simply play with electrical substations."