‘Police in the US have issued a bizarre warning to parents about a ‘paedophile’ cartoon bear that was created by a website as in internet joke. [..]
Now police in San Luis Obispo in California appear to have misunderstood the internet trend – or meme – and have warned parents that the Pedobear is being used by real paedophiles as a ‘mascot’.
In a po-faced newsletter that has made them the laughing stock of the internet, the Sheriff’s department has warned parents that some paedophiles are even dressing as the bear to signal their intentions.
The handout describes the bear’s ‘licentious love of little girls’ and warns that the character may be ‘lurking’ at family-friendly events. [..]
After being contacted by website Gawker, the San Luis Obispo police department has claimed that it has always known that Pedobear is just a joke but wanted to warn parents anyway.’
‘Two paedophiles went looking for victims on the internet – and ended up trying to prey on each other.
One of the perverts, school support worker Brian Syme, posed as a teenage girl called “Nikki D” to lure young boys.
And the other, student monster Andrew Byrne, mistook the tubby 32-year-old for a child he could abuse.
But Byrne, who groomed 250 children and molested a string of youngsters, was stunned when his “victim” became “sexually aggressive” and demanded explicit pictures of him.
He was so surprised that he asked his target: “Are you sure you’re a girl?”
Both perverts are now in jail and Byrne is considered such a threat to children that he will be supervised for the rest of his life.’
‘A Salt Lake City mortgage company employee allegedly got drunk, opened fired on his firm’s computer server with a .45-caliber automatic, and then told police someone had stolen his gun and caused the damage. [..]
However, investigators allege that Campbell had been drinking that night at the Twilight Concert in Pioneer Park with a co-worker and had returned to his office afterward and shot the server.
A probable cause statement alleges that Campbell told police he had been “mugged, assaulted with his own firearm and drugged” by a mystery assailant.
However, acquaintances of Campbell reportedly told police he had earlier been drunk, was armed and had threatened to shoot the computer and maybe himself.’
‘A man who died near downtown when he jumped from the cab of his moving 18-wheeler was apparently trying to stage a wreck early Tuesday morning to collect from his insurance company, Houston police said. [..]
The victim, whose name has not been released, had head injuries. No other injuries were reported.
Police said the man’s business partner told investigators the trucker was staging an accident to file a fraudulent claim with his insurance company. [..]
The truck was traveling at about 50 mph, police said. The driver was alone in the cab and was not pulling a trailer.’
‘An American construction worker who was arrested with a 40-inch sword, a pistol and night-vision goggles in northwestern Pakistan told investigators Tuesday that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden to avenge the 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Gary Brooks Faulkner, 50 years old, of Greeley, Colo., was caught by Pakistani police Monday in the remote Bumburat Valley near the border of Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, where he apparently hoped to find Mr. bin Laden.
Police quoted Mr. Faulkner as saying he wanted to avenge the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington. He was carrying Christian religious books, according to Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, a senior police officer in the northwestern town of Chitral. [..]
Dr. Faulkner said his brother also brought wire ties to use as handcuffs on Mr. bin Laden. He said that if Mr. Faulkner, who must undergo dialysis three times a week, killed or captured Mr. bin Laden, he planned to use his reward money to retire to Nicaragua, where he would help locals build houses.’
‘Police in England said a group of officers caught on camera using a riot shield as a sled on a snow slope were reprimanded by a superior.
Superintendent Andrew Murray, Oxford City commander with Thames Valley Police, said a bystander captured video of a group of officers arriving at the slope and encouraging a colleague to sled down the hill while clinging to the straps for steering, the Daily mail reported Thursday.
The video was later uploaded to YouTube.
“The snow has a habit of bringing out the child in all of us,” Murray said. “I have spoken to the officers concerned and reminded them in no uncertain terms that tobogganing on duty, on police equipment and at taxpayers’ expense is a very bad idea should they wish to progress under my command.”‘
‘A 52-year-old man complained only about the cold weather before walking into a diner with a five-inch knife sticking out of his chest. The unnamed man called a Warren 911 operator on Sunday night to ask that an ambulance be sent to Bray’s, an eatery in neighboring Hazel Park. He said he had been stabbed during a robbery attempt half a mile away, then walked to the restaurant and called 911 from a pay phone.
On a recording of the call, the man gives a vague description of his attacker before saying, “I’m gonna sit down at Bray’s ’cause they got a chair and it’s cold out here.”
Restaurant employee George Mirdita told The Detroit News the man calmly ordered coffee.’
‘Three boys were booked on suspicion of bullying or kicking red-haired students at a middle school when a ”Kick a Ginger Day” prank inspired by a ”South Park” episode got out of hand, authorities said Monday.
A 13-year-old boy was detained last week for investigation of threatening to inflict injury by means of electronic communication — essentially, cyberbullying. Two 12-year-olds were booked for battery on school property, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. [..]
Four girls and three boys reported that schoolmates shoved or kicked them on Nov. 20 at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles.
No serious injuries were reported. Most incidents involved a single person kicking a student’s shoe or leg, but one youngster was bruised when three or four boys confronted him at once, said Donald Zimring, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
He may have been kicked in the groin or head while on the ground, although accounts differ, Zimring said.’
‘Iowa City police are investigating an early morning assault in which a man accused another of being a zombie, then punched him twice.
Police say the assault occurred at 1:17 a.m. Sunday at an Iowa City restaurant south of the University of Iowa campus.
A man was ordering food when he was approached by another man who called him a zombie, then hit him in the eye. When the victim tried to call police on his cell phone, the man punched him again, breaking his nose.
The man then ran out a back door.
The victim was taken by ambulance to a hospital.’
‘Eric Williamson, from Springfield, Virginia, was brewing coffee in his kitchen when a woman and a seven-year-old boy walked past the window and saw him.
The woman complained to police who arrested Williamson shortly after the incident on Monday morning.
Williamson, 29, insisted he did nothing wrong and that any exposure of his private parts were accidental.
“Yes I wasn’t wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me,” he said. [..]
A spokesman for Fairfax county police, Mary Ann Jennings, said Williamson was arrested because officers believed he wanted to be seen naked by the public.
The 29-year-old faces up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if he is convicted. He is fighting the charge and seeking damages from police.’
‘In the darkness of this sleepy island town, the beam of a deputy’s flashlight caught the back of a lanky teenager wanted in a notorious 18-month burglary spree.
The teen glanced over his shoulder – and vanished into the woods. “He virtually vaporized in front of me,” deputy Jeff Patterson recalled.
Such encounters have become all too common on the bucolic islands north of Seattle as police hunt for an elusive thief whose crime spree is quickly becoming a local legend. Colton Harris-Moore is suspected in about 50 burglary cases since he slipped away from a halfway house in April 2008.
Now, authorities say, he may have moved on to a more dangerous hobby: stealing airplanes. [..]
“I hope to h*** he stole those airplanes – I would be so proud,” Pam Kohler told a reporter, noting her son’s lack of training. “But put in there that I want him to wear a parachute next time.”‘
‘A death row inmate in Texas tore out his eyeball with his fingers and ate it, leaving him blind after he gouged out his other eye several years ago, the state’s department of criminal justice said on Friday.
“We don’t know how it happened,” said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the department. “There are no indications that he used anything other than his hands.”
Andre Thomas, 25, was now in a secure psychiatric facility after he pulled out his left eye last month at the death row unit in Livingston in eastern Texas, Clark said.
Thomas was condemned for killing his wife, son and infant stepdaughter in 2004, according to the department’s brief account of the case. Local media reports said he had ripped out the hearts of his victims.’
‘Michigan police say a 35-year-old mother used the Internet to track down the son she gave up for adoption a decade ago, seducing and raping the teenage boy when she found him after an online search.
Aimee Louise Sword of Waterford Township, near Detroit, was arraigned this week on three charges of criminal sexual conduct for the alleged rape of her biological son, whom she put up for adoption more than 10 years ago, MyFOXDetroit reported.
Prosecutors say the boy is still a minor, but won’t disclose whether he knew the woman was his mother — a situation that has horrified mental health experts who are calling the case “an abomination.” [..]
Sword’s attorney Kenneth Burch told the Press that his client “maintains her presumption of innocence” and said the accusations of incest have been very difficult for her.’
‘A Coatesville mother made her 6-year-old daughter drive a car because “[mom] was sleepy” after smoking “that stinky stuff,” according to police. [..]
Officer Robert Keetch said he had to do a double take after seeing the little girl driving. “There were two white knuckles and a little head popping over the stearing wheel,” he said.
The woman, Lakisha Hogue, was sitting in the passenger seat, laughing, when a patrol officer pulled her over, said police. Hogue told the Officer Keetch that she was teaching her daughter how to drive.
“Mom made me drive because she was sleepy,” the girl told police.
Then police say the aunt asked her niece, “Was your mom smoking that stinky stuff again?” The girl replied “yes,” say police.’
‘A man drunk on mouthwash who performed oral sex on his unconscious sister in Rainbow Park was sentenced to jail-time served and three years probation Tuesday in Sarnia court.
The 38-year-old pleaded guilty to committing an indecent act May 4 in the south Christina Street park. [..]
The man doesn’t recall the incident but didn’t dispute it occurred, based on a witness’s statement.
A family visiting the park about 6:30 p.m. came upon the couple on a park bench, police had reported earlier.
Defence lawyer Robert McFadden noted his client was incomprehensible when arrested because he and his sister had been drinking alcohol-laced mouthwash.
The woman was intoxicated and unconscious throughout the incident.
The mother of the pair told McFadden she hopes her son didn’t realize the woman was his sister. She called it the low point in her son’s life of alcohol abuse, the lawyer said.’
‘A South Australian police officer has been charged with trying to perform an exorcism on a teenager at a church youth camp.
The 28-year-old off-duty senior constable and two other adults have been charged following a camp run by the Lutheran church in the Barossa Valley in April, Adelaide’s The Advertiser reports on Tuesday.
It’s alleged the three restrained the boy after he complained of stomach pains in an incident that allegedly went for about 12 hours.
The police officer has been charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault, and suspended pending the outcome of the charges.’
‘A homeless man was acquitted of charges that he smacked a fellow transient in the face with a skateboard as the victim was engaged in a conversation about quantum physics in South San Francisco, authorities said Friday. [..]
Shortly before the incident, Fava was chatting with an acquaintance, who is also homeless, about “quantum physics and the splitting of atoms,” according to prosecutors.
Authorities had said Keller joined in the conversation and, for reasons unknown, got upset. He was accused of picking up his skateboard and hitting Fava in the face with it, splitting his lip. Fava then fell and broke his ankle.
Deputy District Attorney Sharon Cho said the jury that acquitted Keller of assault and battery charges couldn’t sort out the conflicting statements of prosecution witnesses.’
‘A young Russian woman, a devoted collector of horror films and spiders, is on trial for sedating and raping ten men. [..]
She gave them drinks with clonidine, which almost immediately sent them to sleep for almost 24 hours.
After that, she undressed her victims and raped them, tightening a rope on their male organs to kep them erect. [..]
At present, the police know about ten of Valeria’s victims, although one of them refused to file a complaint against her.
“It was great,” the unnamed man said.
“I like hot women. I only wish she hadn’t use the clonidine on me.”’
‘A telephone prankster posing as a sprinkler company employee caused havoc Saturday morning at an Arkansas Holiday Inn when he convinced an employee to set off the hotel’s fire alarm, smash windows, shut down electricity, and break a sprinkler head that flooded the building lobby. [..]
The man told Bergmann that there was a problem with the hotel’s fire sprinklers and that she “needed to pull the fire alarm to reset them,” cops reported. “Bergmann proceeded to pull the fire alarm at this point, causing the audible alarm.” Bergmann, aided by a hotel guest, would subsequently follow a series of directions from the caller that would result in about $50,000 in damages to the hotel’s windows, carpets and electrical system.’
‘..and there were these two wogs fighting.’
‘The four co-founders of website The Pirate Bay have been found guilty of assisting the distribution of illegal content online by a Swedish court today and have been sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6m (£2.4m) fine.
Charges against the site, which allows web users to access music, movies and TV shows without paying for them and claimed 22 million users during February, were brought by a consortium of media, film and music companies led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
A Stockholm court found the four defendants guilty of making 33 specific files accessible for illegal sharing through The Pirate Bay, which means they will have to pay compensation to 17 different music and media companies including Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Warner, MGM and 20th Century Fox.
All four have pledged to appeal against the decision though the process may take several years.’
‘A cyclist was knocked out after being hit by a corpse thrown from a speeding car.
Student Wu Dan, 16, was riding home when the incident happened.
His uncle Yun Tsui said: “A car passed and a package came flying out the door. It had a dead woman inside. My nephew was very upset.”
Police believe she was the victim of a car accident and was being dumped by the driver who had hit her in Dongyang, eastern China..’
‘An Australian woman accused of setting her husband’s genitals on fire because she thought he was having an affair has been charged with murder.
Prosecutors said 44-year-old Rajini Narayan confessed to neighbors that she set her husband on fire on Dec. 8, 2008, after she saw him hug another woman.
She was initially charged with endangering life and arson but the charges were upgraded to murder after her 47-year-old husband, Satish Narayan, died from his injuries last week. [..]
Boord quoted Narayan allegedly saying: “I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else. … I didn’t mean this to happen.”‘
‘Authorities said a Sarasota man about to be pulled over by police tried to lure officers away by making a fake 911 call. Officers said they were following a 28-year-old man’s car Monday to make a traffic stop when they got a 911 call for an armed robbery happening several blocks away.
The man’s plan seemed to work at first when the officers cut off their chase to answer the call. But then other officers in the area followed him into a parking lot and saw a gun in his car.
Officer’s determined that the man was a felon and not allowed to possess a firearm. After the man was arrested, officers said they discovered that the bogus 911 call came from his cell phone.’
‘It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn’s home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.
As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, “You’re a prostitute. You’re coming with me.”
Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.” One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.
As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.’
‘Inspired by a Facebook page, kids in Vancouver spent a day kicking and punching redheads for fun, the Vancouver Sun reports. Trouble is, being hit hurts. “I was amazed by the amount of people that kicked me,” said 13-year-old Aaron Mishkin, who figures he was assaulted about 80 times. An online group promoting “Kick a Ginger” day started it all.
The group’s 14-year-old creator, who based the page on a South Park episode, apologized and said it was intended as a joke. But after students went home with injuries and 20 kids were suspended at one middle school, the RCMP is investigating the group, saying it may have spurred a hate crime. “It’s really unprecedented,” one cyber-bullying expert said.’
‘A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.
The 42-year-old Turkish citizen – who was serving a seven-year sentence – had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.
At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.
The chief warden of the jail told the BBC this was an embarrassing incident.’
‘German traffic police have been left looking like proper muppets by a British prankster.
An Audi TT with British registration plates has been repeatedly caught speeding on roads in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth.
But because continental speed cameras are set up for left-hand drive vehicles, the cameras keep missing the driver’s face.
Instead, they keep capturing clear views of a manic Muppet-like toy which the cheeky Brit has propped up on his passenger seat.
But police admit they are even baffled about the identity of the muppet.’
‘Police say a Michigan man has been arrested after “receiving sexual favors from a vacuum” at a car wash.
The Saginaw News reports the 29-year-old Swan Creek Township man was arrested Thursday in Saginaw County’s Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.
Police Sgt. Gary Breidinger says a resident called to report suspicious activity at the car wash about 6:45 a.m. An officer approached on foot and caught the man in the act.’
