Weird news - Hearing of a robbery before it could happen

It is the stuff of science fiction where one if able to figure out when a crime will happen in the future. In the current case, where a phone call arrives at emergency services, the dispatcher listens in, trying to figure out if somebody will say something, or maybe somebody is already in an emergency and is unable to communicate. And then suddenly the dispatcher hears abut a plot, with people discussing a robbery about to take place, but there are no details about the location where the robbery could happen, although the name of the police chief was discussed.
What was funny was that the police chief was in a restaurant while the police was trying to pinpoint the location of the callers, and after some amount of trying to determine the location, it was determined that the would-be criminals were highly intoxicated in a car in the parking lot, and so when they were caught, they were charged with being drunk in public rather than attempted robbery (link to article):

The mysterious phone call arrived about 9 p.m. Saturday night. A Danville, Kentucky, dispatcher answered, but the other end was silent. Instead of hanging up, the dispatcher continued to listen, fearing an emergency might be unfolding in the central Kentucky town of 16,000. Eventually, the dispatcher was able to make out tidbits of a conversation between two male voices. "They were saying things like, 'What if I went in there with a gun and what if we robbed the place?' " Danville Police Chief Tony Gray said. "Then the other one said something like, 'What if they know it's us? We go there all the time.' Gray said that both of the men were "highly intoxicated" and that one of them, though he didn't realize it at the time, was still on the phone with dispatch. The chief said he recognized one of the suspects from his high school class. "He had accidentally butt-dialed emergency dispatch after they started talking," Gray said. "The entire phone call from start to finish was about 14 minutes."

Weird news - Breaking the car window to rescue a mannequin

Sometimes things appear funny in retrospect. After all, if you consider the current case, where the police got a report about a woman frozen inside a car, the natural move would be to get her out of the car and then get the proper medical aid. There is very little to fault the actions of the police in this regard. In normal times, it might be easy for a skilled police personnel to be able to distinguish between a crude mannequin and a person, but when you take into account an emergency situation, a life like mannequin wearing an oxygen mask, it would have been difficult to do so. And so it happened in this case where the car was broken into, and then to everyone's surprise, the mannequin was detected rather than a person who needed emergency medical care (link to article):

The Times Union of Albany reports that a caller told police there was an elderly woman "frozen to death" in a parked car. Officers rushed to the scene and found what appeared to be a woman sitting in a car's front passenger seat wearing an oxygen mask. A sergeant busted a rear window, opened the door and discovered that the woman was a realistic mannequin. The car owner arrived and said he uses the dummy for his job selling medical training aids.

Weird news - Thief sends own photo to police

Vanity gone to a new high, incredible stupidity, or sheer arrogance that nothing could happen. When the police are hunting for a suspect, they look for some means of identification, such as a photo. Now, these photos that the police can get is something that is in most cases not ideal - the police could be old, or taken from a side, or taken with some hat or cap or spectacles on, anything that makes the photo different from a passport type photo.
When the police do get a photo of a person who they are hunting for, they would publicize the photo or push it through channels, so that other police stations could pull in the person if they came across, or members of the public could find and report such a person to the police. The better the photo, the faster it is likely that the outstanding person could be captured. So, when you think that in a weird case, such a fugitive would come across their photo put out by the police, and send a better photo to the police, it would seem like the ultimate ego (link to article):

A wanted man in Ohio wasn't happy with his mugshot — so he offered police a "helpful" hand in the form of a selfie. The Lima Police Department said Donald A. Chip Pugh is wanted for failing to appear in court for a DUI and is also a person of interest in other cases including an arson and vandalism. The 45-year-old, though, obviously did not approve of official mug shots circulated by the department. It said Pugh had sent police a new picture showing him in a suit and glasses while sitting in a car with a sunroof.

Weird news - Man drives plane to pub, police go nuts

Going to the pub is a common place enough occurrence. After all, you drive to the pub, park, and then go inside and enjoy. Nothing spectacular in that, right ? But how can such a simple event become more complicated ? Well, one way is to change the mode of transport; and how better to make a splash than come toddling along in a plane, park it outside and go inside. This is known as making a splashy entrance. And when the police arrive, they were a bit puzzled. They knew that something was wrong and they will charge the plane driver, but the exact law or penalty that was to be applied to him was not clear. Finally, it seemed that the police found something; the fuel supply to the plane was visible and not adequately safe, and that is what they charged him with (link to article):

A man who taxied his light plane down a main street in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and parked it outside a pub is expected to be charged. Newman police sergeant Mark McKenzie said the plane had its propeller running, its wings removed and was being steered by foot pedals on Friday. The man parked the plane outside the Newman Hotel and was then interviewed by police.

So, they wanted to charge the man, especially since he left the engine running when he was inside the pub.

Weird news - Finally found remains of man 27 years after disappearing - in a chimney

Sometimes one comes across a whodunit that can defy comprehension. You find a body after so long and no more know who it was, and given the position in which it was found, it will take a large amount of police work just to find out who the person who died was; forget about being able to find out why the person died, and even more important, if the death was not natural, who was the person behind the death. Consider this case, where a person was found dead in the chimney of a bank in Louisiana. The body was only found when the bank decided to do some renovation on the second floor of the building, the floor having been used only for storage space till now. Consider the shock to the people actually doing the renovation when they discover that there are the remains of a person in the place that is being renovated; everything needs to stop while the police is called. Also consider the feeling of employees who suddenly learnt that somebody probably died a very miserable death, dying after being a few days in the chimney.
And then DNA records find the identity of the person, and the family learns that the person who has been missing for 27 years had actually died soon after disappearing, being in the chimney of the local bank. What does the police do in such a case, and can they even suspect that this was a homicide ? (link to article):

A man missing for 27 years has finally been located, according to police reports. The remains of Joseph Schexnider, lost for 27 years, were finally discovered lodged in a brick chimney in the Abbeville National Bank in Louisiana. The bones were found in May, when the bank was making renovations on the second floor, which had been long used for storage, to make more office space. The identity of the body was confirmed this week through DNA.

Weird news - Mom phones police about son's disappearance, charged later with crime

It is always scary for a parent when they lose sight of their child or the child goes missing, especially when the child is of such a young age that he or she cannot take of themselves. A 3 year old child certainly cannot take care of themselves, and it is incumbent upon parents and guardians to take care of them, and if this does not happen and the child seems to be mis-treated, then the government steps and can take over the maintenance of the child. However, even this does not happen in some cases, after all the Government is not all knowing, with a dependence that the parents of the child will take care of their responsibility. The Government more depends on law and the fear of the law to ensure that parents take care of their responsibility, and when they find cases where a parent is responsible for a child suffering, or in tragic cases, where the parent is responsible for the death of the child.
In a recent case, the parent of a child (where the parents are separated) filed a complaint that the child was lost in a park and appeared distraught. The mother came to the police looking very distressed and got the police in action to look for the child and more people including volunteers got into the action. However, this is where things get stupid and tragic. When they were looking near the child's home, they saw a garbage truck leaving the home and followed the truck to the garbage handling facility where they found the child's body. As a result, the mother of the child was held, although there is no admission from her of guilt as yet (link to article):

A Cleveland woman has been arrested in the death of her 3-year-old son after police found what they believe is the body of the young boy at a waste-treatment plant, according to authorities. Cleveland police said Monday they're holding Camilia Terry, 20, at Cuyahoga County Jail to await charges in the death of her son, Emilliano Terry. "We come here with heavy hearts, I'm sure you understand. Today, at approximately 4 o'clock, a body of a small child matching the description of Emilliano Terry was discovered at a waste treatment plant in Oakwood Village," Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath said, according to ABC News affiliate WEWS-TV.

Weird news - Dog saves himself by calling the emergency number

Well, no one is going to say that the dog actually called the emergency number through the phone by intention, but it happened that way. It seems very weird when you read the news, but the actual fact is that the dog somehow got his neck entangled in the long wire of the landline telephone, and through the twisting while trying to get away from the wire, managed to press the emergency number (999) which is the emergency number of the United Kingdom.
This managed to get the emergency services to the home, but they were looking for some human who was injured or in an emergency condition, but it was a neighbor who came to the house and who managed to detect the dog in a choking condition and helped the dog get away from the wire (link to article):

The operator at the other end could only hear heavy breathing and gasping. Sensing an emergency situation, the operator alerted the police, who rushed to the empty home of driving instructor Steve Brown and daughter Lydia. The police team began searching for an aged or injured person in the house, located in South Hiendley, West Yorkshire.
It was only when a neighbour, Paul Walker, walked into the living room that George was found choking — with the phone wound tightly round his neck.

Weird news - A traffic fine for a 6 year old boy on a toy motorcycle in Mexico

One normally assumes that traffic fines are given when people break traffic rules, and you normally associate this with people who do speeding, drive when drunk, or jump a red light, or do some other action that violates a rule meant for traffic safety. There is no restriction that such laws are only meant for adults, including teenagers who are more prone to do rule breaking antics on the road.
But, how often have you heard about a young boy being prosecuted for a driving offence, especially a boy as young as 6 years old, fined for a traffic incident, and with his toy vehicle having been impounded. However, after some amount of delay and some amount of controversy, the vehicle was returned and the traffic citation was voided (link to article):

A six-year-old Mexican boy has been fined for riding his toy motorcycle, a Christmas gift, without a licence and for reckless driving, after he crashed it into an SUV.
The incident occurred on December 27 in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, when the boy, Gael Santiago was riding his bike near his home, and collided with an SUV that had jumped a stop sign, Fox News quoted a Mexican police spokesperson as telling Spanish news agency EFE.
Terming the charges as "ridiculous", the boy's mother , Karla Noriega said it showed lack of judgement on the part of the traffic police who fined the boy and impounded his miniature gasoline-powered bike.

Driving in Europe: Roadsigns & Signals, Traffic rules, Fuel, Parking, Breakdowns & Accidents, Blood alcohol limits for all European countries, Automotive Phrasebook (Mobi Travel Guides)	Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)	Trucking Rules and Regulations: Reference Guide to Transportation

Weird news - Parents offered sex with their young girl for paying off loan

Parents are normally seen as extremely protective of their children, especially when the children are vulnerable. It is only when children get much older that they let their children make their critical decisions, especially when it comes to matters such as sex. However, once in a while you come across parents who pervert this relationship, and try to use their children for personal benefits. And when the law finds out such an attempt, the law comes on top of them like a ton of bricks and will almost always penalize them with jail terms, and also take their children away. Read the following story and see whether society has any other option other than what was described in this article (link to target):

Police arrested three people including the parents of an eight-year-old girl, after they allegedly negotiated a deal involving sex with the minor to help pay off a loan, Dutch prosecutors said on Thursday.
“We have detained the parents of the girl after a relative discovered on a laptop, that her parents were offering sex with her as a downpayment to a loan,” Jeichien de Graaff of the Rotterdam prosecutors’ office, said.
Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad reported that the parents negotiated an amount to be paid in return for sex with the girl and that photos have been exchanged, including pictures of the girl.
The three are facing charges of child abuse, and the making and distribution of child pornography “within the next few weeks,” De Graaff said.

Weird news - Man tried to sober up after being drunk, but lands up in the wrong house

Imagine being so drunk that you end up in the wrong house. A lady was sleeping in her own house when she heard the sound of running water (not something that would inspire any sort of security or trust), and called the police. It turned out there was indeed an intruder in her own house, somebody who had taken a shower in the house. When the police turned up, they found the man, now dressed, sitting in the verandah. It was then that the man realized that he was in the wrong house - after being totally drunk, he entered the house thinking it was his own house, and then took a bath to sober up.
It was after being confronted by the police that the man realized that he had entered the wrong house, and was then very heavily embarrassed about what he had done (link to article):

The man got lost on the way to his house in Katherine on Wednesday night. He walked into the home and took a shower in an attempt to sober up. The 34-year-old householder was asleep upstairs. She woke up, heard the water running and frantically rang the police. When officers arrived, they found the 42-year-old sitting on the woman's verandah - dressed again.
The man was taken into protective custody to sleep off his big night. "The woman was just happy for us to take him away," Supt Shean said. "She thought he was a burglar."

German man detected stealing electricity using a meat hook, very dangerous

Overhead electricity wires can be very dangerous, since they carry electricity at high voltages, with a very high probability of death or serious injury if people come into contact with these wires. In such cases, if you consider the cases of a person who has been stealing electricity through the use of a meat hook from an overhead wire, then you can consider that the person has been literally dealing with death. And police in Germany found a man doing that for quite some time, having literally used a meat hook with an attached wire to draw electricity and thus steal the power for consumption (link to article):

German police are investigating a man for theft after he siphoned electricity off a high-voltage overhead transmission line for one month with the help of an ordinary meat hook, authorities said on Tuesday.
The 36-year old man from Sibbesse in Lower Saxony concocted the plan to steal electricity after the power company cut him off for failure to pay his bills, police said. The man attached a cable to the meat hook and tossed it onto an overhead power line. He then drew power from the transmission line to his home, located about 150 metres away.

In New York, a hearse van was towed by police even when a body was inside

Sometimes such stuff happens that can make people wonder about the timing and coincidence. A minivan was parked outside a funeral home, and a body was inside. Given that the van was used to move bodies, the windows of the van were dark so that people were not able to look inside, and police officers were not able to look inside either. Further, a placard on the windshield which marked that this vehicle was being used as hearse also fell flat, no way for the police to know that this vehicle had a body inside; and there was no driver over there also. As a result, the police towed away the minivan with the body, after all, the vehicle was parked illegally. Once the driver came to know, he finally found the vehicle in a police towing yard (link to article):

Redden's Funeral Home director Paul DeNigris said a windshield placard had fallen flat. The van's tinted windows helped obscure the white cardboard box that held the remains.
DeNigris said he was "a wreck" after discovering the van missing in Manhattan. He rushed to the tow pound, where he discreetly explained the circumstances and got the van back. He also got body to an airport in time for a scheduled flight to Miami.

Imagine hiding from police dressed up as sheep, after escaping from a prison

How often would you have heard of stories of people taking on animal disguises to escape from police ? Not very often, right ? These are mostly part of comics or fiction, but normally you would consider that the physical structure of humans is very different from those of animals, and to consider that a human being could wear an animal outfit and hide from people seems to be a difficult concept to accept. Yet, you have these convicts escaping from a high security prison by wearing outfits in the shape of sheep (which are very different physically from humans) and managing to escape from the police who were looking for them (link to article):

Maximiliano Pereyra and Ariel Diaz stole the sheep hides from a ranch after fleeing from an Argentinian maximum security prison a week ago, The Sun has reported.
The duo managed to evade 300 policemen on their trail by disguising themselves as sheep. Locals have seen them running through farmland at night.
"They were wearing grey clothes but had full sheepskins, including the sheep's heads, over their heads and back," a farmworker was quoted as saying.

The police being asked to arrest a ghost; wisely decided not get involved

The police are typically asked to get involved with a wide variety of tasks other than their main job of stopping crime and dealing with criminals. They are asked to be involved in family disputes, in civil disputes that can suddenly turn nasty, and other similar issues. For example, in the US, the 911 dispatchers have been asked to help when people are not getting served in restaurants, when pets climb trees and need to be coaxed out, and so on. But getting involved with the supernatural ? A lot of police forces do not acknowledge the presence of the supernatural, and will not get involves, as happened in the current case (link to article):

A woman has sought the help of police to detain the "spirit" of her dead brother, which she claimed has been disturbing her. Local media reports said the woman's brother had died years ago.
The woman only left the police station after the authorities explained to her that they could not detain a "spirit" and asked her to seek help from religious bodies.

Man held in Brazil for kissing daughter

It seemed pretty weird when I read the story for the first time. In Brazil, strangers on a beach found a person kissing a young girl, and with all the stories about child molestation, particularly when the skin color of the man and the girl were different, and it was not immediately apparent that the 2 were related. However, as a result of a complaint, the man was put in prison and faces a long jail term if convicted. The mother of the child, the man's wife, denies that anything improper happened, but the man has already spent a week in jail for this charge (link to article):

There is growing controversy in Brazil over the arrest of an Italian tourist held after kissing his eight-year-old daughter in public. Witnesses told police the man allegedly touched the girl in an intimate way. Under a strict new law partly designed to combat child sex abuse in South America's largest country, he faces eight to 15 years in jail if convicted.
However the wife of the arrested tourist says it was all a misunderstanding by witnesses who had misinterpreted seeing a foreign white man with a young darker-skinned girl. She told the Brazilian state news agency if there was any suggestion the claim was true she would not hesitate to take her daughter's side, and recalled that she had been present the whole time.

Man charged with unlicensed driving car twice, hits police

When people are charged with a driving offence, they normally obey all the rules and laws, and desist from whatever activity for which they are were charged, since they do not want to suffer further problems (further driving problems could mean points on the license, or problems in getting insurance, and so on). However, once in a while there will be a person who will not care too much about the offence, and is even willing to take offensive action if charged with something (link to article):

A north Queensland man who was allegedly caught driving unlicensed twice in one day and became irate and has been charged with assaulting police. The 19-year-old was given a notice to appear in court for unlicensed driving about 10am (AEST) on Monday, and about 30 minutes later, the same officer saw him allegedly driving the same car, police said.
The officer was questioning the man when he allegedly became aggressive and punched his car's window, smashing it. He then allegedly kicked the side mirror of the police car and punched the police officer. While struggling with the man the officer was allegedly assaulted by a 15-year-old male youth who was in the man's car.

A stranger slaps a toddler in a shop, arrested

Suppose you are the mother of a bonny toddler, and life is hectic for you. You need to handle the child as well as make sure that your house is running fine. So you may need to run around, do shopping while carrying your baby. However, children do not follow the rules that adults have; they can cry whenever something is disturbing, they can seem like an inconvenience to other people and so on. However, nothing can justify what this apparent stranger did when he got irritated by the behavior of this child (link to article):

A Georgia man allegedly slapped a toddler at a Walmart store because she wouldn't stop crying, authorities said. Roger Stephens, 61, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree cruelty to children. An incident report obtained from police in Gwinnett County indicated Stephens did not know the 2-year-old girl he stands accused of hitting.
The mother said a stranger later identified as Stephens approached them and said, "If you don't shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you." A few moments later, while the mother and the crying child were in another aisle, Stephens allegedly grabbed the girl and slapped her across the face.

Now, he has been charged with cruelty to children, and one would think that it is perfectly justified that he has been charged with such a crime.

What police officers in Britain's do inside the royal palace

For those who were earlier shocked at the separation between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and some of the lurid tales of affairs and other such juicy stuff that was revealed over the years. However, the concept was still that the Palace was a serious place, and that everything over there would be formal, and maybe a bit boring. However, if you read about the antics of some of the police inside the Palace, you would find that things can get pretty interesting inside the palace (link to article):

Police officers responsible for protecting the British royal family handled firearms when drunk, traded pornography and steroids and sat on Queen Elizabeth II's throne in comical poses, it has been alleged in a London court. At one point Cooper "suggested" there had been a procedure among armed officers at the palace whereby one officer on duty would sleep while the others kept watch for their superior.
The court also heard that officers protecting the royals lost more than £250,000 ($365,800) to a spread betting venture called "The Currency Club," one of a number of apparently successful sidelines Page allegedly set up to clear spiraling debts, PA said. Cooper suggested that McGregor had been "one of those police officers" using mobile patrols to deliver cash to other police officers based in Royal Protection who were involved in financial matters.

The image of police and that of the palace has been totally serious in the past, but maybe no longer.

Man faked his own death for 20 years

Destiny works in strange ways. Here is this paranoid man, who believed that people were out to get him because he was dealing in drugs. As a consequence, he wanted to vanish, and how better to do this than to claim that he was dead. And when did he do this ? When he was on a trip with his fiancee, leaving her to believe that he was indeed dead (drowned at sea). In addition, he left behind a daughter who has been searching for him ever since:

A man who faked his drowning death nearly 20 years ago off a Florida beach was found out by North Carolina police who stopped him for a traffic violation, authorities said Thursday. Bennie Wint left behind a grieving fiancee and a daughter from a previous marriage. Over the past two decades, he acquired a common-law wife and another child in Marshall, North Carolina.
When pulled over in Weaverville on Saturday because of malfunctioning lights on his license plate, the man said his name was James Sweet, Wyatt said. But when Wyatt ran the name through official databases, he was unable to find any information. "I found it suspicious and believed it to be a false name," Wyatt said. He arrested the man on suspicion of driving without a license and giving false information, both misdemeanor offenses, and booked him under the name "John Doe." But "John Doe" finally opened up to Wyatt, admitting he was really Bennie Wint and had been on the run since 1989.

He also caused the local police and beach authorities to spend a huge amount of time and effort looking for him, and that should be something for which he should be charged.

Woman about to be arrested fakes labour

When people are about to be caught for something they have been doing, or are in the process of being arrested, they will do anything to try to escape. Any excuse, any action, anything works. Police officers are pretty used to this excuse-making habit of people and in many cases have gotten immune; but, there is a basic decency in every person, and this lady tried to exploit this property in trying to escape being arrested:

A woman in America has discovered the hard way that faking going into labour doesn't help you escape arrest for shoplifting. The woman was arrested in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after police were called to a mall over a report of a woman stealing a keychain. They also found pain medication without a prescription in her purse, and so also arrested her on drug charges.
But while being arrested, the woman complained of birth pains and said she was going into labour. She was taken to a local hospital by ambulance.

And this was the point where there was a lot of surprise involved; not only was the lady not going into labour, she was not even pregnant. The police did not take this kindly, and added the extra cost of the ambulance and hospital efforts onto her arrest charge. The judge is also less likely to be amused.