Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Thief Hiding in Florida Pond Claims He’s ‘Just Fishing’

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops Could See Where Torres Was All Along

Cops Could See Where Torres Was All Along

DELTONA, Florida — Stupid is as stupid does.

A Florida man on the run from cops hopped into a pond and then told officers who found him that he was “just fishing” and the guy they were looking for had “gone that way.”

Sean Torres, 29, of Daytona Beach had tried to rob a nearby Family Dollar store on Nov. 27, walking in with his shirt on his head leaving the “loyalty” tattoo on his stomach in plain view and demanding cash, police said.

Sean Torres Thought He Could Talk His Way Out of Trouble

Sean Torres Thought He Could Talk His Way Out of Trouble

When the clerk said no, Torres allegedly threatened to shoot him and reached into the waistband of his shorts as if he had a gun, but then running out of the store into the night.

Cops were called and quickly responded with K-9 units and a helicopter as Torres fled into a swampy area near the store.

In an effort to hide from cops, Torres jumped into the pond and submerged his body, leaving only his face sticking out of the water. Little did he know, but the helicopter was equipped with a heat-imaging camera which detected where he was lying all along.

https://youtu.be/nUs2vWXwx3U

When officers approached and asked what he was doing there, Torres allegedly told them he was “just fishing” and that his pole was in the water. He then claimed that “the guy who did it went that way.”

He soon surrendered, saying he didn’t want to be bitten by the police dog. When he crawled out of the water, cops immediately noticed the “loyalty” tattoo on his stomach.

After being placed in the back of a Volusia County Sheriff’s office patrol car, Torres allegedly threw himself repeatedly against the interior of the vehicle, kicking doors and causing damage to the car.

Torres was charged with robbery and criminal mischief and was held on $30,500 bail.

 

Son Takes Dad’s $200K Car for a Spin, Crashes it in Creek

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Dad's $200K Car in the Drink

Dad’s $200K Car in the Drink

DALLAS — If you’ve ever seen the film “Risky Business,” you know how this ends.

A 20-year-old Dallas man “borrowed” his father’s $200,000 Aston Martin sports car for a late night spin with a pal while dad was away on a business trip and promptly drove it into a creek.

The vehicle sank to the tops of its windows in the murky creek that feeds into White Rock Lake in a posh bit of East Dallas. The two passengers managed to escape unharmed, and divers were able to pull the car out of the water the next day.

risky2

While they got out lucky, it was not clear what fate lay in store for the son when his father returned home. On the bright side, at least they weren’t running a high-end brothel out of the house and weren’t on the hook to Guido the Pimp.

 

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Man’s Body Dissolved in Grisly Yellowstone Hot Spring Accident

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Colin Scott fell into a super-heated pool near the Pork Chop Geyser (pictured above)

Colin Scott fell into a super-heated pool near the Pork Chop Geyser (pictured above)

MAMMOTH, Wyoming — An Oregon man who died after falling into an acid-filled hot spring in Yellowstone National Park in June, was searching for a place to “hot-pot” or soak in a thermal pool when he lost his footing, a new report revealed.

Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, had wandered off the park’s boardwalk trail in the Norris Geyser Basin with his sister, Sable Scott, when he tried to test the water temperature in a pool and fell in.

“They were specifically moving in that area for a place that they could potentially get into and soak,” Deputy Chief Ranger Lorand Veress told KULR-TV. “I think they call it ‘hot potting.'”

“There’s a closure in place to keep people from doing that for their own safety and also to protect the resources because they are very fragile. But, most importantly for the safety of people because it’s a very unforgiving environment,” he said.

Colin Scott had ventured off the official trail

Colin Scott had ventured off the official trail

Sable Scott had been videotaping her brother on her phone when the accident happened and captured his horrific final moments on film, park ranger reports obtained by the Montana TV station showed.

When rangers arrived at the hot spring, they determined that Colin Scott was dead. Floating on the surface of the spring were Scott’s melted orange flip-flops and wallet and nearby they spotted the “upper torso of a male victim floating face-up.”

The temperature in the 10-foot-deep pool was over 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the report stated.

A lightning storm and darkness forced the rangers to abandon their recovery efforts and when they returned the following morning there was no sign of Scott’s body.

“Evidence suggests that the extreme heat and the acidity of the water quickly dissolved his body in the hot spring,” according to the report. The cause of death was listed as ‘”scalding due to submersion in thermal hot spring.”

 

 

Death by Turtle Ruled Cause in Florida Man’s Demise

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A box turtle was deemed the culprit in David Kervin's death

A box turtle was deemed the culprit in David Kervin’s death

INDIAN HARBOR BEACH, Florida — Slow and steady wins the rest, and to think otherwise proved deadly for one Florida man.

Police in Brevard County say 51-year-old David Kervin appears to have met his fate when he accidentally struck a box turtle and was thrown off his bike while cycling in Indian Harbor Beach early Wednesday.

David Kervin was thrown from his bike and suffered a head injury

David Kervin was thrown from his bike and suffered a head injury

Cops received a report of a man lying in the road with an apparent injury. Officers discovered Kervin laying next to a motorized bike and declared him dead at the scene in what they called an isolated mishap. The presence of a turtle with a cracked shell nearby led them to believe the animal played  role in Kervin’s death.

“There was no evidence that any vehicles were involved. A small turtle was observed in the area where Mr. Kervin had been traveling. The turtle had a small crack in the bottom of the shell, which could suggest Mr. Kervin possibly had contact with the turtle causing him to lose control of his bicycle,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Police say the turtle’s injuries were not life threatening and it was returned to its natural habitat.

An autopsy determined Kervin, who had worked as a server in the restaurant of the nearby Eau Gallie Yacht Club, died of injuries consistent with a fall from a bike, police said.

 

Half-Headed Man of Internet Fame Busted for Arson in Florida

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

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MIAMI — A Florida man missing half his head whose bizarre mugshot photo became a viral sensation in 2010 has been charged with arson and attempted murder for setting his mattress on fire.

Miami police say Carlos Rodriguez — known as “Halfy” to his friends — allegedly set his bed on fire early Tuesday, putting his neighbors in the next door duplex at threat.

According to The Miami New Times said Rodriguez explained himself as follows:

“I wanted to burn down my house so I could build a new, two-story house, and I don’t care if there was people in the other side of the house because it wasn’t going to reach them,” he allegedly told cops.

Rodriguez was held on $30,000 bond.

The man’s unsettling photo swept the Internet in 2010 after he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. He suffered the devastating injury that cost him much of his skull and brain when he was in a car accident at the age of 14.

“I was barred-out on drugs,” he explained in a YouTube clip, describing how he suffered his injury. “And I was driving. And I hit a pole, flew out the front window, and landed on my head.”

The New Times reports that Rodriguez apparently has difficulty with impulse control and has been arrested on a variety of charges over the years, from disorderly intoxication, soliciting a prostitute, possession of weed, battery and burglary.

 

Judge Spares Ohio Man Who Beat Drug Dealer, Saying Community is Fed Up

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Edwin Sobony won a judge's sympathy for beating his wife's drug dealer

Edwin Sobony won a judge’s sympathy for beating his wife’s drug dealer

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Talk about junk justice.

An Ohio judge spared a man from jail for beating his wife’s heroin dealer with a baseball bat, saying he was sympathetic because the community has grown fed up with the scourge of drugs.

Judge Charles Schneider opted to give Edwin Sobony II two years probation instead of the two-to-eight years in prison he faced because of the community outcry and outpouring of letters of support sent on his behalf.

“I’m not supporting what Mr. Sobony did,” the judge said, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “Vigilante justice is not supported by the court. But the people in this community have just had it.”

Sobony, a 38-year-old, postal worker, was convicted in September in the 2015 beating of the drug dealer, Larry Jewell, that sent him to the hospital with multiple skull fractures and left him blinded in one eye.

Sobony testified that he had warned Jewell , who is his wife’s cousin, many times to stay away from their house, but when he caught there last December, he just snapped.

“My actions were a little aggressive,” he said in court. “I’m sorry, but I felt I was protecting my family.”

Larry Jewell was selling heroin to his cousin, Sobony's wife

Larry Jewell was selling heroin to his cousin, Sobony’s wife

News of the case led numerous people to offer donations to Sobony to help pay for his defense, which the judge noted.

“The reaction in the community was immediate, and it’s because this community has had it with drugs,” he said.

Ohio has been in the midst of a heroin epidemic, with 3,050 fatal drug overdoses in the state in 2015, up 20% from the year before, according to the state department of health.

Sobony said after the sentencing that his wife is managing her addiction and that they were looking forward to getting on with their lives.

 

 

Man in Wheelchair Commits Suicide by Pipe Bomb in Oakland Clinic

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A disturbed man in a wheelchair used a pipe bomb to commit suicide in an Oakland clinic

A disturbed man in a wheelchair used a pipe bomb to commit suicide in an Oakland clinic

OAKLAND — A wheelchair-bound man blew himself up with a pipe bomb in a California health clinic in what police say was an act of suicide.

The unidentified man entered the lobby of the San Antonio Neighborhood Health Center in Oakland and waited for everyone to leave before detonating the explosive around 6:30 p.m.

“The investigation reveals this is an isolated incident where an individual took his own life,” the Oakland police  department said in a statement.

No one else was hurt.

The man had been a patient at the clinic, but it was not clear why he was there at the time, which was about an hour after closing, the East Bay Times reported. The paper said the man told a security guard to leave shortly before detonating the bomb.

 

 

 

Texas A&M Co-Ed Taking Topless Selfie Crashes into Police Car

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Miranda Kay Rader, 20, crashed into a police car whil snapping a topless Snapchat pic for her boyfriend

Miranda Kay Rader, 20, crashed into a police car while snapping a topless Snapchat pic for her boyfriend

BRYAN, Texas — A Texas A&M co-ed was busted after trying to take a topless selfie while driving drunk and crashing into a parked police car.

Cops say they found 20-year-old Miranda Kay Rader with an unclasped bra and struggling to put her top back on after the collision Wednesday evening not far from campus. [Read more…]

YouTube Daredevil Busted for Jumping off Buildings in California

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — California cops busted a daredevil filmmaker who posted numerous YouTube videos online of himself climbing to the tops of landmark buildings and jumping into swimming pools and the ocean several floors below.

Anthony Booth Armer, 28, was charged with trespassing following the months-long investigation it took for cops to figure out the identity of the masked daredevil star behind the YouTube videos posted under the named “8Booth” that had attracted millions of views online. [Read more…]

TRAGIC SELFIE: All Smiles Seconds Before Sudden Death

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Kelsea Webster, Essa Ricker and Savannah Webster (l-r) were killed moments after shooting this selfie by the train right behind them

Kelsea Webster, Essa Ricker and Savannah Webster (l-r) were killed by the train right behind them moments after shooting this selfie

SPANISH FORK, Utah — Death was right behind them and they didn’t see it coming.

This tragic selfie captures the final moments before three Utah pals were fatally struck by a passing freight train.

The train is so close its headlight can be seen in the background of the photo bearing down on the smiling  girls.

The photo was published last week by railroad company Union Pacific, as part of a public service campaign warning people of the dangers of taking selfies too close to the tracks.

Kelsea Webster and Essa Ricker, both 15, were killed instantly in the tragic October 2011 accident. Kelsea’s 13-year-old sister, Savannah Webster, died four days later after her parents took her off life support.

The girls had wandered down by the tracks in Spanish Fork Canyon to take picture of the passing trains. Moments before the tragedy, Savannah posted “Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!” on her Facebook page.

But as the girls watched a westbound Utah Railway train pass by, they didn’t hear a second Union Pacific train coming towards them from the other direction until it was too late.

“We watched in horror as we got closer,” said conductor John Anderson. “We saw them for about 12 seconds until they disappeared from our sight and the train continued moving forward.”

Investigators believe the girls were struck by the one train and knocked into the other.

Union Pacific Engineer Michael Anderson said the episode haunts him to this day.

“What happened was very intense and I have to carry it the rest of my life,” he said.

Kelsea and Savannah Webster’s mother said she hoped that people would learn from her family’s tragedy that trains are dangerous.

“The accident that took my daughters’ lives was preventable and a good illustration of how close a train can be without hearing it,” she said. “No one should have to go through this and I hope people will seriously think about the campaign’s rail safety message and share it with their loved ones.”