True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Dumb + Dumberer

BUM-bling Burglars Busted After Butt-Dialing Police Mid-Robbery

By HardBoiledNews Staff

STOKE-ON-TRENT, United Kingdom — This gives whole new meaning to the phrase BUM-bling burglars.

A pair of extremely unlucky thieves had the bad fortune of accidentally butt-dialing police right as they were in the middle of burglarizing a home in England.

An operator reported the call to police and stayed on the line while authorities rushed to the scene.

“Whilst committing a burglary one of the bungling burglars has accidentally sat on his phone & dialled 999,” Staffordshire Police Chief Inspector John Owen posted on Twitter. “We received a call detailing all of their antics up to the point of hearing our patrols arrive to arrest them.”  

Owen then mocked the pair with a GIF from the film “Home Alone,” which showed one of the film’s hapless burglars sticking his head through a doggy door.

Police arrested two men, aged 49 and 42, in connection with the incident.

Treasure Hunter Pleads Guilty to Digging in Yellowstone Cemetery

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CASPER, Wyoming — A fanciful fortune hunter has pleaded guilty after being caught digging in a cemetery in Yellowstone National Park in search of a fabled hidden treasure.

Rodrick Dow Craythorn, 52, of Syracuse, Utah, was searching for a treasure chest containing coins, gold and other valuables left somewhere in the Rocky Mountains a decade ago by Santa Fe, New Mexico, art and antiquities dealer Forrest Fenn, who published a book with a poem containing clues to where the treasure could be found.

The Fenn legend  has led dozens to search for the treasure — estimated to be worth as much as $1 million — but has resulted in several rescues of people who got stuck in dangerous situations. Six deaths have been attributed to the hunt. 

“The hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure was often viewed as a harmless diversion, but in this case it led to substantial damage to important public resources,” Wyoming U.S. Attorney Mark Klaassen said Tuesday.

Craythorn admitted digging within the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery in Yellowstone National Park on two separate occasions in Oct. 2019 and May 2020. Prosecutors say he caused more tham $1,000 in damage.

He pleaded guilty in federal court in Casper, Wyoming to illegally excavating or trafficking in archaeological resources and to damaging federal property. He faces up to 12 years in prison 

Fenn died at age 90 in September, three months after announcing the treasure had been found. A grandson of Fenn confirmed in December the finder was Jonathan “Jack” Stuef, 32, a medical student from Michigan.

Fenn said before his death the treasure was in Wyoming but neither Stuef nor Fenn’s relatives have said where exactly

Fenn for years hinted the treasure was north of Santa Fe in the Rocky Mountains of either New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming or Montana. 

Conspiracy Theorists Mistake Guitar Pedal Design for Proof of ‘5G Covid-19 Microchip’

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The only thing getting injected into anyone’s veins here is the ability to shred!

Guitarists have been getting an amped-up laugh after spotting a diagram being passed around online that purports to be for a microchip being secretly injected into people with the Covid-19 vaccine that is actually the schematic for the Boss Metal Zone guitar pedal.

A staple of hair metal bands since the early 1990s, its ability to make guitars scream has caught the attention of conspiracy theorists in Italy who claim its for a 5G chip secretly being implanted into people to track their motions, Guitar World magazine reported.

“It features a section labelled “5G frequency” – clearly the source of many a theorist’s eureka moment – as well as terms guitarists will find familiar: “MT-2 Gain”, “Footswitch” among the most recognizable,” the magazine reported.

Mario Fusco, an engineer at Redhat Inc. who spotted the dubious design, quipped: “In reality it is the electric circuit of a guitar pedal and I believe that putting it in the covid vaccine has been an excellent idea.”

Others online similarly riffed on the joke.

“Excellent. Reassured to know that 5G relies on op-amps and some 1n4148 diodes. Proper old school. None of that digital and microprocessor nonsense. I’ll take one in each arm,” posted one user.

Another replied, “This is a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, and trust me, that ain’t curing anybody of anything, except maybe good tone.”

Canada Cabbie Drives Maskless Passenger Straight to Jail

By HardBoiledNews Staff

VICTORIA, Canada — He breathed on the wrong cabbie. 

A taxi driver whose drunken New Year’s Day passenger refused to wear a mask, drove straight to a police station where the man was arrested and hit with a whopping fine.

Police in Victoria, British Columbia say the driver called 911 just after 1 a.m. to report that his passenger was refusing to wear a mask and was touching the driver’s face and “belligerently” refusing requests to adhere to Covid-19 guidelinest, police said.

When the cabbie pulled into the Victoria Police Department’s headquarters, officers were waiting. The passenger then refused to leave the vehicle and was removed by force and taken into custody, according to the Powell River Peak.

The man was fined $690 in total for failing to wear a facial covering, abusive or belligerent behaviour, and failing to comply with the direction of an officer. He was also ticketed for being intoxicated in a public place and was jailed until he sobered up.

Florida Man Says He Blew Up Truck to Give Cops Something to Do

By HardBoiledNews Staff

CRESTVIEW, Florida — The cops were so thankful, they took him straight to jail.

A Florida man was busted after setting his truck ablaze and blowing it up then telling cops he did it because he wanted to give them something to do.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s office said deputies responding to reports of a loud boom near Crestview, Florida on Dec. 18 found a Chevy Silverado truck fully engulfed in flames.

While speaking to the vehicle’s owner, 28-year old Kevin Robert Murphy, at the scene, he told deputies he had poured gasoline onto and into the truck, then set it on fire. He added he set the blaze “to give us something to do” and to give himself an extra Christmas present, cops said.

Kevin Robert Murphy

After being arrested for arson, officers, not surprisingly, found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in Murphy’s pockets.

No one was injured by the fire, but a nearby car and building suffered minor damage. The Dorcas Fire Department arrived quickly and put out the blaze.

Murphy is charged with arson, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Dine and Dash Ends in Fatal Shooting at Colorado Restaurant

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jacqueline De Paz faces second-degree murder charges

AURORA, Colorado —  A 28-year-old woman shot and killed a man who stepped in to intervene  after she tried to dine and dash at a Colorado restaurant, authorities said.

Jacqueline De Paz has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of 18-year-old Rudy Arguello-Rios outside the Mariscos El Rey 2 restaurant in Aurora on Dec. 22, the Sentinel reported.

Police said De Paz and her party had berated a waitress and refused to pay for their meals, claiming an open door at the restaurant left their food too cold to eat.

The group, which included children, left the restaurant without paying. They were followed by the waitress and several other diners who had witnessed the argument, including Arguello-Rios, cops said.

Rudy Arguello-Rios died while trying to break up the fight

A wild brawl then broke out in the parking, during which De Paz allegedly pointed a gun at Arguello-Rios as he bent down to help a person injured in the fray, police said.

“Back the f–k up … I got the strap now,” the unhinged woman yelled.

As Arguello-Rios tried to wrestle the gun away from her, she shot him, according to an arrest affidavit.

The waitress described the young hero as “a peacekeeper who was yelling at the others to stop being rude and to be respectful.”

Officers arrested De Paz two days later during a traffic stop. She was being held at the Arapahoe County jail on $1 million bond.

A GoFundMe page set up by Arguello-Rios’ brother to help pay for his funeral described him as “a young and loved soul.”

“He passed away too young and now he’s looking after all of us.”

Bold Car Theft Leads to Wild Chase, Gun Battle, Social Distancing Violation

By HardBoiledNews Staff

EUGENE, Oregon — What began as a brazen car theft, turned into a wild car chase, demolition derby and gun battle before the suspect was finally caught because he wasn’t wearing a mask.

Oregon police say Trevor James Hudson, 32, triggered off the out-of-control escapade when he snatched a Nissan X-terra from in front of a business in Eugene.

The car’s owner then gave chase in another car, eventually cornering Hudson on a dead-end street. That led the victim to slam his car into the one Hudson was driving in order to pin him in and prevent him from leaving, cops said.

The stolen car’s owner then hopped out and tried to confront Hudson, who pulled a gun. The victim then pulled out a gun of his own and fired at Hudson, who then sped off, cops said.

Hudson eventually abandoned the vehicle by a Hampton Inn and ran inside. But since he was not wearing a mask, hotel employees demanded he leave. When they realized he was acting suspiciously, they called the police.

Officers with the Eugene Police Department and the Oregon State Police eventually caught up with Hudson near an Umpqua Bank and arrested him for robbery and unlawful use of a weapon. 

Ky. Gas Station Employee Hit With Terror Charges Over Bomb Threat Prank

By HardBoiledNews Staff

DRAFFENVILLE, Kentucky — It was a bad call.

A woman who decided to play a prank on a coworker by sending her messages threatening to blow up the Kentucky gas station where they worked has been hit with terrorism charges.

The Marshall County Sheriff’s office says they received a report of a bomb threat at the FiveStar gas station in Draffenville, after an employee began getting threatening messages from an unknown number. 

The messages threatened to blow up the business. That triggered a call to the  Kentucky State Police bomb squad, which shut the business down.

No explosive device was found, but Sheriff Eddie McGuire said they took the threat seriously, especially in light of  the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville, about 125 miles away.

“You always worry about copycats anytime something like that gets media attention,” McGuire told WPSD-TV. “You always worry about  distressed individuals that want some type of attention for some type of cause.” 

Investigators soon linked the threatening messages to 21-year-old Amber Carr, of Paducah, who works at the gas station. She said she meant the messages as a prank, but was charged with making a terroristic threat, disorderly conduct, harassing communications and wanton endangerment.

Hungry Thieves Make Off With Brooklyn Restaurant’s Pasta

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NEW YORK —  Pasta la vista, baby.

A bolognese-loving burglar broke into a Brooklyn restaurant and made off with all its homemade pasta while leaving behind its pricey booze and kitchen equipment.

Workers at Borsalia — a recently opened eatery in Williamsburg — say the thief got inside the night of Christmas Eve by breaking the lock on a hatch on the sidewalk and then drilling a hole into the wall that separated the entrance from the kitchen.

Once inside, the thieves cleared out all 15 pounds of the restaurant’s pasta, which had been made the day before by the kitchen staff. The purloined pasta included ravioli, cappelletti, tagliatelle and gnocchi.

The haul was so unusual, that staffers didn’t even notice the pasta was gone until the cops arrived and were taking a close look around.

“We went downstairs and found this big hole in the wall…but everything in the restaurant was perfect,” Manager Cristiano Rossi told Patch. “When the police came we went into the kitchen and we opened the pasta storage — it was empty.”

He said that aside from the carbo-haul, the only other thing missing was about $40 from a tip jar

Rossi said cops fingerprinted the kitchen and collected camera footage from nearby businesses, but have not had any updates in the case since. He said Borsalia had not yet set up its own camera system since it opened only a month ago.

The heist left Borsalia’s kitchen crew working all day and night on Christmas to replace the pasta supply.

Rossi said the only reason he could imagine why someone would go to the trouble is because their pasta is so good.

“Our pasta is in high demand and is of the highest value,” he said.

Man Dives Into River to Get Away from Cops, Disappears

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Lights of police car in night time. Night patrolling the city, crime scene. City lights at night background. Abstract blurry image.

LOWELL, Massachusetts — It was not the cleanest of getaways.

A Massachusetts man who fled police disappeared after jumping in the Concord River in sub-freezing temperatures to avoid arrest and hasn’t been seen since.

Lowell Police say they arrived at a home Saturday to investigate a domestic violence and vandalism incident when they man took off and dove into the water.

Officers began a search and called in the state police and the Lowell Fire Department, but found no trace of him.

They then called in boats, divers, sniffer dogs and even a drone but could still not find any sign of the man.

“This is not the desired outcome, regardless of the circumstances that led to police involvement with this individual,” said Lowell Police Commissioner Kelly Richardson. “Life and safety are our primary concerns, and right now our main preoccupation is with finding this person.”

Police say they have been in regular contact with the missing man’s family.

Father and Son Gun Each Other Down in Fight Over Family Dog

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The Cokers were described as a ‘very dysfunctional’ family

WAGARVILLE, Alabama — An Alabama man and his son shot each other dead after getting in a fight over a family dog, which the younger man had killed for trying to attack a child. 

When Kelvin James Coker, 60, discovered his dog had been shot on Saturday, he drove to the home of his 32-year-old son, Kelvin Nicholas Coker, who admitted killing the animal, cops said.

As the argument grew heated, James opened first, striking his son in the torso, cop said.

Nicholas returned fire with a shotgun, hitting his father in the neck. Both men died from their wounds.

The sheriff called the family ‘very dysfunctional.’ 

Chief investigator Blake Richardson of the Washington County Sheriff’s office, told WALA-TV  that the dispute began when Nicholas opened fire on four of the family’s dogs, after one of the animals started attacking his girlfriend’s young daughter.

Moments later, James arrived at his son’s home in his truck and an argument erupted. During the confrontation, Nicholas pointed his shotgun at his father who drew a handgun and shot his son, cops said..

A mortally wounded Nicholas then returned fire and killed his father.

‘It’s unfortunate that they would not value human life not any more than that,’ Richardson said. 

Nicholas’ girlfriend, Ariel Anderson, has disputed the official version of events, claiming that her boyfriend did not kill his father, but rather that James took his own life after killing his son in a fit of anger. 

‘Nic Coker did not kill his daddy and they did not have an argument!!’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘Nic was protecting my daughter from his and his dads pitbulls that were hurting her and his dad just showed up and shot him because he was mad that Nic killed his dog then he shot himself!’

However, investigators have defended their initial findings, saying that the coroner’s unofficial report shows James could not have committed suicide. 

‘I’m very confident that’s how the events unfolded, we try and let the evidence speak for everything and make sure everything is considering with our witness statements and right now we believe that’s the case.’ Richardson told WKRG-TV. 

Sheriff’s officials said they have responded to multiple violent incidents involving the Cokers over the years. In 2012, James was charged with first-degree assault for shooting his other son three times.   

Ship Seeking Better Cell Signal Runs Aground in Tropical Paradise, Causing Oil Spill

By HardBoiledNews Staff

MAURITIUS — A Japanese cargo ship that caused an ecological disaster in a tropical paradise, ran aground and created an oil spill because its crew steered closer to land to get better cell phone signal, its owner said. 

The MV Wakashio ran aground on July 25 and began leaking oil on Aug. 6, eventually spilling 1,000 tons of fuel oil into the pristine waters around the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Four sailors were later killed when a tugboat sank during efforts to clean up the spill.

Japan’s Nagashiki Shipping, which owns the ship, a 1000-foot bulk carrier used for transporting iron ore, said the crew changed direction to sail close enough to Mauritius to get cell phone coverage.

The company blamed the disaster on a lack of safety awareness by the crew and a failure to follow rules. The firm promised better training and oversight.

“There was a lack of awareness of the dangers of navigating close to the coast … and insufficient implementation of regulations that must be observed in order to safely execute voyages,” the company said.

The company says it will ban private use of cell phones during working hours on bridges and install high-speed communications systems on all its ships, as well as beef up training.

The clean-up, which includes returning about 20 miles of mangrove coastline to its former state, will likely be mostly completed by January, Nagashiki said last month.

Male Escort Admits Screwing Uncle Sam Out of Nearly $300K in Taxes

By HardBoiledNews Staff

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — You’ll never get away with trying to screw Uncle Sam.

A Florida man has pleaded guilty to stiffing the feds out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes from earnings he made working as a high-priced male escort, federal prosecutors said.

Authorities say Jami Kopacz, of Fort Lauderdale, admitted using his company, JK Training, through which he booked many of his trysts, as a vehicle to hide his real income and avoid paying tax.

Federal prosecutors say Kopacz ran the scam from 2015 through 2018, filing false corporate and personal tax returns that “substantially underreported” his income.

The fraud ultimately cost Uncle Sam more than $278,000 in lost tax revenue, prosecutors said

He faces a minimum of three years in prison and will be required to pay the money back.

Ex-Cop Charged With Menacing Repairman Over Crazed Election Conspiracy Theory

By HardBoiledNews Staff

HOUSTON — A  former Texas police captain has been charged with holding an innocent air conditioner repairman at gunpoint in the mistaken belief he was involved in a fantasy voter fraud conspiracy, prosecutors said.

The Harris County District Attorney’s office says former Houston police captain Mark Anthony Aguirre, 63, had gone to authorities before the presidential election claiming knowledge of a massive voter fraud scheme in Houston.

Soon after, Aguirre was accused of running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove his claims, prosecutors said.

“He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime and we are lucky no one was killed,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “His alleged investigation was backward from the start – first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened.”

According to court documents, Aguirre told police shortly after the Oct. 19 incident, “that he was part of a group of private citizens called, ‘Liberty Center,’ who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme.”

According to court documents, Aguirre said he had been reviewing surveillance on the repairman for four days, accusing the victim of being the mastermind of a giant fraud, saying 750,000 fraudulent ballots were inside a truck the repairman was driving.

Prosecutors said the accused victim was actually “an innocent and ordinary air conditioner repairman.”

According to court documents, Aguirre ran his SUV into the back of the truck, trying to get the repairman to stop. When the repairman got out of the truck, Aguirre pointed a handgun at the man, forced him to the ground and put his knee on the man’s back.

Investigators found that there were no ballots in the truck and instead, it was filled with air conditioning parts and tools.

According to court documents, Aguirre had been paid a total of $266,400 by the Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, with $211,400 of that amount being deposited into his account the day after the incident.

Aguirre’s claims of election fraud were found to be false, according to court documents.

Attorney Jared Woodfill of the Liberty Center, said they had hired Mr. Aguirre’s private investigation firm and that he had a team of approximately 20 investigators on the case.

Woodfill adds, “[We] didn’t know what he was doing. We find it hard to believe that Captain Aguirre would go stop a car, pull someone out and put a gun to his head.”

Aguirre has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

Bad First Date Ends With Man Fatally Shooting Woman and Her Father

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jamal Harris’ date said she thought he had a ‘pumpkin head’

NEW ORLEANS — An aggrieved ex-con gunned down a Louisiana woman and her father after a lousy first date in which she tried to beat a hasty retreat after texting a friend that the man had a “pumpkin head,” investigators said.

Jamal Harris, 36, of New Orleans, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the Oct. 3 shooting deaths of Jessica Troulliet, 35, and her 56-year-old father, Robert Templet Jr., whose bodies were found in her Mercury Mountaineer which was abandoned in Marrero, NOLA.com reported.

Both had been shot in the back in the head. Detectives suspect Harris — who was convicted of armed robbery in 2007 — killed the pair following an internet meetup that had gone south, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s homicide Det. Steven Keller testified in court.

Keller cited text messages sent by Trouillet to a friend — as well as Harris’ statements to investigators — that showed the pair has gotten into a fight at her home during the date, which they set up on a dating app called Tagged.

“She said he did not look like his profile pic, and she [said] he looked like a pumpkin head,” the detective said of the woman’s texts. “She told him she had another date, and he had to leave.”

Keller said Harris admitted feeling insulted.

“He admitted being upset with her because she was speaking to another individual on the phone,” the detective testified.

Harris claimed he left Trouillet’s home at 9:30 p.m. and headed to his father’s house in Marrero, where his cousin, Jamal Gabriel, 34, picked him up, Keller testified.

But phone records showed that Trouillet picked up Harris in her SUV some 45 minutes later, and then texted a friend for help to “come to the house” to make Harris leave, Keller said.

The friend balked at the request and detectives believe Trouillet agreed to take Harris back to where she was picked up while her father went along for the ride, NOLA.com reported.

Investigators think Trouillet and Templet were fatally shot sometime after 1:10 a.m., based on surveillance video.

Harris was later arrested at Gabriel’s home in Avondale on Oct. 21. Gabriel was also charged with being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, NOLA.com reported.

An attorney for Harris argued that no direct evidence linked him to the slayings.

“This is a completely circumstantial case,” defense attorney Richard Bourke said. “All of it is based on GPS records … He could have left before the shooting. Someone else could have been the shooter. There’s a lot of things that can happen.”

A judge on Tuesday found probable cause to hold Harris, who was ordered back in custody without bail, NOLA.com reported.

Shocking Video Shows Cop Shot in Traffic Stop, Then Bravely Fire Back and Give Pursuit

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LAGUNA, New Mexico — This shocking video shows the moment a New Mexico state police officer is shot during a traffic stop, but miraculously survive and fire back at the fleeing gunman before giving pursuit.

The footage shows Officer Sharron Duran get hit as she approaches the vehicle of Robert Benjamin Nelson, 28, of Scottsdale, Arizona for tailgating on the highway in September.

As Duran approached the passenger side of the truck, Nelson opens fire without warning, Nelson, squeezing off three rounds through his tinted, rolled-up passenger side window, police said..

After being struck in the hands and her bulletproof vest, Duran manages to return fire at the suspect as he pulls away. “I fell back because he hit me,” she explained. “I aimed at the headrest and started to fire my weapon.”

Robert Benjamin Nelson faces attempted murder charges

Despite her injuries, Duran returned to her vehicle and gave chase, bloodied hands on the wheel. A brief pursuit followed.

“I’m in pursuit,” you can hear her saying on the radio, “I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit.”

A short time later, Nelson pulls over on the side of the highway and gets out of his truck, but this time the officer kept her distance. “I want you to walk towards me with your hands up,” she yelled at Nelson. “You move, I will [expletive] shoot.” 

A federal search warrant said Nelson pulled over and gave himself up because he had called his parents while fleeing to tell them what had happened. His dad had told him to pull over. Nelson was taken into custody without further incident. 

As officers searched Nelson’s truck, they found the gun, along with his cat in a crate right under the line of fire. Meanwhile, Nelson’s father, who had circled back to the scene, said he couldn’t believe what his son had just done. “I’m just thankful the officer is OK,” he said. “Stupid, stupid kid.”

Duran was treated and released from a local hospital. Later on, she said her motivation for fighting her way through the pain was that, “I’m not going to let this person take me away from the family and the people that I love.”.

Nelson faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery on a police officer, shooting from a vehicle, and resisting, evading, or obstructing an officer.

Florida Woman Charged in Shocking Mistaken Identity Slaying

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jennifer Hill

OCKLAWAHA, Florida — She shot first and asked questions later.

A Florida woman has been charged with fatally shooting a man she thought had robbed her, only to discover she mistook him for someone else, police said.

The Marion County Sheriff’s office says Jennifer Hill, 41, pulled up alongside the victim, 39-year-old Michale Hofacker, as he walked along a road with a female friend in Ocklawaha and asked him his name.

When he said his name was “Mikey,” Hill allegedly opened fire, shooting him in the head, cops said. He died the next day at a local hospital.

Hill’s husband later told detectives that a man named Michael had confronted him and his wife with a gun three days earlier while they were looking for items that had been stolen from their home.

According to an affidavit, Hill at first said the man she shot had threatened her with a gun, but deputies said they found no evidence Hofacker was carrying a gun.

Witnesses told cops that Hill said she thought the man she shot was the Michael who had confronted her and her husband earlier, but when she looked at the wounded man after the shooting, she realized she had the wrong guy.

Hill was charged with second-degree murder and was held without bond.

Brazilian ‘Pregnant’ Woman Busted Smuggling Coke in Fake Baby Bump

By HardBoiledNews Staff

GUARA, Brazil — She gave birth to a criminal charge.

A Brazilian woman pretending to be pregnant was caught smuggling a baby-sized block of cocaine concealed inside a watermelon shell tucked under her shirt. 

The São Paulo woman had boarded a bus bound for Rio De Janeiro while pretending to be pregnant, but was searched after authorities received a tipoff about a narcotics smuggling ring, according to the São Paulo police.

A search revealed that the woman’s so-called “baby bump” was actually a watermelon harboring four bricks of cocaine paste that weighed around 4.5 pounds total.

The woman confessed that she had been paid $100 to take the coke from Paraguay to Rio.

São Paulo police described the ploy as having “creativity without limit.” The woman has been charged with drug smuggling.

Stolen ATM Found in Road After Breaking Free From Thief’s Car

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LAKE RONKONKOMA, New York — It was not the smoothest of getaways.

Bank robbers who tried to drive off with a bank ATM chained to the back of the car were forced to abandon the goods after the machine broke free in the middle of the road.

Police in Suffolk County, New York, say they received a call about a “transformer” laying in the middle of a road in Lake Ronkonkoma early Tuesday but were surprised to find an ATM instead.

The machine had been stolen from outside a nearby bank.

Police said the thief — or thieves — dragged the machine several blocks from a Capital One branch using a chain attached to a vehicle before the ATM became “dislodged” and ended up abandoned in the middle of the street.

Investigators say it did not appear the ATM had been broken into. Detectives were canvassing the area for witnesses and surveillance videos.

Florida Man Busted With Giant Stolen Utility Pole Strapped to Car Roof

By HardBoiledNews Staff

TAMPA, Florida — One man’s fallen down utility pole is another man’s treasure.

A Florida motorist was arrested after he strapped a 30-foot long utility pole that had fallen into the road onto the roof of his 1997 Toyota Camry and tried to take it to a scrap yard to make a quick buck.

Cops caught up to Douglas Hatley, 71, of Lakeland, after other drivers reported seeing him driving with the pole dangling dangerously off the roof of his vehicle along Interstate 4 in Tampa.

When cops stopped him, they discovered the pole was strapped to the car with telephone wire.

Hatley said he was trying to turn in the pole as scrap metal for cash and that he didn’t know it was illegal to remove the pole, even if it was broken or had fallen.

Douglas Hatley

Under Florida state law, items such as utility or light poles, manhole covers, guard rails, street signs, historical markers, funeral markers and shopping carts require proof of ownership for a reputable scrapyard to take them.

Hatley was charged with grand theft.

Florida Man on ‘Spiritual Journey’ Steals Police Cruiser, Credit Card

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Duncan Smith was responding to a higher calling

GAINESVILLE, Florida — He was on a mission from God.

A 20 year-old Florida man was busted after stealing a police cruiser from the Gainesville Regional Airport, later telling cops he did it because he was on a “spiritual journey” and needed to get home.

Video surveillance footage showed Duncan Smith tearing out of the airport in the Alachua County Sheriff’s office vehicle last Thursday evening, WGFL-TV reported.

Two hours later, deputies detected that Smith had used a credit card that was in the stolen car in nearby Columbia County.

They later caught up with him in Alachua County and arrested him. Deputies say Smith confessed to stealing the cruiser because he was on a “spiritual journey” and needed to find a way home. 

He was charged with burglary, larceny and vehicular theft.

Indian Conmen Dupe Doctor Out of $90K in Magic Lamp Scam

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The scamsters even conjured a fake genie out of this lamp

MEERUT, India — His money disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

An Indian doctor lost $90,000 when he was duped into buying “Aladdin’s lamp” from a pair of conmen who even conjured up a fake genie to convince him of its magical powers, police said.

Dr. Laeek Khan went to police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after he discovered no genie appeared when he rubbed the lamp.

“The cheats had struck a deal for much more but the doctor had paid about seven million rupees ($90,000),” said senior officer Amit Rai. He said the men had been arrested and charges were pending.

In his complaint, Dr. Khan said one of the men had pretended to be an occultist and made a “jinn,” or supernatural figure, appear from the lamp, local media reported. But when Khan asked if he could touch the genie or take the lamp home, they refused, saying it might cause him harm.

Eventually they sold the lamp to him, promising it would bring health, wealth and good fortune. Khan said he later realised the “genie” was actually just one of the men in disguise.

“The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi. The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees,” Rai said.

Serial Shoplifter Turns to Burglary Out of Lockdown Boredom

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Samuel Giblin stole hundreds of chocolate bars from this shop because he was bored

STOKE-ON-TRENT, United Kingdom — A serial shoplifter told cops he was so bored by being unable to pilfer items from shops because of England’s lockdown that he switched to burglarizing the shuttered stores instead.

Samuel Giblin was jailed for 16 months after kicking in the glass window of a Poundland variety store and making off with $135 worth of chocolate bars and milk, according to the Stoke Sentinel.

The 29-year-old was identified from surveillance cameras and, when police searched his room, they found nine bottles of vaping liquid that had been stolen from a supermarket a few days earlier.

Giblin told cops he committed the crimes because he was “bored” as he “could not go shoplifting because all the shops were shut.”

The arrest didn’t stop him. While on bail, he broke into The Bait Box, in Newcastle, and stole $640 worth of fishing tackle, police said.

Passenger Leaning Out of Car Dies After Fatally Knocking Woman Off Her Bike

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The men had been racing with others when they knocked the woman off her bike

LAS VEGAS — He got what he deserved.

A man who was hanging out of the passenger window of his pal’s car as they raced through downtown Las Vegas, was killed after fatally knocking a cyclist to the ground and then falling headfirst out of the vehicle and into a lamp post.

Police say the car appeared to have been recklessly racing with other vehicles when it pulled alongside the cyclist, 55-year-old Michelle Weissman. The passenger, 20-year-old Giovanni Medina Barajas, was leaning out of the car and attempted to punch two pedestrians but missed and then collided with Weissman, knocking her to the ground.

He then fell out of the vehicle and crashed head first into the pole. Both Weissman and Barajas were taken to the hospital where they were declared dead.

Rodrigo Cruz was charged with murder

“Senseless is an understatement,” Lt. Raymond Spencer told KSNV-TV. “You have a woman who was out riding her bicycle and they pull up next to her and strike her, causing her to die. It’s an absolute senseless act. There’s no reason behind this that I can tell you why it occurred, other than complete stupidity.”

The driver, 22-year-old Rodrigo Cruz, fled the scene but was later arrested and charged with murder, fleeing the scene and violating his parole.

Passengers from one of the other vehicles returned to the scene and said they had all been out drinking and were heading back to Cruz’s house. When cops found him there, he claimed he only veered to pull Barajas back into the vehicle.

“He never went back to check on him because he was scared since he was on parole and didn’t think Gio was hurt,” the Las Vegas Sun reported, citing the arrest report. “Gio was always doing stupid stuff, but (Cruz) stated he wasn’t intentionally driving in a manner to allow Gio to make contact with any pedestrians or the bicyclist.”

In 2016, Cruz was sentenced to four-to-12 1/2 years in prison for armed robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. He was released early after getting credit for 285 days of time served.

Woman Boldly Dropped Charges Against Herself By Posing as a Prosecutor

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Lisa Landon was a little too bold in her efforts to skirt criminal charges

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — She must have gotten her degree in felony audacity.

A New Hampshire woman has been charged with filing phony documents in court dropping drug possession and stalking charges against herself by posing as a prosecutor.

Lisa Landon, 33, of Littleton, is accused of busting into the court’s electronic filing system late last year and submitting fake documents in three separate cases against her, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Prosecutors sensed something fishy was going on when they were contacted by a state forensic examiner, who asked if they wanted him to still perform a competency evaluation on Landon as he had seen documents that said the charges had been dropped.

“The file purported to contain a nolle prosequi (drop the charges) filed by Assistant County Attorney Patrice Casian, but it quickly became evident to the state that the document, as well as other documents in the file, had been filed fraudulently,” Superior Court Judge David Anderson wrote in a ruling.

The indictment also alleges Landon filed a phony order from a judge waiving filing fees in a lawsuit she brought against Hillsborough County. And she allegedly filed an order on behalf of a relative to halt guardianship proceedings involving Landon’s child.