Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Calif. Woman Charged With Impersonating Cop, Groping Woman Outside Bar

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Denise Latta allegedly has a thing for posing as a cop in order to grope women

TUSTIN, California — A depraved fraudster posed as a cop to force a female patron out of a southern California watering hole where she allegedly groped and robbed her, authorities said.

Denise Latta, 54, of Huntington Beach, went into a bar in Tustin on Sept. 13, and whipped out a badge as she approached the bartender and female patron, police said.

Investigators say Latta instructed the woman to produce an identification card, which the phony cop then cut several pieces. Latta then demanded the victim leave the bar with her.

Once outside, Latta forced the victim to put her hands on a wall and spread her feet, and while searching her, touched her breast and groin through her clothes, police said. Latta then told the victim that she wasn’t going to arrest her and told her to leave and never come back to the bar.

In late November, Tustin police tracked Latta down and charged her with kidnapping, robbery, false imprisonment, sexual battery, and impersonating a police officer. She is being held on $100,000 bond.

When Latta was arrested, officers found fake badges, identification cards that read “agent,” and clothing that read “fugitive recovery agent,” among her belongings.

Latta told detectives that she worked as a private detective and bail enforcement officer, but lacked any identification to prove it. Latta was also in possession of several items that led detectives to believe this may not be an isolated incident and cops are looking for additional victims.

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Nude Man in Home Invasion Sends Fruit Basket to Apologize to Victims

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Desmond Drakes thought the fruit basket was a nice touch after wrecking his neighbor’s home

TEMPE, Arizona — What a considerate criminal.

An Arizona man who allegedly forced his way into his neighbor’s home while naked and then attacked the people living there, later sent the family a fruit basket to apologize.

Problem for Desmond Michael Drakes, 28, is that by sending the basket, he violated the restraining order the family had gotten against him after the initial assault,

Police in Tempe say Drakes broke into his neighbor’s home on Oct. 23 while naked and allegedly fought with the residents inside, KNXV-TV reported.

Drakes is accused of punching and kicking a teenager in the home and attacking an adult woman, before kicking holes through a large section of drywall.

When cops arrived, they found Drakes at his home next door where he resisted arrest until officers used a Taser to subdue him.

While in custody, Drakes was given a restraining order barring him from harassing the family next door. Drakes violated the order by sending the fruit basket, authorities said.

Drakes later told police he sent the basket as a way to apologize. He has been charged with indecent exposure and criminal trespassing. 

 

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Nude Break-In Artist Eats Noodles, Plays Bongos in Florida Eatery

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The nude man just wanted a place to hang out

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida — If Florida is a magnet for crazy, this place must be the epicenter.

Florida cops investigating a break-in at a St.Petersburg eatery were surprised to discover a second, nude burglary episode at the same place as they looked further back at the surveillance tape.

While the initial thief just helped himself to a plate of chicken wings and a beer, the second break-in artist stripped nude, ate a bowl of ramen noodles he had brought and then beat on a bongo drum.

Police say a closer review of surveillance video showed a man ride his bike up to The Chattaway restaurant last week, slip through the back gate and go through a storage shed.

The man then gets into a restaurant bathroom and exits stark naked.

He then sat naked at a picnic tables and began chowing down on a meal of Maruchan Instant Lunch ramen. The video also shows him playing the bongos, while still naked.

“He came in with pants on but he rode off on the bike without pants,” Chattaway server Chad Pearson told the Tampa Bay Times. “I’m not sure if he took his pants with him but we didn’t find them. We still don’t know where his pants are.”

The intruder also spray-painted a few chairs, the bongos and a pickle jar, but no one noticed until they checked the tape.

“We would not have known about the naked guy without the cop finding that video,” said manager Amanda Kitto.

Police identified the man, who is homeless, but did not release his name publicly. Kitto declined to give his name and said the restaurant will not press charges because he caused no harm.

“His goal was to not break in, his goal was to just hang out at The Chattaway.”

Police still haven’t caught the other suspect who made off with about $500 worth of stuff.

Kitto said that even though the two incidents happened back-to-back, she does not believe they are connected.

“I used to always joke and say that if you were going to break into The Chattaway to make sure to grab a beer. And it finally happened.”

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78-Year-Old Punches Out Bear in Terrifying Back Yard Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sonny Pumphrey wasn’t going to take no guff from some bear

WHITE OAK, North Carolina — Really, don’t mess with this guy.

A tough-as-nails 78-year-old punched out a bear that attacked him outside his North Carolina home, suffering only some cuts and bruises before driving the beast off.

Sonny Pumphrey said he was walking down his driveway in White Oak, when the mother beat wandered by with her two cubs. The cubs bolted, but the mother was ready to fight.

“She made a charging dead run at me. That sucker was eyeball-to-eyeball to me,” he told WLOS-TV.

But before it could get to him, Pumphrey says he punched the bear in the nose, casing the creature to duck down and bite his hip.

“She kind of shook me a little bit, and I’m still … I’m hitting her steady on the top of the head just as hard as I could swing, man, for dear life,” he said. “I just continue pounding and pounding and pounding and she’s continuing trying to bite me.

“And like I said, she got a hold of me and then shook me a little bit, then she let go and she took a swat at me. And when she took a swat at me she knocked me about eight feet over on the concrete,” he continued.

Hearing screams, his wife Betty ran outside with their Yorkshire Terrier and was shocked to see her husband trading blows with the angry beast.

“I saw her stand up and rear her paw back and all I seen was a mouthful of teeth,” she said. “And I just knew he was going to be gone.”

But between their dog barking and the two of them yelling, the bear got scared and ran off. Betty then got a shotgun and fired a shot in the woods to make sure the animal didn’t decide to return.

Wildlife officers tracked the bear but were unable to locate it. They say food has been scarce at higher elevations, so bears have been foraging lower.

Pumphrey had to get rabies shots, but was otherwise okay.

“I could have been dead. I could have been really cut up bad,” he said.

“We have a lot to be thankful for because we were both very, very lucky,” Betty said.

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Driver Who Ran Down 4 Girl Scouts Was Huffing Fumes Before Crash

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Colten Treu told cops he was huffing fumes before plowing through a Girl Scout troop

LAKE HALLIE, Wisconsin — A motorist who plowed through a Girl Scout troop as they collected trash from the side of a road, killing four people, had been huffing chemical fumes before the accident, police said.

Colten Treu, 21, and a passenger in his black pickup truck told cops that “they had been intentionally inhaling chemical vapors” — a pastime known as “huffing” — just before the accident Saturday morning.

Investigators say Treu had crossed the middle line of the road in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin and driven through a ditch where the girls were working on the opposite side of the road, hitting five people.

Three young girl scouts, 9-year-old Jayna Kelley, Autum Helgeson and Haylee Hickle, both 10, plus Hickle’s mother, Sara Jo Schneider, 32, were killed. Another 10-year-old girl remains hospitalized in stable condition.

Treu and his pal fled the scene, but investigators were able to track him down by following a trail of vehicle fluid 1.8 miles to his home where they found his car. He had fled but turned himself in — along with his passenger — later that day.

Treu has been charged with four counts of homicide by negligent use of a motor vehicle, five counts of hit and run and four counts of homicide while intoxicated.

“This is a horrible reminder of our nations epidemic of self-indulging with substance abuse without regard of the consequences. Words cannot describe our Lake Hallie community’s sorrow for the witnesses, victims, and their families. This senseless crash was completely avoidable,” said Lake Hallie Police Chief Cal Smokowicz.

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3 Girl Scouts, 1 Adult Killed in Hit-and-Run While Picking Up Trash

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Authorities at the scene of the hit-and-run crash that left 3 girl scouts, 1 adult dead

LAKE HALLIE, Wisconsin — Three girl scouts and an adult chaperone were tragically killed when a pickup truck lurched off the road and plowed into them as they collected trash from the side of a highway.

Police say the 21-year-old driver, Colton Treu, fled the scene but later turned himself in. He is expected to be charged with four counts of homicide through the negligent use of a vehicle, cops said.

The accident occurred Saturday morning along a county road in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin, where the girls — all fourth graders who attended Halmstad Elementary School in Chippewa Falls — were collecting trash as part of a volunteer cleanup program.

Cops say Treu inexplicably veered off the road into a ditch where the girls were working, striking several children and a woman who was accompanying them. Two girls and the chaperone died at the scene. Two others were airlifted to a hospital, where one of them died.

Police said there was no blind spot in the area and it was unclear why Treu left the road. Investigators were looking at whether he had been distracted by something at the time.

 

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Oregon Teens Busted for Trashing Cars In $30K Pumpkin-Smashing Spree

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jacob Stephen Solomon (l) and Adrian Andres Ochoa have been charged with malicious pumpkin theft

GRANTS PASS, Oregon — Two dopey teens have been arrested after going on a weeks-long, drunken pumpkin-smashing spree that caused at least $30,000 in damages, police said.

Cops in Grants Pass, Oregon say Jacob Stephen Solomon and Adrian Andres Ochoa, both 19, had damaged at least 50 cars during the gourd-trashing fest that began Oct. 7 and ran until Oct. 23.

“It sounds like there was probably alcohol involved and just a bunch of stupid decisions,” Lt. Misty English told The Oregonian.

Police say Solomon and Ochoa would drive around town, often late at night, and snatch pumpkins from the outdoor Halloween displays of local supermarkets.

They would then hurl the ill-gotten gourds through car windows, pulverizing them and shattering the glass, cops said.

In all, the victims have reported up to $30,000 in damages, but police say that figure could go up.

English said the suspects were caught largely because they had been driving around in an easy to recognize gold Buick with a large dent in one side.

“That made it pretty easy to recognize,” English said.

The teens have been charged with multiple counts of criminal mischief.

 

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Cow Suit-Wearing Shoplifter Offers to Let Cop Suck Udder to Avoid Arrest

By HardBoiledNews Staff

UDDER MADNESS: Ashley Curry tried to use her teats to get out of a shoplifting bust

PINE BLUFF, Arkansas — Sounds like a case of mad cow disease.

A woman dressed in a black and white cow costume was busted for shoplifting at an Arkansas Walmart and then told the arresting officer he could suck one of the pink udders hanging from the front of her suit.

Pine Bluff police say Ashley Curry, 27, tried to walk off with a pack of Flonase, but was spotted by security officers monitoring the store’s surveillance cameras, because of her not-so inconspicuous outfit, KATV-TV reported.

After being detained, Curry told a cop searching her, that he could “suck a pink cow udder,” as she thrust the nipples dangling from the front of her costume in the officer’s face.

It was unclear if the offer was meant as an insult or a bribe.

Either way, cops charged Curry with shoplifting and resisting arrest.

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Man Busted for Child Porn When Worker Spots Sick Pics On Screensaver

By HardBoiledNews Staff

James Drew Taylor allegedly used child porn as a screensaver

WEST MONROE, Louisiana — A not-so-sharp sicko was busted for having child porn after building employees came into his apartment to inspect his fire extinguisher and spotted the twisted images he’d been using as a screensaver.

James Drew Taylor was hit with 10 counts of child pornography after a building worker came into his West Monroe, Louisiana apartment and called cops when he saw a child porn slideshow scrolling across the screen of a computer in the living room.

Cops came to check the pictures out and then tracked Taylor down at his job where he admitted the images were his, KNOE-TV reported. He said he had downloaded them from the Internet.

Tenants in Taylor’s building had been notified by email three days before the inspections that they should put their fire extinguishers outside for collection. They were told that if the fire extinguishers were not outside, employees would enter the apartments to get them.

 

 

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Woman Claims She Fatally Stabbed Hubby After Slipping on Dog Poop

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Rachel Findanian says she slipped on poop and accidentally stabbed a knife into her husband’s chest

LAKELAND, Florida — A woman claiming to have accidentally stabbed her husband to death when she slipped on dog poop and fell forward with a knife in her hand, plunging the blade into his chest, has been charged with murder, police said.

The Polk County Sheriff’s office in Florida said that following a three-and-a-half month investigation, detectives determined that 38-year-old Rachel Fidanian’s story didn’t add up, so they chose to charge her with killing her husband.

“The suspect made a lot of excuses, but none of them made sense. Our detectives did a thorough investigation. In the end, they determined this was an intentional act of domestic violence,”  said Sheriff Grady Judd.

Police say they received a 911 call on the morning of June 25, that 40-year-old Bryant Fidanian had been accidentally stabbed by his wife in their home in Lakeland. He died a short time later at a local hospital.

During questioning, Rachel Fidanian gave several inconsistent statements about what had happened, cops said.

For starters, she said the stabbing happened when she either tripped or slipped while holding her dog in one hand, and a filet knife in the other and the pooch began pooping and peeing on the floor. But when she attempted to demonstrate how she was holding her dog, she was unable to pick it up.

“Ultimately, detectives determined none of her explanations were plausible,” the sheriff said.

An autopsy showed that Bryant Fidanian died after four inches of the blade cut through his s second rib bone on his left side and cut the pulmonary artery. The coroner ruled the death as a homicide.

Rachel Fidanian had charged with second-degree murder.

 

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