Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Speeding Driver Killed in Collision With Elephant on Thailand Road

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The elephant was unmoved after being hit by the car and then stomped the driver to death

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand — A speeding driver was killed after he hit an elephant that then stomped his pickup flat, police said.

Officials in northeast Thailand said the vehicle plowed into the wild pachyderm’s hind legs as sun set at the edge of the Khao Yai National Park, police said.

The angry animal then reared up and crushed the vehicle, killing the driver, 58-year-old Nakharin Boonchai, the Bangkok Post reported.

“Elephants don’t come out during the day but they start coming out when it gets dark,” said Lt. Col. Kemchat Paedkaew, of the Thai police. He said up to two people a year are killed by elephants in areas surrounding the park.

The accident happened on Wednesday on a small road with signs telling drivers to be aware of wild animals that sometimes stray from the park. Locals reported that two elephants had been crossing the road at the time and that they tried to warn Boonchai — who was not from the area — to slow down, but he hit the rear animal as darkness fell.

This was all that was left of the truck after the elephant was done with it

Officials tracked the stricken elephant, which was bleeding from one of its legs but still able to walk, and were monitoring its condition.

4 Hospitalized, Dozens Flee After Pitbull Goes on House Party Rampage

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The prickly pitbull had just been adopted

COLWOOD, Canada — This dog wasn’t in the mood to party.

A Canadian house party ended with four people in the hospital and 13 people having to barricade themselves for safety after a newly-adopted pitbull went berserk, police said.

The pissed off pooch lost its cool after drunken men began rough housing at a British Columbia rager and bumped into the animal, causing it to become aggressive, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Before police could come and restrain the 140-pound beast, 13 people — including children — had to barricade themselves inside a home to get away from the marauding mutt.

Even the dog’s owners sustained serious injuries as they attempted to corral the animal into a bedroom.

Four injured people were taken to hospital for treatment.

One injured and heavily intoxicated man was arrested after removing his shirt and attempting to fight with officers.

Police say the pitbull had been recently adopted by the family as a rescue animal and that a review of the attack and the dog’s history of aggression will be conducted before any decision is made about the animal’s future.

The Ministry of Children and Families were also contacted to review the safety of the children who were at the party but were unharmed in the attack.

 

Fight Over Books Leads to First Ever Attempted Murder in Antarctica

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Stir craziness and a fight over giving away the endings of books led to the bloodshed

BELLINGSHAUSEN STATION, Antarctica — That’s some truly cold-blooded stuff.

In the first known attempted murder ever in Antarctica, a Russian engineer search station at a remote research station allegedly snapped and tried to stab a coworker to death because he kept giving away the endings of books.

Sergei Savitskiy, 54, had been relying on the books to pass the long months at Bellingshausen Station on King George Island, but his colleague Oleg Beloguzov, a 52-year-old welder, kept spoiling the endings.

Eventually, Savitskiy blew his top, and plunged a kitchen knife into Beloguzov’s chest, according to the Moskovskii Komsomlets newspaper. Beloguzov was flown to the nearest hospital, in Chile and is expected to survive.

Fellow workers said while the blow up over the books was the last straw, the two men had long been at each others’ throats and that working in the close confines of the station only fueled the enmity.

Savitskiy was sent back to St. Petersburg, where he had been charged with attempted murder. While he admitted to the stabbing, Savitskiy insists he didn’t mean to kill Beloguzov.

The station, which was set up by the Soviets in 1968, is located in one of Antarctica’s few mild regions — where winter temperatures hover around a balmy 15 degrees.

Workers there spend their free time flipping between two Russian TV channels, exercising at a gym — or reading in the research library.

Elderly Villager Stoned to Death by Rogue Monkeys in India

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The vicious pack of monkeys rained bricks down on the 72-year-old villager

BAGHPAT, India — Monkey see, monkey do, monkey kill!

An elderly villager in India was stoned to death by a pack of furious monkeys who rained bricks down on him from a tree as he collected firewood, authorities said.

Dharampal Singh, 72, was hit on the head and chest by the bricks which the animals had gathered from a nearby dilapidated building. He later died at a hospital.

Family members had filed a formal complaint with police, naming the beasts as Singh’s killers, although, authorities have so far ruled the death an accident.

“Monkeys threw more than 20 bricks at Dharampal on Thursday. He was hit on the head, chest and legs. Thrown from quite a height, the bricks were enough to kill him,” Singh’s brother, Krishnapal Singh, told the Times of India.

“These rogue monkeys are the real culprits and must pay for it. We have written a complaint against the monkeys but police don’t seem to be convinced,” he said.

Villagers say the gang of monkeys have been terrorizing residents for some time, and Singh’s death was not a surprise.

“The attack on Dharampal could be the worst case, but monkeys have made life difficult for villagers here and there doesn’t seem to be any solution in sight,” villager Bheema Kashyap said.

Police say they are aware of the situation, but couldn’t see how it would be possible to charge the creatures with murder.

“How can we register the case against monkeys? This will make us a laughingstock. I don’t think it is a logical demand,” said Officer Chitwan Singh. “We were definitely informed of the bizarre accident and we registered it in our case diary after which a post-mortem was also conducted.”

 

Mexican Couple Found With Body Parts Eyed in Slayings of 20 Women

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The suspected husband-wife serial killers boasted of slaying up to 20 women

ECATAPEC, Mexico — A couple caught carting away dismembered body parts in a baby carriage are being eyed in connection with up to 20 women in a suburb of Mexico City, police said.

The suspects, identified only as Juan Carlos N. and his wife, Patricia N., were caught with their grisly haul as police investigated the disappearance of an Ecatapec woman and her two-month-old baby in September.

When questioned, Juan Carlos boasted of killing as many as 20 women, although he only provided details for 10 killing, Mexico State police said.

“What seemed macabre to me is that this person mentioned 10 cases in which he gives details, the names of the victims; he gave us the clothing they had on at the time,” prosecutor Alejandro Gomez told Radio Formula. “He seemed happy about what he had done.”

Gomez said Patricia N. appeared to have participated in the slayings, but it was unclear how active a role she had played.

Local media has already dubbed Juan Carlos as the “Monster of Ecatapec.”

Investigators found body parts in the couple’s apartment and at an abandoned lot nearby. At their home, the couple kept the remains in buckets filled with cement and in a fridge.

Neighbors said that whenever they saw the couple, they were pushing the carriage in which police found the body parts.

Police stopped and searched the couple after phone records connected them with a 28-year-old woman, Nancy Huitron, who disappeared the disappearance in September with her two-month old baby, Valentina.

Investigators say Juan Carlos confessed to killing Huitron and identified two other of his victims as 23-year-old Arlet Olguín and 29-year-old Evelyn Rojas.

Prosecutors say he also confessed to sexually abusing some of the victims before killing them and selling off their belongings and some of their body parts.

The three victims — all single mothers — had disappeared in recent months.

Police say they found the baby, Valentina who they say was sold by the couple. She has since been returned to her maternal grandmother.

Investigators say couple cruelly drew the the women in by offering to sell them cheap baby clothing and formula.

 

Famed Italian Gigolo Who Slept With 6,000 Women, Dies Having Sex

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Zanfanti, known as the ‘Romeo of Rimini,’ claimed he bedded 200 women every summer in his prime

RIMINI, Italy  — A legendary Italian lothario known as the “Romeo of Rimini,” who laid claim to having bedded more than 6,000 women, died while in the throes of passion with a 23-year-old tourist in the backseat of a car. Maurizio Zanfanti was 63.

“Zanza died after doing what he did best — loving women,” Il Resto Del Carlino, a Bologna newspaper, reported.

Zanfanti began his run as the reigning playboy of the coastal resort of Rimini when he was just 17 and working as a nightclub promoter charged with luring mainly German and Scandinavian female tourists into a club called Blow Up.

With his flowing locks, olive skin and ample chest hair, he had great success convincing the women to come to bed with him as well. In his prime, he boasted that he would often sleep with 200 women every summer.

In the winter, he would would travel to Scandinavia to work for tourist agencies. His exploits became so famous that some of his lovers erected a wax statue of him in a Swedish town.

His success with women led to him becoming the subject of numerous media profile. In 1986, Italian newspaper L’Espresso named him: “Italy’s most successful lover.” He claimed to have once seduced a French journalist who was interviewing him.

In 2016, he was a guest of honor at a Rimini nightclub at a reunion of Swedish women who had visited in the 1980s.

In an interview with German newspaper Bild in 2014, he announced his retirement and said: “At 59, I’m getting too old for it.”

But on Tuesday, he was “entertaining” a tourist from Romania in the backseat of a car, when he had a fatal heart attack.

The woman called paramedics, but Zanfanti could not be revived.

Local media said it was the way the man once called “Italy’s most successful lover” would have wanted to go. The mayor of Rimini said Italy had lost “a legend of the night.”

 

Cops Discover Police Arsenal Has Been Secretly Replaced with Toy Guns

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops only realized their guns were missing when they started showing up on the black market

CAPIATA, Paraguay — Talk about stealing someone’s thunder.

Police in Paraguay discovered that a cache of their weapons had been stolen and replaced with plastic toy guns.

An inspection of the department’s armory revealed that at least 42 FN-FAL battle rifles had gone missing, the BBC reported.

The probe was triggered after cops realized that their rifles had fallen into criminal hands.

The weapons had been stashed in the armory in the city of Capiata as the department was in the process of upgrading its officers weapons.

Authorities believe the guns are likely destined for the black markets in Argentina, Brazil and beyond.

Thieves Steal Priceless Swedish Crown Jewels in Daring Daytime Heist

By HardBoiledNews Staff

A smashed display case was all that stood between the thieves and these priceless crown jewels

 

STRANGNAS, Sweden — Brazen thieves carrying out a daring daytime raid at a medieval Swedish cathedral, made off with priceless crown jewels and then made their escape by boat through a nearby series of lakes.

Two men sauntered into the Strangnas Cathedral about 40 miles east of Stockholm around  noon on Tuesday and smashed open a display case in front of stunned visitors.

They grabbed a gold crown and an orb dating to 1611 that were made for King Karl IX’s funeral, and a jewel-encrusted crown dating to 1625 that was used in Queen Kristina’s funeral. Breaking the glass on the display triggered an alarm, but the men quickly ran out of the cathedral

Outside, the men hopped aboard two bicycles and pedaled to a nearby lake where they vanished aboard a speedboat or on jet skis into the dizzying patchwork of lakes that surround the city, police said.

Police sent out a helicopter and boat to hunt for the thieves but were unable to locate suspects.

While the stolen artifacts are of great historic and cultural value, police said the stolen pieces would be “impossible to sell” because of their notoriety, according to the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet.

“It’s too difficult to assign a value to these things. They are so unique and historically significant,” said police spokesman, Thomas Agnevik.

The stolen artifacts are funeral regalia, which are placed inside or on top of a coffin to symbolize a deceased royal’s identity and social ranking.

While some funeral regalia are kept in the cathedrals of Strangnas, Uppsala and Vasteras, most of Sweden’s crown jewels are kept in vaults under the Royal Castle in Stockholm.

In 2013, 16th-century copies of King Johan III’s crown, orb and scepter were stolen from the cathedral in the central Swedish city of Vasteras, 60 miles west of Stockholm, during a nighttime burglary. They were eventually found and returned to the cathedral. No one was arrested.

 

Canadian Thief Steals Funeral Home Van With Corpse Still Inside

By HardBoiledNews Staff

It’s unclear if the thief knew there was a corpse in back when he stole the van

RED DEER, Canada — It was a stone cold theft.

Cops in Canada are hunting for whoever made off with a funeral home van that still had a corpse inside.

The creepy caper unfolded early Tuesday, when the driver of the the van stepped out briefly in the parking lot of a funeral home in Red Deer, Alberta. That’s when the suspect jumped in and drove off with the black Chrysler Town and Country, perhaps not knowing there was a dead person in the back.

“This vehicle theft was almost certainly a crime of opportunity, but with a very unfortunate and upsetting twist in that there is a deceased person in the back,” said Red Deer Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Ken Foster. “This is a sensitive incident and we’re very aware of the distress it is causing to the family of the deceased and everyone connected to the incident.

It took nearly a whole day before officials eventually recovered the van  — fortunately with the corpse still inside — but the culprit was nowhere to be found.

Cops have been going door to door to question neighbors in the community to see if they had seen anything suspicious.

Brazilian Butt Specialist Known as Dr. BumBum on the Run After Patient Dies

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Doctor Bumbum (L) is accused of killing Lilian Calixto in a botched butt enlargement procedure

RIO DE JANIERO, Brazil — A celebrity surgeon known in Brazil as “Dr. BumBum” went on the lam after a patient died during a botched butt enlargement procedure.

A judge issued a warrant for Dr. Denis Furtado arrest on homicide charges after 46-year-old Lilian Calixto fell ill and died at a Rio hospital following the procedure at Furtado’s home in the posh district of Barra de Tijuca.

Investigators believe Furtado injected acrylic glass filler into the rear of the married mother of two, the BBC reported.

Furtado vanished after the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Police detained his girlfriend, Renata Fernandes Cirne, on suspicion of taking part in the procedure.

Furtado is a well known figure on Brazilian TV, and had nearly 650,000 followers on his recently-deleted Instagram account. His Facebook page is filled with before-and-after shots of butt enlargement procedures.

Niveo Steffen, the president of the Brazilian Plastic Surgery Society, said Furtado’s practices suggested he wasn’t a completely legit doctor.

“You cannot perform plastic surgery inside an apartment,” he said. “Many people are selling a dream, a fantasy to patients in an unethical way and people, weakened, are often attracted to low prices, without considering whether or not the conditions are adequate.”

Friends of Calixto, a former HSBC bank manager, told local media she had always had a “dissatisfaction with her butt” and had undergone many other procedures to change her appearance.

“She did not need it, she’s always been beautiful since she was a teenager. I remember her at the age of 16. Everything about her was perfect. … But a woman is never satisfied with her body,” said her friend Lucy Macedo.