Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Worst Driving Instructor Ever Charged With Driving Drunk During Lesson

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Russell Cohen was a very bad driving instructor

RIDGE, New York — Do as I say, but definitely not as I do.

A Long Island driving instructor was arrested after his four teenage students called 911 after they grew nervous that he was driving drunk, police said.

Russell Cohen, who was working as a substitute teacher for the Suffolk Auto Driving School, was arrested after the students managed to get him to pull over at a McDonald’s at about 11 a.m., according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The teens said Cohen had been behaving erratically and saying inappropriate things to the female students in the car, so they asked a restaurant employee to call 911, Newsday reported.

When the kids didn’t come out, Cohen sped off and  crashed into the rear end of another car less than an hour later, authorities said.

The 29-year-old driver of the other car was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Cohen, 58, was not hurt, but was charged with aggravated DWI and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

“I’m happy I’m alive,” said student Matt McGeough, 16, of Holbrook.

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Mobster Gunned Down While Waiting in Line in McDonald’s Drive-Thru

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Reputed mob associated Sylvester Zottola sits with former Bonanno crime family boss ‘Vinny Gorgeous’ Basciano

NEW YORK — A reputed associate of the Bonanno crime family was fatally gunned down in a gangland hit in broad daylight as he waited in line for a cup of coffee at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

Sylvester “Sally Daz” Zottola, 71, was shot once in the head and four times in the torso after his car got boxed in while he waited in line outside the Bronx fast food eatery. He was pronounce dead at the scene.

The hit was the latest in a series of threatening attacks on Zottola and his family in recent months. In July, his 41-year-old son, Salvatore, was shot outside his Bronx home in what authorities believed was a message meant for his father.

Last September, the elder Zottola was clubbed over the head as he walked near his home by an unknown attacker, police said. Two months later, a gunman tried to force Zottola into a car but failed.

In December, Zottola was stabbed in the neck when he walked on robbers ransacking his home. Then in June, Zottola drove off an approaching gunman by pulling out his pistol and firing several rounds before the man could get too close.

Zottola had been charged with illegal weapons possession following that episode.

Zottola was a noted associate of “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, who briefly led the Bonanno crime family in the early 2000s.  Basciano began serving a life sentence in 2007.

 

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Joy Riding Dirt Bike Driver Busted For Speeding Through NY Supermarket

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Traitin Knight narrowly avoided running down customers with his dirt bike at the supermarket

SCHENECTADY, New York — He’s a full-throttle idiot.

Police have charged a stunt-riding motorcyclist who sped through an Upstate New York supermarket on a dirt bike with reckless endangerment.

Traitin Knight, 23, narrowly avoided running down several startled customers at a Price Chopper in Schenectady on Sept. 1, all while filming his joy ride with a GoPro camera affixed to his helmet.

He later posted the 66-second video — titled “Grocery shopping on a dirt bike!!” — on his YouTube channel and on Facebook. That got the attention of police.

“In the original video, there are multiple victims seen as Mr. Knight recklessly rides through the grocery store with blatant disregard for customer safety,” police said in a statement.

The video begins with Knight revving the motor of the bike in the supermarket parking lot and then making his way through the automatic door, squeezing by a customer as he made his way inside.

He then zips around an aisle and past the produce section, narrowly avoiding running down several customers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7G6sWioXZQ&feature=youtu.be

In a statement to the Schenectady Daily Gazette, a Price Chopper spokeswoman said: “After having brought the incident and video to their attention, we’ve been working with the police on this case.”

Cops caught up with Knight earlier this week and are now asking any witnesses who were in and around the store that night, to contact them.

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Authorities Discover Crack Pipe Vending Machines Installed in Public Places

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Officials found three such vending machines seling crack pipes

CORAM, New York — Officials seized three vending machines that purported to be selling pens but actually dispensed carefully disguised crack pipes.

The blue-and-white dispensers mysteriously appeared outside a housing complex, a Home Depot and shopping mall on Long Island.

But while the machines offered “pens” for $2, a close inspection of what came out revealed a hidden glass tube and set of filters — a virtual crack pipe kit.

Authorities were alerted to the machines after residents grew angry and, in one case, smashed one of them open with a sledgehammer.

“There are some people who think they’re going to make some money out of this and prey on a community and promote drug use in a community,” Brookhaven Town supervisor Ed Romaine said at a news conference. “They’re going to be sadly mistaken.”

Officials pulled up three machines over the weekend on the grounds that they violated local codes against alerting public property.

While three machines have been located, officials said they couldn’t be certain there weren’t others and asked the public to report any more that they had seen.

 

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Man Robbed at Sword-Point After Letting Woman In to Use the Bathroom

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The suspect whipped out the sword after being let in to use the toilet

BUFFALO, New York — Is that a sword in your hands, or are you just happy to see me?

A Buffalo man was robbed at sword-point after letting a woman into his house to use the bathroom, police said.

The man told police that he didn’t know the woman, but let her in after she knocked on his door Saturday asking to use his bathroom, the Buffalo News reported.

After doing her business, she grabbed the weapon that was laying near the door to the man’s house and threatened to hurt him if he didn’t hand over his cash.

After he handed over his wallet, the woman knocked him to the ground and ran off with his cash, cops said.

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Man Charged in Brutal Slaying of ‘Full of Life’ 101-Year-Old Neighbor

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Gregory Jesmer is accused of brutally stabbing his 101-year-old neighbor

ROCHESTER, New York — A 101-year woman with “a lot of life left in her,” was brutally killed when her knife-wielding wacko upstairs neighbor stabbed her repeatedly in her own apartment.

Cops were called to Marcia Morrison’s home Tuesday morning when a senior transportation company came to pick her up, but she did not answer the door.

Inside, they found a gruesome scene, with the centenarian lying in a pool of blood after being stabbed repeatedly in the neck, throat and upper torso, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.

“This is one of the most egregious crimes that we as a community have ever seen,” said prosecutor Monica O’Brien, head of the Monroe County District Attorney’s elder abuse bureau.

A short time later, cops arrested 54-year-old Gregory Jesmer, who lived above Morrison, after he got off a bus and began following a 13-year-old girl and offered her money to come home with him. A passing motorist intervened.

Investigators say that as they questioned Jesmer, certain evidence emerged that pinned him to the slaying of Morrison.

Jesmer has had previous arrests for grand larceny and driving while intoxicated.

Marcia Morrison

Morrison did not have children and her husband had died decades ago, but she was very active in the community. Neighbors said Morrison was a stalwart in the building where she lived and was a powerhouse despite her age.

“She had a lot of get-up-and-go in her,” neighbor Sandra Fields said. “She was like our grandmother.”

“She had a lot of life left in her, more than some young people,” Fields said.

She said she knew Jesmer and that he drank a lot, but that he didn’t seem violent or threatening. Fields said Jesmer sometimes asked neighbors for money and she thought Morrison had sometimes helped him out.

He has been charged with second-degree murder.

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Bystander Shot on Same Block She Was Hit by Stray Bullet 20 Years Ago

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Fran Williams has twice been the victim of a stray bullet shooting on the very same block

NEW YORK — What are the odds?

A New York woman is clinging to life after being hit in the face in a stray-bullet shooting on the same block where she was shot in a similar stray-bullet shooting 20 years earlier.

Fran Williams, 67, was shot Thursday while waiting for a bus on Jersey Street in Staten Island when a gang member opened fire following a brawl outside a nearby courthouse.

It was on the same block in 1998 were she was shot while doing her laundry, police said.

“What a shame. Here is an innocent lady getting shot 20 years apart,” a law enforcement official told the New York Post. “Even during the crack days, drug dealers didn’t have that bad of luck.”

This week’s shooting came after a scuffle outside the court which led to a group of five gang members stealing a van which they later crashed into a pedestrian, killing him.

About a half hour later, a gang member opened fire in what cops think was an attempt to retaliate for the van strike , but hit Williams instead, as she waited for the bus near her home.

Neighbors said Williams was known as “Ms. Franny,” and was a good-spirited animal lover.

“She’s a great person with a great heart,” a pal said. “She’s always in good spirits. She makes you laugh.”

 

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Teen Stabs Grandmother as She Sleeps, Steals $23 From Her Purse

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Brandon Foster is in deep trouble for stabbing his grandmother

ALBION, New York — What part about “love your grandmother,” didn’t he get?

An upstate New York teen has been charged with breaking into his grandmother’s house, stabbing and choking her, before stealing money from her purse.

Seventeen-year-old Brandon Foster’s attack on his grandmother, Rachael Spearance, early Sunday, triggered a massive manhunt that ended hours later when cops found the teen cowering in some bushes behind a Burger King.

Cops say that Foster forced his way into his grandmother’s house by climbing on a chair and forcing the window open. Once inside, he allegedly made his way to granny’s bedroom and attacked her with a knife as she slept.

Spearance began fighting back, so Foster placed her in a choke hold, cops said, according to the Batavia Daily News. But she managed to fight her way free and, despite bleeding profusely, drove to a local hospital.

The teen then stole $23 from her purse and fled the house, cops said.

Spearance  was taken by Mercy Flight to Erie County Medical Center and remains in serious but stable condition.

After searching for several hours, police dogs were able to track Foster, cornering him some bushed behind Burger King. He then surrendered peacefully.

Foster is charged with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary, criminal obstruction of breathing and petit larceny. He has been held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

 

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Cold Hearted Thief Steals Motorbike in Chaos After Rider Killed in Crash

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The cold hearted thief made off with a dirt bike from a crash scene after its rider was killed

NEW YORK — That’s cold.

A thief with a heart of stone made off with the dirt bike of a man who had just crashed and lay dying in the street, cops said.

Luimy Acosta-Collado, 27, was just half a block from his home when he crashed into a double parked car as he came around a turn in Brooklyn, police said.

Acosta-Collado was knocked to the ground and slid underneath a parked car, but the motor bike kept going and eventually crashed into a car parked further up the block.

As people rushed to help the fallen rider, someone quietly walked off with the bike.

“The guy was bleeding. A bunch of people were out here screaming, calling ambulances,” a man who identified himself as Wayne O., told the New York Daily News.

Another witness said Acosta-Collado was riding a friend’s dirt bike — which is illegal to drive on city streets — when he crashed, and that the “friend” retrieved it before police showed up, so it wouldn’t get seized.

“The cops can’t find the motorcycle. My guess is that the person who owns the motorcycle took it before it would get confiscated,” the man said. “Even for Brooklyn, that would be pretty s—ty.”

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Three U.S.-Based Mercenaries Convicted in Fatal Shooting in Philippines

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Joseph Hunter learned the hard way that being a mercenary isn’t what it used to be

NEW YORK — Two former U.S. soldiers and a professional weapons trainer who led second lives as mercenaries, have been convicted of gunning down a real estate agent in the Philippines in a murder-for-hire plot.

Ringleader Joseph Manuel Hunter, 52, was accused of hiring Adam Samia, 43, and Carl David Stillwell, 50, to gun down the woman in 2012 on behalf of global gun and drug runner.

According to prosecutors, Sami and Stillwell, both of North Carolina, posed as real estate customers and then shot the woman in the face as they drove through the countryside. They left her body on a pile of garbage where it was found days later. The motive for the killing has never been made entirely clear.

The men all face up to life in prison in the killing.

Hunter, a former first class sergeant in the U.S. Army,  had already pleaded guilty to a 2013 plot to kill a DEA agent in Thailand and has been serving a 20 year sentence.

He allegedly ran a private security and mercenary outfit called Echelon Associates for the smuggler, Paul Le Roux. Hunter arranged private security to businessman buying gold in Africa .

 

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