Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Woman Shoots Husband in Fight Over Her Refusing to Make Breakfast

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Rachel Eutsey wasn’t down to cook breakfast for hubby, John Maki, prompting him to attack her and her to shoot him

NORMALVILLE, Pennsylvania — There isn’t enough marriage counseling in the world for this pair.

A Pennsylvania woman called police to say she had shot her husband in the head after he started choking her because she refused to cook him breakfast, cops said.

Rachel Aarold Eutsey, 36, told cops she and her husband, John David Maki, had been smoking crack for several evenings in a row leading up to the fatal altercation.

When the couple woke up Thursday morning, Eutsey said they got into an argument because she wouldn’t cook him breakfast.

She says he then began to choke her, but she got away and got a gun from her father’s bedroom and loaded it. She said Maki had a baseball bat, and was walking down the hall yelling when she “pointed the gun at him to scare him,” according to a police affidavit, the Uniontown Herald Standard.

“She related that she fired the gun, but didn’t intend to strike the victim,” the affidavit said.

He was hospitalized in critical condition.

John Maki

Eutsey is charged with criminal attempt to commit homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. She is being held on $100,000 bond.

Woman Fakes Pregnancy to Get Lift Home From Ambulance

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Leeann Armstrong needed a lift home so called an ambulance, faking a pregnancy

GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania — A woman is accused of faking a pregnancy and being in medical distress to get an ambulance to give her a lift back to her hometown.

Leeann Armstrong, 25, was at a home in the Pennsylvania town of Latrobe when she called 911 complaining of having complications from her pregnancy, police said.

When an ambulance arrived, Armstrong and a male companion were driven to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg and brought to a room to wait for her to be be examined.

“Before Armstrong could receive treatment, she walked out of the hospital,” Patrolman Kerry Dieter wrote in a criminal complaint, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Cops then went to Armstrong’s home where they found her hiding in the attic. They also detected the strong smell of marijuana in the apartment and saw what appeared to be a bag of pot and pipe laying on a table, police said.

Upon questioning, Armstrong admitted that she wasn’t pregnant, but that her ride had left her in Latrobe the night before and she needed a lift back to Greensburg.

She was charged with theft of services, which carries an $800 fine, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

 

Man Who Stole Pot of Meatballs Caught With Sauce All Over Face

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The pot of meatballs was too hard to pass up for one hungry thief

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — This gives a whole new meaning to getting caught red handed.

Police were easily able to pin the theft of a pot of steaming meatballs on a Pennsylvania man when they found him with red sauce smeared all over his face.

Leahman Potter, 48, was charged with burglary, criminal trespass and theft for swiping the pot from a man’s garage.

Cops in Luzerne County say the victim reported the missing meatballs on Monday  and told officers that he saw Potter standing in front of his house with red sauce on his face and clothes.

The empty pot was found on the street.

Woman Shows Up Dead Drunk to Court for Public Drunkenness Hearing

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Showing up drunk in court is a good sign of a drinking problem

NEW HOLLAND, Pennsylvania — It might be time to admit you have a drinking problem.

A Pennsylvania woman was arrested after showing up dead drunk to a court hearing for a earlier public drunkenness arrest, police said.

New Holland police say Jennifer Amanda Jones, 36, was under the influence when she arrived for a hearing at a district judge’s officer on did Feb. 9.

Jones was in court for a public drunkenness hearing and also has an open DUI case against her. She has had numerous arrests over the years for drunk driving and public drunkenness, court records show.

She was later hit again with a public drunkenness charge for her tipsy appearance in court.

 

Philly Knucklehead Steals Thumb From Priceless Statue, Snaps Selfies With It

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The stolen thumb came from a famed terracotta warrior statue on loan from China

PHILADELPHIA — It was only a matter of time before they fingered their man.

Federal agents have tracked down a knuckleheaded thief who snuck out from an after-hours party at a Philadelphia art museum and managed to steal the thumb from a $4.5 million, third-century statue of a Chinese warrior.

The FBI says Michael Rohana, 24,  of Bear, Delaware, was a guest at an “Ugly Sweater Party” at the Franklin Museum in December, when he made his way into an exhibit on loan from China of some of the country’s famed terracotta soldiers.

He then walked out with the snapped-off finger in his pocket. Museum staffers didn’t notice the missing digit for a week, but the whole episode was captured on surveillance video, which showed Rohana in a fuzzy, green sweater and Philadelphia Phillies go in and out of the room, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

An investigation revealed that he sent  Snapchat messages to friend the next day featuring pictures of the finger. And the friends he as with that night told investigators he had talked about stealing the finger.

When agents showed up weeks later at Rohana’s house where he lives with his parents, he fessed up and produced the finger he had kept in a drawer. He was charged with art theft.

The museum said the thumb has been reunited with the statue and will be reattached. Meanwhile, the museum says it is reviewing its security protocols.

 

Cartoon Sketch Draws Laughs Online But Still Helps Cops Name Suspect

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It didn’t take a master sketch artists to help nail Hung Phuoc Nguyen

LANCASTER, Pennsylvania — The crime was in the eye of the beholder.

Police in Pennsylvania were somehow able to zero in on a suspect working off a laughably bad eyewitness sketch that made the man look like a cartoon stick figure.

But it turns out the bad sketch was good enough.

“While the sketch provided by the witness may have appeared amateurish and cartoonish, it, along with the distinctive physical descriptors, jogged the memory of at least one investigator to provide a potential suspect name,” the Lancaster police said in a statement. “This was not done in jest.”

When investigators showed a photo array to the witness, they immediately picked the suspect, Hung Phuoc Nguyen, 44, a homeless man who allegedly pretended to be an employee at a vendor’s stand while a real employee was away and then made off with a wad of cash.

Nguyen has been charged with 2 counts of theft by unlawful taking and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Cops have checked the last known addresses for Nguyen, but so far haven’t been able to locate him.

Bumbling Thief Busted After Accidentally Calling 911 During Break-In

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Alleged thief Brendan Weaver had an accidental pang of conscience when he butt dialed 911 on himself during burglary

EPHRATA, Pennsylvania — Here is an early entry for the dumbass criminal of the year contest.

Police in Pennsylvania say they caught a stark naked and high as a kite thief ransacking an office building after he accidentally called 911.

The Ephrata police say they responded to the building after getting a 911 hangup from inside early Tuesday morning. When they arrived, they found a smashed glass door at the side of the building.

Once inside they encountered Brendan Weaver, 28, wandering around the building wearing no clothes “and clearly under the influence of a controlled substance.”

Cops say the office area of the building had been ransacked causing more than $5,000 worth of damage.

Investigators say they suspect Weaver accidentally called 911 from an office phone when he was ransacking the building.

He has been charged with burglary.

 

Three Teens Arrested in Pennsylvania Pineapple Attack

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BUTLER, Pennsylvania– A group of teen girls have been charged with attacking a fellow student with a severe pineapple allergy by soaking their hands in pineapple and giving her a high-five, police said.

Cops say the teens hatched the nefarious plan during the lunch period at Butler Intermediate High School and later snuck in a fruit cup containing pineapple  which has been banned from the school due to  the 14-year-old victim’s condition.

The three attacked, one of whom is also 14, poured the pineapple juice on their hands and then high-fived the victim, triggering a severe allergic reaction, the Butler Eagle reported.

The victim quickly broke out in hives and was rushed to the nurse’s offices where she was given an dose from an epinephrine pen after which she was taken to a hospital. She is expected to survive.

The three perpetrators  who allegedly had a role in the assault face felony charges in juvenile court. They were also disciplined by the school.

Court Rejects Inmate’s Claim That Drugs Found in His Rectum Didn’t Belong to Him

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The contraband was found in Edwin Wylie-Biggs’ rectum during a strip search

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — This is the judicial equivalent of telling someone to take their appeal and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

A judicial panel has rejected an appeal by a Pennsylvania inmate who claimed that a bag of dope jail guards found inside his rectum wasn’t actually his.

Prison guards moved to strip search Edwin Wylie-Biggs, 36, after spotting another inmate pass something to him in a state prison.

When he was ordered to bend over and spread his buttocks, the guards found a small plastic bag sticking out of his rectum. Inside that bag was a blue balloon containing the synthetic marijuana known as K-2.

In April, he was hit with an additional three-to-six years in prison on top the two-to-four year term he was serving for possession of heroin and running from cops and jumping off a 100-foot tall bridge in a bid to escape.

But he quickly filed an appeal saying that jail officials couldn’t prove the drugs were his.

Edwin Wylie-Biggs

In a five-page ruling, Pennsylvania Superior Court deemed the argument absurd and dismissed Wylie-Biggs’ claim.

Husband-Wife Plead Guilty in Bizarre Teen Sex Blackmail-Murder For Hire Plot

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There was little marital bliss in Keith (l) and Robin Transue’s home

STROUDSBURG, Pennsylvania — They were a match made in hell, but were absolutely made for each other.

A Pennsylvania husband and wife have pleaded guilty to dueling charges surrounding her trying to hire a hitman to kill him and end his years of blackmailing her over an affair she had had with a 14-year-old boy, prosecutors said.

Robin Transue, 43, pleaded guilty to to solicitation to commit aggravated assault and statutory sexual assault, while her 43-year-old husband, Keith Transue, a cop with the Bushkill Township Police, pleaded guilty to criminal coercion.

The malevolent marital machinations came to light when Robin Transue approached a friend, Richard Warner, seeking help to kill her husband. Warner immediately went to police, but they asked him to wear a wire to get Robin on tape discussing the plot, the Monroe County district attorney said.

Over several conversations, Robin discussed a variety of possible ways to kill her husband, including staging a hunting accident, tampering with his car to cause an accident, giving him drugs to make it look like he had a heart attack or giving him a fatal dose of Valium and make it appear he had committed suicide.

“It’s down to the wire, I have to do something,” she was caught on tape telling Warner. She also discussed the possibility of splitting her husband’s $250,000 life insurance payout with Warner if he were to die in a fire in their home.

But when Warner asked her why she wanted her husband dead, the depravity of the situation became clear. It turned out that several years earlier, Keith discovered his wife had had sex with a 14-year-old boy on several occasions, but instead of reporting it as he was required to as a police officer, he held it over his wife’s head to prevent her from trying to divorce him.

“As problems in the marriage continued to mount, Robin became more desperate. She had looked up the statute of limitations for her sexual crimes and realized the time wasn’t close to running out,” the district attorney’s office said in statement.

Investigators later determined that Robin had indeed had the sexual relationship with the boy and decided to file the additional charges against her. They also decided to charge Keith as his efforts to blackmail his wife led directly to her plotting to kill him.

Both are scheduled for sentencing on March 20.