Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Killer Monkey Launches Sneak Attack on Teen, Grandfather in Texas

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The out-of-control creature left Mariah Schliesing with scratches to her head, neck and arms

SOUTH HOUSTON, Texas — The hunt is on for a vicious monkey that hopped through the window of a car and attacked a teen and her grandfather in Texas.

Michael and Mariah Schliesing were stopped at a light in South Houston on Thursday when they spotted the primate walking down the street.

“I wanted her to take a picture of it, but we never thought it would jump in the window,” Michael told KTRK-TV.

But just as she rolled down the window, the monkey hopped right in.

“It hops onto the window of our truck and it does that thing that it does. I’m scared. It jumps on me,” said Mariah, who suffered scratches to her shoulder, neck and head.

The beast only fled after Michael forcibly tossed it from the vehicle.

“I hollered at it and I hit it right in the head right in the face and knocked it out the window,” he said.

And that was the last anyone has seen of it.

The South Houston police and Human Society have gone looking for the creature but have turned up no sign of it. Authorities warn residents not to approach the animal if they see it, but to call police.

Alaska Fisherman Charged With Faking Own Death at Sea to Avoid Jail Time

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Ryan “Unga” Meganack

PORT GRAHAM, Alaska — An Alaska fisherman has been charged with trying to fake his own death at sea to avoid a jail sentence for a sex assault, triggering a massive rescue operation by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Federal prosecutors say Ryan Riley “Unga” Meganack, 34, and his girlfriend Ivy Rose Rodriguez, 25, hatched an elaborate plot to make it look like he had disappeared at sea while he was just hiding out in the woods to escape going to jail.

Meganack had agreed to plead guilty to charges of sexual assault  on Dec. 5, 2016 in a deal that involved jail time.

Less than a week before he was supposed to turn himself in, authorities say Meganack piloted his fishing vessel out to an island near Port Graham and abandoned a skiff there in a way that made it look like he had been washed away at sea.

But Meganack took his ship back to Port Graham where he picked up Rodriguez and then secured the vessel in a nearby tidal lagoon and then went to a makeshift campsite in the woods.

Rodriguez headed back to Port Graham where she told Meganack’s family the following day that he had gone out aboard the skiff and was drunk and that the craft had been suffering from motor trouble.

His family then reported him missing triggering a three day search for him in which the Coast Guard combed the sea after finding his skiff washed up on the island near Port Graham. In total, officials say $311,000 was spent on the search.

Authorities eventually caught wind of where Meganack was hiding after a tipster came forward, and arrested him.

Both Meganack and Rodriguez have been charged with conspiracy and false distress.

Lawyer in Biggest Social Security Scam in History May Have Fled to Mexico

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Eric Conn’s ads dotted the Kentucky landscape

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — A disability lawyer who went on the lam after being convicted of stealing over half a billion dollars in the biggest Social Security scam in history has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay back $170 million.

Authorities say Eric Conn, who was held under home detention in Kentucky after his conviction in March, in snipped off his electronic monitoring anklet on June 2 and went on the run.

The FBI says it has tracked Conn to New Mexico where he has been spotted buying gas and shopping at Walmart.  They say Conn fled using a truck owned by a friend who had registered it to a dummy corporation in Montana.

The truck has been recovered in New Mexico near the Mexico border, although officials say they have no evidence Conn had fled into Mexico.

“The negative impact of Conn’s presence in our community will be felt for generations,” said FBI agent Amy Hess. “His flight from prosecution has diminished any legitimacy and integrity he once held as an attorney and officer of the court.”

The FBI has tracked Eric Conn as far as New Mexico where he was spotted shopping in Walmart

Conn, 56, was a well known figure in Kentucky with ads appearing on TV nonstop and ambulance chasing billboards dotting the landscape. He earned millions by representing thousands of clients pressing for disability claims from Social Security. But it was all a fraud, prosecutors said. In all, they say he defrauded the government out of $550 million.

Con was also seen shopping in a New Mexico Walmart

Conn admitted he had routinely presented false evidence of disabilities, paid unscrupulous doctors to rubber stamp forms and even bribed a Social Security judge who approved thousands of claims for Conn’s clients in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A second judge has admitted retaliating against a whistleblower who tried to blow the lid off Conn’s sleazy dealings with the judge. Both judges are awaiting sentencing.

At his sentencing, Judge Danny Reeves gave Conn the maximum jail term allowed by law, but acknowledged that 12 years didn’t fit the crime.

“It did hurt the entire system and the reverberations are still occurring,” Reeves said, according to the Lexington Herald Leader.

Tourist Killed on Caribbean Beach by Jet Plane Takeoff

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SINT MAARTEN — A tourist from New Zealand visiting the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten was killed when she was thrown by the wake of a jet engine at a spot near the airport where planes take off and land just a few feet away from the beach.

The 57-year-old woman was standing by a fence at the base of the runway of Princess Juliana International Airport that has become a popular tourist attraction when she thrown by the force of the engine blast and struck her head on the pavement, leaving her seriously injured, police said.

She was rushed to the hospital, but “unfortunately the victim died shortly after as a result of the injuries she sustained,” the Sint Maarten police force said in a statement.

The area next to the runway is a popular spot for thrill seekers who come to watch low-flying planes cross over the narrow beach to land, or to be blown into the water from the engine blast of planes taking off.  Dozens of videos of people pressing their luck as planes pass by litter YouTube.

The woman who was killed was standing with several others clinging to a fence to watch a plane take off for Trinidad. In 2012, a woman was seriously hurt when she was thrown and struck her head on a low concrete wall.

https://youtu.be/LV28AL0k1kY

Police acknowledge that the spot has “become well known worldwide as a major tourist attraction,” but warned that it is “extremely dangerous” to stand there. Signs posted along the beach warn tourists to steer clear and police say they regularly patrol the area.

“The local authorities are urging the general public and mainly visitors to the island to adhere to the warning signs that are placed at that location to avoid serious injuries which can ultimately lead to the loss of life,” the police statement said.

Canadian Fisherman Killed By Whale Moments After Freeing it From Net

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CAMPOBELLO ISLAND, Canada — A Canadian lobster fisherman was tragically killed by a whale just moments after cutting it free from a fishing net in which it had gotten entangled, authorities said.

Joe Howlett had joined the crew of a Fisheries Department vessel that on Monday went to rescue the trapped right whale in the waters off New Brunswick.

He was in the water with the whale and had cut the last bit of line from the creature’s body when tragedy struck.

“They got the whale totally disentangled and then some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip,” Mackie Green, of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, told the Canadian Press.

Officials with the fisheries department noted that disentangling whales involved “serious risks” as the animals can be very unpredictable.

Howlett had for years volunteered for such missions, lending his expertise in seafaring knots and how nets are constructed, friends said.

“This is something he loved and there’s no better feeling than getting a whale untangled, and I know how good he was feeling after cutting that whale clear,” Green said.

Joe Howlett (r), with son Tyler

Seven right whales — which are highly endangered –had been found dead in waters near Campobello Island in the week before Howlett’s death. At least one was determined to have died due to getting trapped in a fishing net and two others appeared to have died from boat strikes, officials said.

Instagram Model Busted For Attacking Cops in Nude Hotel Rampage

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CLEARWATER, Florida — A smoking hot Instagram model was arrested for allegedly attacking police in the buff after they tried to get her to leave a Florida hotel where she had been causing a disturbance.

Brissa Dominguez-Garcia, 25, is accused of kicking several officers and trying to bite and spit on others as they attempted to escort out of the Edge Hotel in Clearwater early last Wednesday.

According to the police report, when officers arrived on the scene after receiving a call from the night manager, they found Dominguez to be totally nude. An officer offered her a towel to cover up, but she used it instead to whip him in the face, the report said.

She then kicked three patrolmen, and attempted to bite and spit on one officer, who she then “mule kicked” when he got too close, Clearwater police said.

The 5-foot-4, 130-pound Dominguez hails from Mexico and gave police a home address in California. She has amassed 74,000 followers on her Instagram page where she regularly posts photos from around the world highlighting her ample derriere and curvaceous figure.

At the same time she was arrested , Clearwater cops also  took in a 25-year-old Florida man who was stumbling around naked in the hotel’s lobby. It is unclear if or how the man–who was “uncooperative and intoxicated”–was connected to Dominguez.

Manhunt on After Prisoner Serving Life Busts Out of Max Security Prison for 2nd Time

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RIDGEVILLE, South Carolina — Locking the door and throwing away the key won’t stop Jimmy Causey.

The inmate serving a life sentence for taking his former lawyer and his family hostage was on the lam after busting out of a maximum security prison for the second time.

South Carolina authorities had launched a statewide manhunt for the 46-year-old Causey after discovering he had slipped away from the Lieber Correctional Institution on Wednesday.

Jimmy Causey

In 2005, Causey had managed to break out of another maximum security prison with a fellow inmate by hiding in a dumpster and leaving dummies behind to fool guards into thinking they were in their beds.

Causey and the other inmate were recaptured after just three days in that episode. It was unclear how he managed to escape this time.

“I would have thought after the first escape attempt he would be locked down pretty tight,” Capt. Scott McDonald of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department told the State newspaper. “To hear he escaped again, I was just in shock.”

A career criminal, Causey was hit with a life sentence in 2004 for barging into the Columbia home of lawyer Jack Swerling, who had twice represented him, with the mistaken impression that there was a large stash of cash there.

Causey and a co-conspirator bound and gagged Swerling and his wife and daughter with duct tape and ransacked the home, making off with just a few bucks. At trial, it was revealed that Causey held a grudge because he felt he shouldn’t have served any time in the earlier cases in which Swerling represented him.

Swerling said news of the escape sent a chill up his spine, and authorities have provided him and his family with police protection.

Man Tries Fireworks to Zap Bee’s Nest, Torches Garage Instead

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GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Michigan — At least he’s a patriotic dumbass.

A Michigan man accidentally set his garage on fire when he tried to use fireworks to remove a bee’s nest inside, authorities said.

The blaze set off even more fireworks that were apparently store inside, sending rockets blazing across the night sky, fire officials said.

“The homeowner was doing something with a smoke bomb trying to get a bees nest out of the garage,”  Grand Blanc Fire Chief, Bob Burdett, told Mlive.com.

No one was hurt and the fire was contained to the garage and a fence and didn’t spread to the clueless homeowner’s home.

Mike Tingley, who sparked the fire, said he was simply glad it wasn’t worse.

“We really weren’t going to celebrate the Fourth of July so much as we just have fun in our backyard, we like to have barbecues, we had a patio back there,” said Tingley, who was home with his wife and daughter at the time of the fire. “It is depressing losing a place where we had a lot of fun, but everyone is safe and that’s the main thing.”

Man Fatally Shot in YouTube Video Prank, Girlfriend Charged

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Cops say Pedro Ruiz died after his gal pal, Monalisa Perez, fired at a book he held to his chest

HALSTAD, Minnesota — The price of fame is high indeed, sometimes.

A Minnesota man attempting to become famous on YouTube for his increasingly outlandish stunts died tragically when his girlfriend shot him in the chest in a video prank gone wrong.

Police and relatives say 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz had handed his girlfriend, Monalisa Perez, 19, a handgun and asked her to shoot a book he held up against his chest under the mistaken belief it would stop the bullet.

The couple had set up multiple cameras to film the stunt on Monday night, KMSP-TV reported. Ruiz later died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Perez — who has one child with Perez and is seven-months pregnant with their second — has now been charged with manslaughter. She was released on $7,000 bail.

Monalisa Perez

Ruiz’s aunt, Claudia Ruiz, told Valley News Live that the whole thing had been conceived as a way to build a bigger following on YouTube.

The couple had already built  an audience around stunts such as slipping a hot pepper into someone’s sandwich and sprinkling baby powder on a donut and were trying to up their game.

“He had told me about an idea. I said, don’t do it, don’t do it. Why are you going to use a gun? Why? Because, we want more viewers.” Claudia Ruiz said. “I don’t know why they thought the book was supposed to stop the bullet.”

Perez told authorities that the stunt was Ruiz’s idea and he had talked her into it by showing her  a book he had practiced on which the bullet did not fully penetrate. In the fatal episode, Ruiz held up a hardback encyclopedia and Perez allegedly used a .50 caliber Desert Eagle pistol.

French Fitness Model Killed in Freak Whipped Cream Explosion

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MULHOUSE, France — A stunning French fitness model was killed in a freak accident involving an exploding whipped cream dispenser.

Rebecca Burger, who was also a popular lifestyle blogger who had a huge following on social media, was fatally wounded when a faulty whipped cream dispenser exploded and sent shrapnel into her chest, her family said in a message posted on her Instagram page.

She later died of cardiac arrest at a local hospital near the Swiss border.

Burger, 33, was wildly popular on social media. She had 56,000 followers on Facebook and 159,000 followers on Instagram, where she’d post photos of her toned body in bikinis and share tips on food and fitness. She also competed in fitness and beauty competitions around the world.

In the Instagram post announcing her death, Burger’s family warned fans not to use the dispenser, saying that tens of thousands of “defective devices” remain in circulation.