True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Man Charged With Rubbing Fruit on His Butt in Virginia Supermarket

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Dwayne Johnson apparently got his kicks by rubbing fruit on his ass

MANASSAS, Virginia — Call it a case of ass-ault.

A man has been charged with picking up fruit at a Virginia supermarket, rubbing it on his buttocks and then putting it back on the shelves.

Manassas police say staff at the Giant Food market had to destroy “several pallets” of produce after spying Michael Dwayne Johnson, 27, pull down his pants and defile the food on Saturday.

He was charged with destruction of property and indecent exposure.

Cops say they don’t believe the episode was mental health-related and that Johnson did it because he thought it was funny.

Tank-Happy Soldier Steals Armored Vehicle and Takes it for a Joyride

By HardBoiledNews Staff

RICHMOND, Virginia — Hard to imagine why this seemed like a good idea.

A man has been arrested after stealing an armored personnel carrier and racing it through the streets of a Virginia town.

Cops say the vehicle, which was not equipped with weaponry, was stolen by a soldier from nearby Fort Pickett, WWBT-TV reported.

The sight of the military vehicle racing through town, prompted numerous calls to cops who quickly began giving chase.

Police eventually surrounded the vehicle and got it to stop nearly two hours after it was taken. The driver surrendered without incident.

 

 

Cops Hunt For Wedding Crasher Who Made Off With Newlyweds’ Gifts

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Cops are looking for this woman who allegedly crashed a wedding and made off with a bride and groom’s gifts

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — A sticky-fingered thief brazenly crashed a wedding and walked off with a pile of gifts intended for the bride and groom, cops said.

The heartless heist occurred at Rusty and Autumn Waddell’s nuptials on May 6 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Virginia Beach, when a stranger wandered into the party.

The bride’s mother thought the woman looked out of place and snapped a picture of her, but before anyone noticed, she had walked off with a pile of gifts, WTKR-TV reported.

“It’s pretty wild on a person-to-person level,” Rusty Waddell said. “I don’t understand how you could do that, especially at a wedding.”

He says it’s not clear what the woman got away with as they hadn’t opened any presents yet. Now, they are stuck having to call all their guests to ask what they had given.

“I think embarrassing is the word I would use,” he said. “It’s always hard to reach out to someone and ask them what gift they brought you.”

But he said the worst part is that he and his bride’s memories of their special day will always be a bit spoiled.

“We’ll of course have the good memories from the party and hanging out with our friends and all that, but it’s all going to lead down to the end of the night having to think back to the end of the wedding and someone stealing from us.”

Doc Who Slipped Abortion Drug Into Pregnant Gal Pal’s Tea Sentenced to 3 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Sikander Imran poisoned his girlfriend, Brooke Fiske, after she refused to have an abortion

ARLINGTON, Virginia — A doctor who spiked his pregnant girlfriend’s tea with an abortion drug, causing her to have a miscarriage, has been sentenced to three years behind bars.

Sikander Imran, 32, was arrested last May and pleaded guilty in March to fetal homicide. He was given a 20-year sentence on Friday, but 17 years of it was suspended by the judge, court records show.

Imran’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Brooke Fiske, 37, was 17 weeks pregnant when she went to talk to him about raising the child.

‘He didn’t want to have a baby so he tried to talk me into having an abortion… which I didn’t want to do,’ Fiske told WROC-TV last year.

Then he placed the drug in her drink.

“When I was drinking my tea in the evening I got to the bottom of the cup. There was a gritty substance in there and when I looked at it, I could tell that it was a pill that had been ground up,’ she said.

A few hours later, she went into labor and lost the baby. Doctors conducted a blood test and found that she had an excessive amount of the prescription abortion pill Misoprostol in her system.

‘I felt very betrayed and devastated,’ she said about the man she had been involved over three years.

Despite her loss, she argued against a stiff penalty for Imran.

“To me, the length of time that he serves in prison isn’t what’s important,” Fiske told WJLA-TV. “I think that it is really important that people know that if they are dealing with depression before they do something, they should reach out and get help.”

The doctor lost his medical license following his arrest, and will likely be deported to his native Pakistan after he finishes serving his sentence.

 

Man Caught Making Bogus Biker Gang Kidnap Claim to Cover up Affair

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Larry Wayne Price at first blamed the Pagan biker gang as part of his bogus kidnap story

BLUEFIELD, Virginia — A man who was reported missing by his wife and later told cops he’d been kidnapped and drugged by a motorcycle gang after being found on the side of a road, has been charged with making it all up to cover up that he’d run off with his mistress.

Larry Wayne Price, 38, was reported missing by his wife to the Bluefield, Virginia police on April 14, triggering a full-scale manhunt involving helicopters, police dogs and hundreds of law enforcement officials, federal prosecutors said.

Later that day, a driver spotted Price wandering down a country road carrying $3,800 in cash in his pocket, and he was taken to a local hospital where he began spinning a series of wild tales to cops.

At first, he Price told detectives he had been abducted by two, unknown men, drugged and held against his will until he was thrown out of a van near where he was found. He said that while he was held the men took him to Hawg Pit Cycles in West Virginia, which he owns, where they took  his keys and made off with the contents of his safe, including a knife and a gun.

Larry Wayne Price

But when the FBI reviewed security video from the shop, they saw no sign that anyone had gone into the store during the night in question. That’s when Price began to change his kidnap story, saying he had been kidnapped by members of the Pagans motorcycle gang and that he thought he may have been kidnapped because he owed someone money.

When asked to whom he owed money, Price said he wanted to “plead the Fifth” but then said he thought it best to say “that he made it all up, he needed to clear his head, and say he disappeared on his own.”

It was only then that investigators were able to determine that Price had spent the time with another woman who manages a restaurant he owns. The woman eventually told cops that she and Price had begun plotting in February to disappear and start a new life together and that he had spent his time missing with her at a house her father owned.

Around the same time, a  $10.5 million, 26,000-square-foo mansion Price owned in Billings, Montana was seized by three local entrepreneurs to whom he owed $11 million, the Billings Gazette reported.

Man Busted After Shooting Self and Blaming it On 2 Made-Up Black Assailants

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Eric Jones shot himself but thought he’d get away with it by blaming it on invented black men

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia — Stupidity is not colorblind.

A Virginia man was arrested after he shot himself in the leg and then tried to blame it on two mythical black men he claimed tried to rob him, police said.

Deputies from the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s office responding to t a call Sunday about a man shot at an Econo Lodge found Eric Jones, 23, with a bullet wound in his leg.

He told them two black men had approached him and shot him. But when cops began interviewing witnesses, it became apparent that Jones had shot himself and had made up the story about being attacked.

When cops searched his room in the motel, they found a gun, which they determined had been reported stolen.

Jones was taken to the hospital and was arrested after he was treated and charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, receiving stolen property, reckless handling of a firearm and filing a false report. He was held without bail.

 

Clown-Faced Bomber Charged With Threatening to Blow Up 7-Eleven in Virginia

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Crystal Mostek threatened to blow up a 7-Eleven with a fake bomb

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — What she did to her face may well be the real crime.

A Virginia woman with a heavily-tattooed and pierced mug has been charged with threatening to blow up a 7-Eleven after placing a device on the counter and claiming it was bomb.

Authorities say they are not entirely sure why Crystal Mostek, 33, walked into the convenience store Tuesday evening and placed the package on the counter. Officials later determined that the device wasn’t actually a bomb.

Mostek was charged with threatening to bomb and possession of a hoax device and remains in custody at the Virginia Beach Jail.

At her arraignment, Mostek said she’s not guilty and that the charges against her are false. WTKR-TV reported that Mostek’s attorney is looking into whether she needs mental health treatment.

3 Nine Trey Gangsters Convicted in 2015 Murder Spree That Killed 5 in Virginia

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Malek Lassiter (l), Nathaniel Mitchell and Anthony Simmons were convicted in a brutal 33-day killing spree

NORFOLK, Virginia — Three members of a brutal gang dubbed a “fraternity of death,” by prosecutors, have been convicted of a violent 33-day crime spree in 2015 in which five people were murdered and six others wounded.

It took a federal jury just five hours to convict the three members of the Nine Trey Gangsters who killed the victims for reasons stemming from witness intimidation, retaliation against perceived disrespect and robbery.

In one case, a woman was shot and killed because two gang members were vying to see who could kill more people and she was simply walking on the wrong side of the street, prosecutors said.

Antonio Lee Simmons, 38, who prosecutors described as the gang’s leader, faces multiple life sentences. Nathaniel Mitchell, 25, one of the gang’ “shooters” was found guilty of four of the killings and also faces numerous life sentences.

Malek Lassiter, a 22-year recruit who took part in the spree as part of his initiation into the gang,  faces a minimum of 85 years on racketeering and assault charges.

Three other gang members had previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the murder spree that stretched from Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth to Virginia Beach during the holiday season in 2015.

Trial testimony revealed that the bloody orgy of violence was triggered when Simmons got into trouble with his superiors for messing up the gang’s finances. The hope was that the spree would help him pay back the money. But it also stemmed from a war between Simmons and the leader of another line of Nine Trey Gangsters, which is a branch of the United Bloods Nation.

From approximately Thanksgiving through Christmas of 2015, the gang members murdered two men and three women, most of whom had no affiliation with the gang, prosecutors said.

Among the victims, Linda Lassiter, 48, and her boyfriend Wayne Davis, 48, were killed just weeks after speaking to the police about a gang-connected shooting at her daughter’s house.

Another victim, Al-Tariq Tynes, 26, was killed because gang members thought he was talking to police. His body was stuffed in the trunk of his car and driven around for days before he was dumped into a ditch.

Jamesha Roberts, 25, a young mother of two children under the age of five, was gunned down in Norfolk after her shift at the airport Starbucks. Trial testimony revealed that Mitchell was in a competition with another Nine Trey member to see who could shoot the most people,  and killed her for “walking on the wrong side of the street.”

VIDEO: Drunk Driver Gets Knocked Over By Own Car During Police Chase

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

You asked, we answered. Here’s the in-car video from this morning’s #FCPDStrangerCalls post.

CARma: Our officers tried to pull a man over. He sped off, then got out of his car to escape, but forgot to put it in park. Oops. He got hit by his own car. He’s okay physically, but is charged with DWI – 3rd offense, and a long list of other charges. #FCPDStrangerCalls

Posted by Fairfax County Police Department on Tuesday, March 6, 2018

MOUNT VERNON, Virginia — You’ve got to be pretty darn drunk to get hit by your own car.

A blotto Virginia man led cops on a high-speed chase before bailing out of his moving car which knocked him to the ground as he tried to scramble away, the Fairfax County police said.

Outlandish dashboard camera footage from a pursuing police cruiser shows Isaac Bonsu attempt to run in front of the vehicle and then get promptly knocked to the ground as officers close in.

Police say the zany episode unfolded early Sunday morning when the they attempted to pull over th 30-year-old Bonsu for a busted tail light. But he took off, leading cops on a chase before pulling onto a side street where he tried to escape on foot.

After getting knocked down, Bonsu managed to stay one step ahead of cops for a bit, but they eventually caught up to him and charged him with drunk driving — his third such charge — felony hit and run, driving without a license and with an open container of booze and marijuana in the car.

He was not hurt in the incident, cops said.

Isaac Bonsu

 

Legless Pilot Busted For Flying Without a License After Prosthetic Foot Causes Crash

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Robert Gray didn’t have a legal leg to stand on

NORFOLK, Virginia — A legless man barred from piloting an airplane has pleaded guilty to flying without a license after wrecking a plane when his prosthetic leg got stuck on the brake during landing.

Robert R. Gray, Jr., 55, was flying a 1972 Piper aircraft in July when he flipped the craft over during landing at the Umphlett Airstrip in Suffolk, Virginia.

He initially denied flying the plane and claimed the pilot had run off, but later admitted he had been behind the controls and that he believed his prosthetic leg got stuck as he had no feeling on his right side.

“Gray admitted he had flown the plane, and told investigators he had no business flying the plane because he can barely drive a car,” prosecutors said.

Gray, who uses a walker and motorized scooter to get around, has bought and sold many aircraft over the years but was never able to get a license because he couldn’t get medical clearance to fly due to a variety of health issues.

Prosecutors said he had once had a student license but it had expired. Authorities had twice before caught Gray behind the controls but he claimed he thought he was allowed to as he was flying with a licensed instructor and the FAA let him go with a warning.

Gray pleaded guilty to serving as an airman without a certificate and faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

 

Jew Hating Neo-Nazi Cop-Turned Islamic Terrorist Convicted of Aiding ISIS

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Nicholas Young is both a Nazi and an ISIS supporter

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — A Jew-hating neo-Nazi-turned-ISIS supporter who worked as DC Metro cop for over a decade, was convicted of trying to help the terror group.

The case marks the first time a U.S. law enforcement agent has been convicted of attempting to give support to a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say Nicholas Young, a 38-year-old Muslim convert, had given financial support to a friend he thought had gone to Syria to join the terror group, but who was actually an undercover FBI informant.

“Nicholas Young swore an oath to protect and defend, and instead violated the public’s trust by attempting to support ISIS,” said Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

He was also convicted of obstruction of justice for lying to FBI agents who had questioned him about the whereabouts of his friend who had purportedly gone to Syria to fight. He face sup to 60 years in prison.

Young, who had worked as a cop for the DC metro system for 13 years, had come onto law enforcement’s radar in 2011, after he had gone to Libya on vacation at the peak of fighting there to overthrow former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Strangely, Young was active in neo-Nazi circles for years, participating in reenactments in which he dressed up as an SS officer and sporting Nazi tattoos. But he also collected literature advocating violent jihad and regularly watched ISIS propaganda videos.

Prosecutors said the odd connection between the two interests was Young’s deep hatred for Jews.

Nude Kook Punches Cars, Stops Traffic Outside DC

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Truck driver Tariq Hussein used his cellphone to capture what happened after a naked man with a knife began running down Route 28 near Frying Pan Rd. about 3:30 this afternoon NBC Washington

Posted by Jackie Bensen on Tuesday, December 12, 2017

HERNDON, Virginia — That’ll cause some shrinkage.

A deranged motorist stripped off all his clothes and hopped onto a moving flatbed truck and began punching the cab in sub-freezing temperatures and strong winds near Dulles Airport.

Police say 32-year-old Jose Gonzalez Flores was involved in a hit-and-run in Fairfax County, Virginia and then assaulted another driver before running into traffic.

Witnesses told WRC-TV that Flores began getting agitated after the crash and soon stripped off his clothes in 20-degree weather and started running around with a tire and what appeared to be a knife.

He then started hitting cars with his fists before jumping up on the bed of the truck and then stabbing at the rear window of the cab.

“The guy was actually stopping the cars. He was laying down. He started swinging, laying down naked and all that stuff, so people stopped. They don’t want to run him down,” Tariq Hussein said.

“They just stopped, and whoever stopped, he goes to them and tried to smash their window,” he continued. “Then, he jumped onto this guy’s pickup truck flatbed and he just tried [to stab it] with a knife.”

Flores then ran off into some nearby woods and was later captured by police as he tried to hide in a drainage ditch.

Youth Pastor Charged With Gunning Down Family in Thanksgiving Slay

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Christopher Gattis and his wife Jeannett

CHESTER, Virginia — A Virginia youth pastor has been charged with gunning down his family during a domestic dispute over Thanksgiving dinner, cops said.

Christopher Gattis, 58, waited at the family home as police raced to the scene where they discovered the bodies of the pastor’s wife, step-daughter and her boyfriend who all lived in the house, the Chesterfield Police said.

“This appears to be domestic related,” the department said in a statement.

When cops arrived at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, they found the body of Andrew Buthorn, 36, in the front yard. His girlfriend, Candice Kunze, 30, and her mother, Jeanett Gattis, 58, were found inside.

The nature of the argument that sparked the bloodshed was not immediately clear.

Christopher Gattis was charged with three counts of first-degree murder

He serves as the youth pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Chester, the church said.

“Members of Grace Lutheran Church are deeply saddened by the loss of life last night as a result of three individuals being shot in Chester, and this tragedy included members of Grace Lutheran Church,” the church said in a statement.

Fellow parishioners and neighbors said there was no sign of domestic strife and described Gattis as a devout churchgoer who stopped in the church earlier in the day for a Thanksgiving service.

“Little Women: Atlanta” Reality Show Star Charged in Fatal Drunken Wrong-Way Crash

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Melissa Hancock was allegedly over the legal blood alcohol limit at the time of the crash

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — It was no small crime.

A diminutive reality show star is facing big time behind bars after allegedly killing a Coast Guard veteran in drunken crash in Virginia.

State police say Melissa Hancock, 25, who has appeared on Lifetime’s “Little Women: Atlanta,” was driving the wrong way on I-264 on Nov. 5, when she slammed her Cadillac head-on into a car being driven by Daniel Dill.

Dill, 29, was on his way to pick up his wife and friends from a night out celebrating her birthday. A teetotaler, Dill had offered to serve as the designated driver for the group so they could all enjoy themselves, the Virginian Pilot reported.

He was rushed to a hospital with severe injuries and later died.

“He was clean cut, didn’t smoke or drink. He wasn’t ever in trouble. He was just laid-back, always happy and always looking to make everybody else happy,’ his father Christopher Dill told NJ.com.

Daniel Dill

Hancock told cops she had consumed two-to-four mixed drinks while out at a nightclub with friends. Standing 4-feet-tall and weighing 77 pounds, Hancock had a blood alcohol content level of 0.112, above the legal limit of 0.08.

She was initially charged with DUI/maiming and driving the wrong way.

While not a marquee star of the reality show, which is a spin-off of “Little Women: LA,” Hancock has appeared in numerous episodes.

‘King of Death’ Dealer Who Sold Dope Even as it Killed Customers Gets 36 Years

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NORFOLK, Virginia — A drug kingpin who kept selling powerful heroin branded “King of Death” even after it started causing numerous fatal overdoses has been sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Erskine Dawson, 33, pleaded guilty earlier this year to running gang of dealers who smuggled heroin and Fentanyl up and down the east coast hidden inside stuffed animals.

But even after a particularly potent batch started causing overdoses — more than a dozen, federal prosecutors said — Dawson continued dealing the potentially lethal drugs. Two people eventually died from overdoses late last year.

Prosecutors said it was only after the deaths that Dawson and his crew thought to adjust the recipe of the drugs they were selling, but not because they wanted to save lives, but rather they wanted to make sure investigators didn’t detect them.

Erskine Dawson

In December, federal agents raided two hotels in the Virginia Beach area, busting Dawson and several others  and uncovering two firearms and a stash of hundreds of bags of dope being sold as “King of Death,” “Last Call,” and “Steph Curry.”

“Dawson’s predatory and cold-hearted actions led to the death of two Virginians,” said Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “We will continue to aggressively prosecute those who seek to prey upon vulnerable members of our community.”

Suicidal Teen Survives Leap From Overpass But Kills Driver Below

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Marisa Harris was killed by the leaping teen

FAIRFAX, Virginia — A 12-year-old boy who leapt off a highway overpass in a suicide attempt, inadvertently killed a 22-year motorist passing underneath but somehow managed to survive the fall, cops said.

The car slammed into the guardrail after the fall, but cops Marisa Harris, a graduate student at Marymount University in Arlington, studying clinical counseling, was killed by the boy’s falling body, the Virginia State Police said.

The boy, who was not publicly identified, took the tumble off the Cedar Lane overpass late Saturday afternoon and landed directly on top of Harris’ Ford Escape. A 23-year-old passenger tried to seize the wheel but the vehicle anyway.

Harris was rushed to an area hospital but was declared dead on arrival. The teen who jumped was hospitalized with life threatening injuries.

Harris’ family said she had recently graduated summa cum laude from Towson University, and had been working towards providing mental health counseling to troubled young kids, much like the one who took her life.

Ex-NFL Player Convicted in $10 Million Ponzi Scheme

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Merrill Robertson had been a standout player at UVA

RICHMOND, Virginia — A former standout linebacker at the University of Virginia who had a brief stint in the NFL has been convicted of running a Ponzi scheme through which he bilked dozens of people he met through his playing days out of $10 million.

Federal prosecutors had alleged that Merrill Robertson Jr., 36, and his co-conspirator, Sherman Carl Vaughn, ran a bogus investment company called Cavalier Union Investments, but instead of investing the cash they raised , they used it to line their pockets or pay out earlier investors.

The pair operated the scam from 2009 until 2016, during which Robertson utilized relationships he had made in college and the NFL as well as his high school days at Fork Union Military Academy to find targets.

Robertson was a starting linebacker for the UVM Cavaliers, and spent time in training camp for the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings in 2003 and 2004.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said that among Robertson’s victims included coaches, alumni, donors and employees of the schools he had attended.

In all, the men bilked around 50 people out of $10 million which they partly used to cover their own living expenses, including mortgage and car payments, school tuitions, spa visits, restaurant and department store bills, and vacations.

While Robertson and Vaughn represented themselves as skilled investors, Vaughn had, in fact, filed for personal bankruptcy four times, including twice during the scam.

Vaughn pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing in September. Robertson was convicted of mail fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering and faces a maximum prison term of 330 years when sentenced on Dec. 6.

Robertson’s lawyer argued at trial that Vaughn was the mastermind behind the scam and had duped Robertson as well, saying he was a victim as well.

Man Admits Shooting Bald Eagle Because It Ate Fish From His Pond

By HardBoiledNews Staff

NORFOLK, Virginia — That’s just anti-American.

A Virginia man pleaded guilty to shooting a bald eagle and running it over repeatedly with an ATV because he was angry the bird had been taking fish from a pond on his property.

Allen H. Thacker, 62, of Smithfield, Virginia, had been spotted by an eyewitness in March running over the eagle three or four times with his red all-terrain vehicle, federal prosecutors said.

The witness immediately contacted Virginia wildlife authorities. They eventually tracked Thacker down and he admitted shooting the bird because it had been hunting small prey and fish from his property.

Despite the bird being a symbol of America, Thacker said he was angry because of all the time and effort he had put into stocking his property for use by his friends. Thacker also told officials that he thought too much emphasis was placed on protecting eagles and that they are menace, prosecutors said. He said most of his friends agreed with him.

Thacker said he initially fired a warning shot at the bird from a .22 caliber rifle, but when that failed to scare the bird away, he shot it out of the sky. He then said he used a pistol to finish the bird off before running over it repeatedly.

A necropsy showed that the eagle — a young male in good health — likely would have been able to survive the initial gunshot wound and that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head caused by the ATV. There was no evidence that Thacker had shot the bird a second time with a pistol as he said, prosecutors said.

He faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced in October, officials said.

 

Too Easy: Burglar Breaks Leg in Getaway, Is Busted Calling 911 for Help

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Leoul Yosef didn’t really think his getaway through

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — The great escape it wasn’t.

A bumbling burglar who broke his leg after jumping out a window when he got caught in the act, made it easy for cops by then calling 911 for help.

Fairfax County police say Leoul Yosef, 21, got caught red-handed by a homeowner when she returned from a quick errand while moving into her new home in Alexandria, Virginia on Wednesday.

“She opens the door to her apartment and sees the guy standing on her balcony,” Fairfax County Police Officer Don Gotthardt told WTTG-TV. “I think she startled him and he jumped off the balcony and broke his leg.”

The woman immediately called police. The injured Yosef had landed in snow and as he fled, left clear tracks as he clambered through it.

“Officers arrive in the area and abruptly find the tracks. They start tracking him,” Gotthardt said.

Soon after, dispatchers received a second 911 call — this time from a man claiming he had slipped on the ice and had broken his leg in the same area.

When cops fine Yosef, they know they have their man.

 

“They recognize the description,” Gotthardt said.

Customs Officials Seize 13 Lbs of Mongolian Horse Balls at DC Airport

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Customs officials seized dozens of pounds of Mongolian horse meat stashed in juice boxes

STERLING, Virginia — What do they call prairie oysters in Mongolia?

Customs officials at Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport were shocked to find 13 pounds of horse genitals in the luggage of two women traveling to the U.S. from Mongolia.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said the women were also carrying 42 pounds of horse meat stashed inside juice boxes as well as three liters of yak milk when they tried to enter the country on Jan. 29.

The women told the agents the horse genitals were intended to be used for medicinal purposes.

The agency said it is used to seeing people try to bring plenty of odd things through Dulles Airport , “from charred full monkeys, to voodoo ceremony tools, to cocaine concealed inside the cavity of fully cooked chickens, to live sea horses and giant African land snails.”

But the horse meat definitely caught their attention.

In general, horse meat is not allowed to be brought into the United States without proper certifications due to the risk of it carrying foot and mouth disease, officials say. Horsemeat from Mongolia is banned outright, however, “due to concerns of introducing animal diseases to U.S. livestock industries.”

The horse meat and yak’s milk were incinerated. The women who were carrying it were not charged and were allowed into the country, officials said.

“Customs and Border Protection takes no pleasure in seizing and destroying travelers’ food products,” said Wayne Biondi,  port director for Washington Dulles.  “We’re in the business of protecting America’s agriculture industries, like the livestock industry, from the potential introduction of animal diseases posed by these unpermitted food products.”

The agency says that on an average day, customs officials inspect over 1 million passengers as well as air and sea cargo coming into the United States, seizing and quarantining over 5000 agriculture items including plant, meat, animal byproduct, and soil.

‘Black Hawk Down’ Hero Who Innovated Urban Combat and Won Silver Star Has Died

By HardBoiledNews Staff

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Virginia — Jeffrey Bray,  a hero soldier who was awarded the Silver Star for saving dozens of lives in the famed “Black Hawk Down” battle in Somalia in 1993, has died at age 49.

Bray, an Air Force sergeant, was credited with coming up with a novel defense of the men pinned down by militiamen in Mogadishu, coordinating airstrikes amid close-quarter urban combat and creating methods that would later become a blueprint for U.S. forces in Iraq.

“At the time, there wasn’t a lot of urban warfare and it gave us a really good look at how we conduct operations in an urban environment,” said Tech. Sgt. Tim Wilkinson, who was awarded the Air Force Cross for his role in the battle.

 

Bray was among the soldiers sent to help rescue the crews of two Black Hawk helicopters that had been shot down over the Somali capital. But the rescue teams quickly found themselves surrounded and the a pitched battle ensued that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead and 73 wounded over the course of two days.

The fierce fighting later would become the subject of a book, “Black Hawk Down,” which was adapted into a 2001 film of the same name that starred Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore.

While Bray had not had experience with urban warfare, he quickly came up with a system of distinguishing his men’s positions from those of the enemy, enabling helicopter gunships to provide the trapped men cover without accidentally hitting them.

In some of the the fiercest combat, Bray’s system allowed successful air strikes to be delivered to enemy positions just 35 feet from where his men were holed up, driving the militiamen back.

According to an account he gave in a 1994 Airman magazine,  Bray said he sent runners to mark locations with infrared strobe lights only visible to U.S. aircraft. When the runners spotted target positions, they would relay it to Bray, who plotted the locations and called in airstrikes.

In some cases, when airstrikes would miss their target, Bray braved heavy enemy fire to help pinpoint exact enemy locations.

Officials credited Bray’s actions with saving numerous lives and he was awarded a Silver Star by President Clinton.

“Sergeant Bray’s efforts were paramount in the limitation of casualties and safe evacuation of all U.S. soldiers in an intense 18-hour long firefight. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, Sergeant Bray reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force,” the citation read.

Afterwards, Bray became an instructor in conducting airstrikes in such close-quarter urban combat situations.

“In Mogadishu, Jeff saved dozen of lives: men who were able to come home and either return to their families or someday start a family of their own,” said retired Col. Kurt Buller, a former special tactics officer. “As an instructor, he was exceedingly demanding of our technical skills … his training kept us alive in combat, I’m sure of it.

“The majority of the guys Jeff taught went on to fight post 9/11 and were tested the way Jeff was tested,” Buller said. “Besides being a great person and a great operator — his legacy was the training he provided to the scores of guys at the squadron, who would ultimately go on to be successful in combat as well.”

Bray died on Oct. 24 in Asheboro, North Carolina where he lived with his wife. He was buried in Arlington Cemetery on Dec. 30.

Contractor Sues Virginia Family for $90K in Vicious Pet Squirrel Attack

By HardBoiledNews Staff

It takes one angry squirrel to inflict $90K worth of damage

CHESAPEAKE, Virginia — On the surface, squirrels may look bushy-tailed and cuddly, but underneath lurks a vicious monster, one Virginia contractor alleges.

Contractor Daniel Felice claims in a lawsuit that he was viciously attacked by a family’s pet squirrel last summer and left “profusely bleeding” while working a job nearby. Now he is seeking $90,000 in damages from the family, Deborah and Paul Desjardin, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

The couple, however, insist they have never kept a squirrel as a pet and that the animal in question is just an overly friendly neighborhood creature.

But Felice’s suit says he saw the beady-eyed killer run back to the Desjardin’s home after the bloody assault. The suit says the squirrel ended up as the Desjardin’s pet after the family dog brought it home wounded in the spring and they nursed it back to health.

Felice’s lawsuit claims the squirrel got so comfortable with the family that it began to peck Deborah Desjardin on the lips as if “giving her a kiss.” It further accuses the couple of  encouraging the fluffy woodland creature to approach humans.

Paul Desjardin admitted to the newspaper that his family fed the squirrel a little food and that it was friendly, but insisted it “was never controlled by us.”

It also says the squirrel attacked a little girl in the neighborhood three days before Felice suffered his injuries and that the girl’s parents had alerted Deborah Desjardin that they had a killer among their midst.

City codes bar residents from keeping wild animals without a permit. Deborah Desjardin was hit with a misdemeanor unlawful possession of wildlife charge by an officer with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries after the alleged attack on Felice, but the case was later dismissed.

Paul Desjardin said he was unaware of the incident involving the girl and that he and his wife were already proven innocence in court when the charge against them was dismissed.

“We’ve already proven the fact that this wasn’t our squirrel,” Desjardin said. “It’s not a pet.”

 

 

Va. School Guard who Enlisted Teen Gang Recruits Convicted of Murder

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michael Hopson recruited gang members from the high school were he worked

Michael Hopson recruited Black P-Stone gang members from the high school were he worked

 

NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia — A Virginia gang leader who used his job as a high school security guard to recruit teenagers to sell drugs to classmates was convicted of racketeering and murder.

Michael Hopson, 39, who was also known as “Hop” and “Big Homie,” was the founder and leader of the Black P-Stones Gang in Newport News.

According to federal prosecutors, Hopson helped plan and direct the nefarious activities of the gang, which was also known as the P-Stone Bloods or Cobra Stones. The gang is alleged to have engaged in widespread drug trafficking, robberies and the murder of its enemies.

Hopson also worked as a guard at Denbigh High School where he recruited minors to sell drugs to other students.

Hopson faces a mandatory term of life in prison when he is sentenced in March.

Hopson was convicted of murder and racketeering

Hopson was convicted of murder and racketeering

Evidence at trial showed that Hopson personally ordered multiple shootings and murders between October 2007 and June 2009.

Among the killings included the November 2007, slaying a 17-year-old member of the gang who had been friendly with a rival gang called Thug Relations. The trigger man in that killing was given a promotion, the evidence showed.

In December of the following year, Hopson authorized the murder of a member of the Crips gang who had been disrespectful to members of the Black P-Stones.  As a result, two Black P-Stones members went to the man’s home and and fired multiple rounds into the dwelling wounding his father.

In March 2009, Hopson ordered the murder of two members of the rival 10-1 Mafia Crips, in response to the beating of a Black P-Stones member.  Two gang members fired multiple shops  into their intended victims’ homes.

The next month Hopson ordered two Black P-Stones members to fire into a home occupied by people he felt had been disrespectful to him. And in June, he ordered the murder of a Thug Relations member responsible for the murder of a Black P-Stones member.  The intended target was shot and wounded.