News Quirks

 Curses, foiled again• Denver police arrested four burglary suspects who tried to sell stolen goods back to their victim. Lacinda Robinson, 24, said that after discovering the crime, she went to a nearby McDonald’s parking lot, where two young men offered her a PlayStation 3 video game similar to the one she lost. She declined, […]

Curses, foiled againA man walked into a bank in Antioch, Calif., and handed the teller a note. She couldn’t make it out because of the bad handwriting and showed it to the manager to help her decipher the message. By the time they figured out it was a hold-up note, the man had left through […]

Curses, foiled again• British authorities said habitual burglar Daniel Severn, 27, got his foot caught while climbing through a bathroom window of a house in Howden and wound up hanging upside down over the toilet for an hour and a half. He was found by homeowner Richard Wilson, whose wife took a photograph of Severn […]

Curses, foiled againDuring an apparent robbery attempt in a parking lot in Portland, Ore., a 40-year-old man shot a 32-year-old man in the leg. The shooter fled, but his getaway ended when he accidentally shot himself in the groin, according to police Sgt. Pete Simpson, who explained, “The suspect’s wound is consistent with somebody putting […]

Curses, foiled again• Police investigating a burglary in Iowa City, Iowa, identified Carloss D. Sanders, 20, as their suspect after they found a debit card issued to him at the scene and then followed a set of distinctive footprints from the back door through the snow to Sanders’ residence. (Cedar Rapids’ KCRG-TV) • Surveillance video […]

Curses, foiled again• Responding to a complaint that an armed neighbor tried to kick in the door and burglarize a home in Spokane, Wash., police found that suspect Brent Nouwels, 32, had returned to his home and turned off the lights. Officers repeatedly urged Nouwels to surrender peacefully, but he responded by climbing onto the […]

Curses, foiled againA group of young men was robbing a man in San Francisco when, without provocation, one of them pulled out a handgun and fired at the victim. The bullet ricocheted off the victim’s face and struck another robber, Clifton Chatman, 16, whom police pronounced dead at the scene. (San Francisco Chronicle) A woman […]

Curses, foiled againDrug suspect Miles Parrotta, 46, tried to avoid arrest by fleeing from sheriff’s deputies in Cortland, N.Y., on a bicycle. His getaway ended when he crashed into the back of a parked police car. (Associated Press) Mauricio Contreras Rodriguez, 20, left a courtroom in Snellville, Ga., after answering a summons for driving without […]

Curses, foiled againPolice charged Nace Eugene Houchin Jr., 33, with murdering a woman in Williamsburg, Va., after they found a handwritten note in his wallet “confessing to the homicide,” according to the arrest report. Besides detecting multiple fingerprints on the note that matched Houchin’s, a handwriting analysis concluded that he “more than likely” wrote the […]

Curses, foiled again• Police investigating 15 home burglaries in and around Lakewood, Colo., identified Brandon Campbell, 27, as their suspect because he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor that placed him at the crime scenes. “I would say it’s a prosecutor’s dream to have GPS,” Arapahoe County Deputy Prosecutor Chelsea Koch said. “That’s an excellent […]

Curses, foiled again• Police investigating a burglary in Lake Worth, Fla., identified Derek Codd, 19, as their suspect because he left his cellphone at the scene, and his mother called. Investigators answered and asked the woman whose phone it was. They then arrested Codd and Kristen Rynearson, 19, with the stolen goods. (South Florida Sun […]

Curses, foiled againJohnny Deleon, 20, was thwarted in his attempt to steal hubcaps from cars parked outside a restaurant in Harris County, Texas, where law officers were holding a retirement party. After an officer who spotted Deleon confronted him, about 30 deputies inside the restaurant rushed outside to assist. Noting that Deleon failed to notice […]