Not a Good Sign
Barbara Lee, 45, and Marco Ibanez, 19, were arrested in Hallandale Beach, Fla., in April and charged in the assault and stabbing of four people. Reportedly, Lee was at the Oceans 11 Sports Lounge & Grill one evening when she saw several people in a group make hand signals that she interpreted as gang signs being directed toward her. According to police, Lee left to recruit Ibanez to go to the lounge to administer retribution. Unknown to Lee or Ibanez, the group consisted of deaf people using sign language and who had no intention of making "gang" signs.
Bright Ideas
- Bank of America (BA) had the tables turned on it in June after the company had wrongfully harassed a couple about a mistaken foreclosure in Naples, Fla. BA had attempted to foreclose on homeowners Warren and Maureen Nyerges last year even though the couple had bought their house with cash—paid directly to BA. It took BA a year and a half to understand its mistake—that is, until the Nyergeses sued and won a judgment for expenses of $2,534, which BA promptly ignored. The Nyergeses' attorney obtained a seizure order, and two sheriff's deputies, with a moving truck, arrived at the local BA branch on June 3 to load $2,534 worth of furniture and computer equipment from the bank's offices. After about an hour on the phone with higher-ups, the local BA manager issued a check to cover the expenses.
- Police in Doncaster, England, were on the lookout in June for an organized group of four female and two male shoplifters who hit a liquor store on Bentley Road in May and left an interesting crime-scene story on the surveillance video. While five members of the crew distracted employees, one woman, wearing pants, walked to the back. She emerged minutes later wearing a large wraparound skirt and waddling slowly toward the front door. After the unsuspecting employees bid farewell to the six, they discovered that the office safe was missing and concluded that the waddling woman was holding it between her legs.
Least Competent Criminals
Not Ready for Prime Time: (1) Eric Cogan, 33, was arrested in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in June after police said he presented a holdup note to a teller at a TD Bank. To get to the teller, Cogan allegedly walked right by a sheriff's cruiser parked in front of the bank and a deputy in uniform seated inside the bank's entrance. (2) In April, Matthew Hudleston, 33, pleaded guilty in Mobile, Ala., to robbing a Regions Bank, using a holdup note that mentioned a gun. He didn't help his chances of escaping when he returned a few minutes later to ask for the holdup note back.
The Continuing Crisis
Many parents wave goodbye to their kindergartners as they step onto the school bus in the morning. But Dale Price, in American Fork, Utah, took it to a new level with his 16-year-old son, Rain. Every morning, right in front of Rain's friends, he would wait in front of the bus and wave goodbye. Furthermore, according to a June report by KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, Dale made it a point to be wearing a different, "crazy" costume every morning (170 in all for the school year, including, once, a wedding dress).
Oops!
Parkridge Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., apologized and paid the bill in June for exhuming the body of the recently deceased Kenneth Manis. The man who had shared Mr. Manis' hospital room during his final days had reported that his dentures were missing, and the hospital determined that they had mistakenly been buried with Mr. Manis.
© 2011 Chuck Shepherd
