Tough Talk
In September, while searching the home of tax-fraud suspect Rashia Wilson, 26, IRS agents turned up "thousands" of identification numbers. Wilson, based in Tampa, Fla., had already laid down a challenge in May, when she wrote on Facebook: "I'm Rashia, the queen of IRS tax fraud. … I'm a millionaire, for the record. So if you think that indicting me will be easy, it won't. I promise you: I won't do no time, dumb [expletive unpublished]." The search also turned up a handgun, and since Wilson is a convicted felon (with 40 arrests), she was jailed and denied bail—in part because of the Facebook post.
Least Competent Criminals
Latest Negative-Cash-Flow Robbery: Two men robbing an Open Pantry store in Madison, Wis., in October escaped, but with less money than they entered with. The lead thief grabbed a handful of cash that the clerk had been counting when the pair entered. The clerk sternly demanded that the man give back the money. The thief thought for a moment, apparently became remorseful, took the money out of his pocket and threw it on the counter, and then fled. The clerk told police that when she recounted the money, there was $1 more than in her original count, meaning that the thief had accidentally tossed in a dollar of his own.
The Continuing Crisis
Doctors Just Want to Have Fun: (1) Navy medical examiner Dr. Mark Shelly was notified of disciplinary action in July after admitting that he let his children handle a brain (and pose for photos with it) that he was transporting for autopsy to Portsmouth, Va. (2) A 15-year-old Swedish student, working at Sweden’s Malmo University Hospital on a "practical work-life" internship, was allowed by a doctor to take part in a Caesarean section childbirth and to examine the patient vaginally. One alarmed patient alerted news media after reading about the orientation program in May and wondering if she had been a "hands-on" patient.
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Latest Religious Messages
Spare the Rod: Former Arkansas state legislator Charlie Fuqua is running again after a 14-year absence from elective office. In the interim, reported the Arkansas Times in October, he wrote a book, God's Law: The Only Political Solution, reminding Christians that they could put their super-rebellious children to death as long as they followed proper procedure (set out in Deuteronomy 21:18-21). "Even though this (capital punishment) would rarely be used," Fuqua wrote, "if it were the law of the land…it would be a tremendous incentive for children to give proper respect to their parents.”
Family Values
"Why, You Little…!" (1) A teenager, apparently fed up with his parents using the basement of their house for an elaborate marijuana-growing operation, turned in the couple in August in Doylestown Township, Pa. The couple (a chiropractor mom and software engineer dad) had sophisticated hardware and 18 plants. (2) Police in Athens, Ga., searching for Homer Parham, 51, at his house in September, came up empty, and his wife said he wasn't there. As officers were leaving, the couple's young daughter said, "Mommy locked Daddy in the closet." Parham was found hiding in a high-up crawl space.
People Different From Us
Gareth Lloyd, 49, admitted that he is the one who made about 5,800 random phone calls (over a 90-day period—averaging 64 a day!) to people just to listen to their reactions when he told them that his penis was stuck in a household object (usually jars or a vacuum cleaner). A court in Flintshire, Wales, sentenced Lloyd to probation (with restrictions on telephone use).
Readers' Choice
Health authorities shut down the Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky., in September after a customer said he witnessed a deer carcass (presumed to be roadkill) being wheeled through the dining room into the kitchen. The chief health inspector for Whitley County said the owners did not appear to understand that they should not do that.
© 2012 Chuck Shepherd
