In Ogden, Utah, in October, Adam Manning, 30, accompanied hispregnant girlfriend to the McKay-Dee Hospital emergency roomas she was going into labor. According to witnesses, as a nurse attended to thewoman, Manning began flirting with her, complimenting the nurse's looks andattempting to give her a neck rub. When Manning allegedly groped the nurse'sbreasts, she called for security. Manning was eventually arrested and taken tojail, thus missing the birth of his child.
Inexplicable
- For its Halloween gala, the KingsIsland amusement park near Cincinnati set up anexhibit featuring skeletons dressed to resemble deceased celebrities. Amongothers, the list included Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ted Kennedy, EdMcMahon, TV salesman Billy Mays, Sonny Bono (his skeleton in front of a tree)and Ted Williams (his skeleton in front of a freezer). Near the exhibit was aboard labeled "agenda," with the aforementioned celebrity namescrossed off and other names still listed, including Bernard Madoff, the JonasBrothers and comedian Carrot Top. (Following a WLWT-TV preview of the exhibitin September, the park quickly canceled it, with a spokesman declaring,"We were not intending to be distasteful.")
- Robert and Roberta Masters of Prior Lake, Minn., werearrested in October and charged in connection with a series of mailboxexplosions over the summer, which police say were carried out by seventeenagers (including the Masters' son) who had been supplied by the couple.Police said Robert Masters bought black powder for the kids and had said it"would be a good educational tool for the kids to build pipe bombs."Roberta Masters allegedly encouraged the teens to use the Internet to learn howto make pipe bombs because it would be "constructive" (though Robertasaid she had told them to be careful).
Health “Care”
- In April, Richard Huether, the manager of the HoneyBaked Ham outlet in Cary, N.C.,was shot in the stomach during a robbery of the store and hospitalized. Hismedical bills were paid through worker compensation and employee healthbenefits. In September, when his worker compensation expiredand with at leastthree months of recovery left before he could return to workHoneyBaked firedHuether, forcing him to begin paying 100% of his insurance premiums and makingsubsequent insurance prohibitively expensive because of his new"pre-existing condition." HoneyBaked human resources executive MaggieDeCan told WRAL-TV that the firing was for Huether's own good, in that it wouldclear the way for him to receive Social Security disability payments. SaidDeCan, "We couldn't feel any worse for Rich, and we would do anything wecould for him”except keep him on the payroll, of course.
- Patient Jim Bujalski complained to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Littleton, Colo.,in September about the cost of his prescription Plavix and Crestor tablets,which he was forced to "buy" from the hospital because it onlyadministers drugs under its control. The Plavix cost $248 each (he pays $8 athome), and his Crestor ($3 at home) was $65. The medications were part of his$58,000, one-day hospital stay.
Unclear on the Concept
In July, William Thomson, 55, feeling badabout having violently resisted arrest by police in Salisbury,Mass., in a drunken-driving incident in 1997,brought hot coffee to a Salisburystation house and sought symbolic forgiveness from the officers on duty. Thevery next day, however, Thomson was arrested in another drunken-drivingincident, and again he forcefully resisted, punching a Breathalyzer machine,threatening an officer and attempting to flood a holding cell in the stationhouse.
Chutzpah!
After James Cedar admitted to police that hewas the person who had been spotted peeping into his Toronto neighbor's window at night, thevictim, Patricia Marshall, installed a video camera at that window todiscourage him from re-offending. In September, when all parties reported tocourt for a final resolution of the peeping case, Cedar's lawyer served legal paperson Marshall,threatening to sue her over the camera. Since Cedar's house is within the viewoutside Marshall'swindow, he complained that the camera could capture images through his windowsand thus invades his privacy.
Least Competent Criminals
Oops! (1) Three men and a woman from Atlantic City, N.J., werearrested in August and charged with robbing the Artisans' Bank in Bear, Del. Their escape afterthe robbery had been delayed when they accidentally left the keys to thegetaway car in the bank. (2) Andrew Burwitz, 20, was arrested in Appleton, Wis.,in November and charged with drive-by shootings into two residences. No one washit, and the major damage was done to Burwitz's car, in that Burwitz fired thefirst shot before he remembered to roll down the window.
Recurring Themes
Thousands of airline passengers continue toattempt to bring prohibited carry-on items on board. The New York Post reported in September that the TransportationSecurity Administration had confiscated 123,000 items so far this year fromjust the three main airports serving New York City. Included were 43 explosives, 1,600 knives,a 10-point deer antler, several fire extinguishers, a tree branch, nunchucks, agrill, a baby alligator, "unwashed adult toys," a gassed-up chain sawand a kitchen sink.
© 2009 Chuck Shepherd
