sacred bird » crime

apparently, it’s not that hard to fly a plane

630 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:12:07 +0000

or so colton harris-moore, aka the barefoot bandit, will probably tell you. just 19, he was caught by the police in the Bahamas today for a string of crime across the states including stealing several planes throughout the two years he was on the run. he was reportedly barefoot when taken in by police, like he often was when he committed his crimes. strangely, harris-moore has also become a little of a hero for what his mother has called victimless crimes (stolen property and burglaries). he has over 70,000 facebook fans and you can find “Fly, Colton, Fly” t shirts in seattle, where he is originally from. rumors are that his mother is in talks to sell his story to Hollywood. hopefully, she’ll get him a deal that includes shoes.

[nytimes]

south american ingenuity

180 — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:48:38 +0000

the drug trade in colombia is alive and kicking–two instances over the past week prove this.

not-so-golden trophy: officials at the airport in bogota happened upon a replica of the world cup trophy that happened to be made out of, you guessed it, cocaine. the found trophy was headed for spain and was 35 cm in height and contained about 11Kg of cocaine worth about $1.5M. officials were tipped off by the bad paint job.
not-yellow submarine: a sub was found in ecuador along the colombian border containing up to 12 tons of cocaine. the vessel was designed to travel under water undetected–and it’s not the first of its kind–the d.e.a. has found a couple of these things while fighting the war on drugs.

where there’s a will, there’s a way.

[guardian, bbc image via mykl roventine]

they have more restrictions on lindsay lohan

180 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:15:33 +0000

by now you’ve heard of the mr. and mrs. smith like existence of the russian spy ring caught by the f.b.i. this week. the f.b.i. had been following them for years and they’d been living happy suburban lives in virginia, new jersey, new york, and massachusetts. some of them had facebook accounts, many have kids, and others were great gardners.

their alleged ring leader, christopher metsos was arrested in cyprus while trying to board a flight for hungary. the authorities there must have thought he was much less worrisome than say, lindsay lohan ’cause they let the dude go after he surrendered his passport and posted about $25K for bail. shocker, he hasn’t been seen since.

have the cops learned nothing? lindsay was forced to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet after she missed a court hearing in los angeles (she was ’stranded’ in canes because someone had lifted her passport she says). that’s the least they coulda done with christopher metsos. am i right?

[nytimes, ny post, lohan scram bracelet photo, facebook accounts via gawker]

wonder if a jailhouse series is next

630 — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:15:51 +0000

you’d think the guy like thomas kinkade “painter of light” would be a pretty mellow guy. for sure, you either have one of his paintings in your home (supposedly 1 in 20 homes have some form of his art), in a hotel, or at the mall (my mall had a whole thomas kinkade store). the secret to how he manages to create such serene works of art is revealed – booze. kinkade was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in monterey county, california last week. mind you, a DUI is as common as a botox injection these days but the paintings all make sense now.

[christian science monitor]

one bad egg is all it takes

630 — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:05:17 +0000

or in this case, 3. land o’lakes and two of its subsidiaries are settling a class action lawsuit for price fixing. the $25 million settlement will be the first of its kind in the agricultural industry. restaurants, retailers, distributors and food processors represent the group of direct purchasers who alleged land o’lakes and company were conspiring to have fewer hens lay few eggs causing the price per egg to be higher. who knew the egg business was so competitive?!

photo courtsey of flint-hill

[law 360]

employees jumping for joy, not

630 — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:43:03 +0000

with 4g iphones expected to ship this summer, it’s no wonder that there’s a lot of pressure at the chinese company, foxconn. the pressure has been too much for the 9 people, the most recent this past week, who have committed suicide since january by jumping from one of the foxconn buildings. foxconn is the main manufacturer of all great things apple (iphones, ipads and ipods) as well as some intel, dell and hp products. the largest of the manufacturing plant houses over 400,000 employees who work from 60-100 overtime hours per month (yes, I said overtime hours). employees live in foxconn villages where their lives consist of working, sleeping and eating. said the ceo of foxconn in response to the latest suicide “We believe that we are definitely not a sweatshop. It’s very difficult to manage a manufacturing team of 800,000 something.” foxconn has hired counselors and even buddhist monks in attempts to get control of the situation but it doesn’t seem to have helped. i got a crazy idea, foxconn. why not adhere to the legal limit on the number of overtime hours a person can work(currently 36) and raise the monthly base salaries from the measly 900 yuans (equivalent of $132) so that people don’t feel their only way out is by jumping off a building?

[engadget, gizmodo]

photo courtsey of jeff croft

she sure could use some reinvention now

630 — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:30:17 +0000

a little sad really. after living in the shadow of diana for years, sarah still can’t seem to find her way. the duchess was caught on video selling an introduction to someone posing as a businessman to her ex prince andrew for £500,000. andrew has some influence over international trade in his role with uk trade & investment. in the video she claims that prince andrew is aware of the deal but since it’s become public, she admitted he was not aware of the transaction (and that’s the story she’s sticking too). the undercover sting was conducted by reporters so you can bet they caught everything she said, word by word including “So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he’ll look after you. . . you’ll get it back tenfold.”

[news of the world, video]

white house security sucks

630 — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:45:48 +0000

white house press secretary robert gibbs confirmed there was indeed another gatecrasher at yesterday’s white house press conference. oh yeah, and those other gatecrashers got stopped by the secret service the other day near the white house.

[mediaite, los angeles times]

bernard kerik, just like rocky

630 — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:17:24 +0000

bernard kerik is a lot of things – 9/11 hero, former nypd commissioner, almost homeland security secretary, dog lover (this i learned from watching the real housewives of new jersey because kerik is a good friend of the manzo family and has made at least two cameos). today he also becomes an inmate, serving out his 4 year sentence for mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and lying to the white house (is that a crime?) want to take a guess at what kerik did on his last night of freedom? he stayed home to watch a video with his family, rocky balboa for “the sole purpose of having them watch one scene where Rocky speaks to his son and says, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are….it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward!”

he’s going to blame the world for his problems? for real bernie? i guess if you squint real hard, you might be able to see the resemblance.

[bernard b. kerik blog]

fame monsters beware

180 — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:37:41 +0000

heed this warning snooki. ben stiller, david duchovney, paul haggis, and a few others live in the same apartment building on the south side of chicago. not really, but that’s the scam that adedamola olatunji an alleged crook from chicago told citibank when he ordered credit cards from citibank in their name and had them sent to a south side apartment building.

when olatunji got the cards, he went on an online dating and itunes shopping spree and was finally caught when the united states postal service sent one of its few remaining employees over to his apartment to find out what was up. olatunji was indicted for forgery, mail fraud, theft, aggravated identity theft, computer fraud and other felony charges.

there was no information as to whether olaunji, born in nigeria, has any ties to this crime syndicate. there was also no word if any cards were ordered under the names “the situation”, “pauly d”, or “j woww”.