Woof, woof...sniff, sniff...snarl

Police chief resigns, NM force has gone to the dog, literally.

 Sep 26 2012 

RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press

VAUGHN, N.M. (AP) — The police chief of the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn resigned Wednesday, leaving the town with just one certified member on its police force — a drug-sniffing dog named Nikka.
Dave Romero, attorney for the town, said Wednesday that police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background.
"He decided the attention was distracting," Romero said.
State officials said Armijo couldn't carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being accused of selling a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash.
Romero said Armijo is working to clear up the latest case. He said Armijo has not ruled out seeking the police chief's position again if his case is resolved and the position is open.
According to records, the only qualified member of the Vaughn Police Department is Nikka, a drug-sniffing dog. Vaughn's other officer isn't certified and pleaded guilty to charges of assault and battery last year. Noncertified officers can't make arrests and can't carry firearms.
But Romero said not having an officer qualified to carry a gun didn't put Vaughn at risk. "England doesn't allow police officers to carry guns," he said. "Sometime the strongest weapon in law enforcement is communication."
Vaughn, a town of about 450 located 104 miles east of Albuquerque, is a quiet town that is an overnight stop for railroad workers. And while residents say there is no crime problem, the town is set deep in what U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officials say is an isolated region of the state popular with drug traffickers. Officials say the desolate roads in Guadalupe County make it hard for authorities to catch smugglers moving drugs from Mexico.
Guadalupe County Sheriff Michael Lucero said since news about the police chief's record became public his department has helped patrol Vaughn. But he said those efforts have put a slight strain on his already short-staffed department.
"I visit the town at least once a month," said Lucero. "The important thing is to keep a presence so residents know we're there to help if we're needed."
Romero said town officials are considering whether to hire another police chief or keep the department staffed with just one officer. He said it's unclear whether the town will keep the police dog, which had been in Armijo's care.
When approached by a reporter from The Associated Press at his Vaughn home, Armijo said he had no comment, and he declined to grant access to the canine for photographs or video.
The dog's kennel could be seen in Armijo's backyard, and a police truck marked "K-9" was parked in his driveway.
At Penny's Diner, residents said they were embarrassed by the attention the episode has put on the small town.
"There's just a whole lot of nothing going on here," said cook Joyce Tabor. "We have very little crime. It's quiet. So this really doesn't matter."
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If At First You Don't Succeed....Be Stupid Again

Six months after serving two years for bank robbery, an Ohio man was back in court this week to plead guilty to robbing the same downtown bank, The Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
As in 2010, Adam Billman, 28, had gone to the Key Bank on Fourth Street in Cincinnati in July and handed the teller this note: "This is no joke. Give me your 100s, 50s and 20s."
"He went to the same bank. He used the same note (wording). He used the same escape route," Assistant Prosecutor Stacy Lefton told Judge Ralph "Ted" Winkler in Hamilton County on Monday.
The judge was even blunter, telling Billman, "For someone to do what you did, it shows a total lack of brain power."

There was one difference, The Enquirer reports. This time, the teller included a dye pack in the stolen money, and it exploded. After knocking over the bank, Billman first had to stop by the Tower Place Mall to buy a fresh shirt before -- as he is wont to do -- fleeing by cab.

It was not clear whether Billman had the same facial hair in this heist as he had in 2010.  A bystander suggested Billman couldn't get a job and with Ohio's winter coming on, he decided that with three meals a day, a warm cell and pocket change he would be better off in the slammer than sleeping in the street.

Zimbabwe's Great Communal Flush-Out

Sep. 21, 2012

Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, has a major sewer and water problem.  The city's sewer system is completely clogged and backed up after a prolonged drought dried up the city's main sources of water.

All one million residents are being asked by city officials to flush their toilets at exactly 7:30 PM on a day to be announced, in a massive effort to flush out the sanitary system.  The one question not addressed by officials is what happens if the great flush-out doesn't work and sewage starts backing up in the one million residents' homes?  "Oh, shit," said one official when alerted to this possibility.

Local merchants were already experiencing a large demand for gas masks and many residents were preparing to evacuate the city.  "This place is going to be a living cesspool if this doesn't work," said one resident who had two toilets in his home.

Readers of this blog are being requested not to visit Zimbabwe at this time and to send a chemical toilet to the embattled city.

Editors
Bizarre Stuff

Sleepy Shoplifter

9/21/2012

His mug shot reflecting his mood, a sleep-deprived Florida man wrapped up his three-day bender by allegedly trying to steal clothing stuffed into his pants, deputies said.
Byron Harvey was arrested in Vero Beach for allegedly stuffing nearly $450 worth of clothes, shoes, a watch and cologne in his pants, as reported by TC Palm.

The arrest report, sent to The Huffington Post, said that an Indian River County deputy was called to a department store on September 10 to look into accusations of shoplifting. The deputy found Harvey in the dressing room where he "heard and smelled" him "burning plastic packaging off items" and saw him stuffing merchandise into his pants, the report said.

The deputy also found six Clonazepam pills in one of Harvey's pockets, according to the report. Clonazepam is used to treat panic attacks as well as other disorders. Harvey allegedly told the deputy the pills belonged to his girlfriend who had been wearing his pants.
Harvey also claimed he had been up for three days straight "drinking and doing powder and pills," the report said.  He said he needed the watch in order to be on time for appointments with his parole officer.
The 38-year-old was charged with shoplifting more than $300 worth of merchandise, resisting arrest with violence and possession of a controlled substance.

California Chef Slow-cooks Wife To Dispose of Body

9-18-12

A stunned jury in the Los Angeles County murder trial of a local chef heard him say in a taped interview with detectives that he had slow-cooked his wife's body for four days to get rid of the corpse after accidentally killing her, The Daily Breeze reports..
David Viens, 49, has pleaded not guilty to killing 39-year-old Dawn Viens in 2009.
The taped interviews were conducted in March, 2011, in his hospital room after he tried to commit suicide by jumping off an 80-foot cliff on the same day that The Daily Breeze reported that police suspected him in his wife's death.
Viens, chef-owner of the Thyme Contemporary Cafe in Lomita, in South Bay, tells detectives that he and Dawn had been arguing and that he duct-taped her mouth and put her in a closet.
"For some reason I just got violent," he said.
When he woke up four hours later, Viens tells detectives, he found her dead.
"I just freaked. I go, 'Oh my God. And I go rushing out there and she's gone," he says on the tape.

He says he panicked and decided to get rid of her corpse.
Here, according to the The Daily Breeze, is an excerpt from the confession:

"I manipulated her so the face was -- the face is down, and I took some -- some things -- like weights that we use, and I put them on the top of her body, and I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days," Viens said.

"You cooked Dawn's body for four days?" sheriff's homicide Sgt. Richard Garcia asked.

"I cooked her four days," he said. "I let her cool. I strained it out as I -- I was in there, OK."

Viens says he mixed what remained of the body with other waste and poured it into the restaurant's grease pit, the Los Angeles Timesreports.

                                                              Facsimile of Wife's Skull

The remainder was packed into garbage bags and thrown into a trash bin. Viens says he hid her skull and jawbone in his mother's attic, although police did not find any evidence during a search of the home.

Sex For Car Washes

Sep 09, 2012

Police bust ends 'free sex after nine car washes'

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY

CAPTION

By Saeed Khan, AFP/Getty Images

Police near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, cracked down last week after getting wind of a unique offer from the teaming of a car wash and a massage parlor in the suburb of Sunway Mentari.

Nine Vietnamese women, ages 18 to 28, believed to be prostitutes were arrested.

Police learned of the unique partnership between the car wash and sex ring when they kept finding car wash loyalty cards in the pockets of alleged customers of the sex ring.

The Mail quotes Emmi Shah Fadhil, the officer in charge of the area's Crime Prevention Division, as saying: "To get the extra 'offer', customers must send their cars for washing nine times within a certain period. The 10th car wash will entitle them to free sex," said Emmi Shah.

No description of the kind of sex being offered nor any time limit per event were mentioned by any of the parties involved.

The Bare Naked Truth

Sept. 7, 2012

An elderly Arkansas couple, who had recently lost their home to a violent storm, were being interviewed by a local TV station.  During the course of the interview a naked man wandered out of the nearby woods and into the middle of the interview. The couple expressed surprise and the police were summoned, although the nudist made no threatening gestures or remarks.  He was charged with indecent exposure and taken to jail.