In the Slammer Over Socks? 5 Craziest Crimes of Week

A doubly shocking lottery-ticket theft and the case of a stolen Stradivarius are among the weirdest crime stories of the week:

• Man Faces Prison Over Backpack With Dirty Socks: A Michigan man who reportedly tried to pull a fast one on a couple who were allegedly looking to score some pot is probably wishing he'd stayed home to do laundry. Michael Suarez allegedly sold the couple a backpack full of marijuana for $2,800—except what was in the backpack wasn't a pound of pot, but a bunch of dirty socks. He's facing a harsh prison sentence for ... reasons.
• Rich Kid Comes Up With Creative Way to Get a New Ferrari: A 20-year-old whose millionaire father had already showered him with 15 cars, $30 million in property, and a monthly $10,000 allowance apparently wanted a new Ferrari, like, really badly. But the Swiss man apparently didn't know how to tell Pop that he was tired of the $245,000 Ferrari he already had. Don't worry—he came up with a plan.

• Stoned Driver Makes Unusual Request of Arresting Officer: When Officer Ben Hektoen pulled Gilbert Phelps of Iowa over for speeding, he says Phelps admitted to smoking pot before driving and showed "measurable impairment" in field sobriety tests. But as a "Drug Recognition Expert" tested Phelps, the 20-year-old made one request of Hektoen: a selfie you just have to see.
• Unlikely Suspect in Theft of $520K Lottery Ticket: A woman whose winning lottery ticket worth $520,000 was stolen got a second piece of bad news from cops in Florida, where she had purchased ticket: Her uncle, 49-year-old Michael Royston, is the one accused of stealing it. Another piece of info about Royston, charged with grand theft and fraud, makes the story even more incredible.
• Woman Unaware She Had Stolen Stradivarius for Years: Thanh Tran says when her ex-husband, Philip Johnson, gave her a locked violin case before he died of cancer, she thought it contained a violin she had once purchased for him. The truth: The case contained a famous Stradivarius stolen from a renowned violinist in 1980. The story started coming together when a violin appraiser told her they had to call the FBI—and then Tran remembered an odd thing Johnson used to do with the violin.

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