crime

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Our Greatest Con Man Remains a Mystery

'Count Victor Lustig' once sold the Eiffel Tower

(Newser) - He called himself Count Victor Lustig. Others knew him as "the smoothest con man that ever lived" and a "top man in the modern world of crime." After all, he did sell the Eiffel Tower. And his counterfeit US banknotes were so authentic that authorities were concerned...

Why We Must Stop Printing $100 Bills
 Why We Must 
 Stop Printing 
 $100 Bills 
OPINION
Feb 16, 2016 12:40 PM CST

Why We Must Stop Printing $100 Bills

Big notes are for criminals: Larry Summers

(Newser) - How often do you use $100 bills? Never? That's probably because you're not a criminal. As Lawrence H. Summers explains at the Washington Post , there's a school of thought that high-denomination currency aids crime and even terrorism. In a new paper out of Harvard, senior fellow Peter...

Parents Who Planted Drugs on PTA Prez Get $5.7M Lesson

Calif. couple tried to frame a woman they were feuding with

(Newser) - A Southern California couple has been ordered to pay $5.7 million in damages to the former PTA president they tried to frame by planting drugs in her car and calling the police (using a faux Indian accent). It took a jury less than an hour to find that Kent...

How a Gang of Strippers Robbed From the Rich

By drugging them, says suspect Rosie Keo

(Newser) - Rosie Keo is due in court next month for her alleged involvement in a scam involving strippers who robbed male clients of at least $200,000. But in her telling, Keo alone made much more. Makes sense, if her story is true about strippers drugging doctors and Wall Street executives...

Charges: Sandlot Actor Attacked Man Handing Out Candy

In real life Benny 'The Jet' Rodriguez grew up to be a firefighter

(Newser) - He outran the Beast, but he might not be fast enough to escape the long arm of the law. NBC News reports Michael Vitar—who played Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez in 1993's The Sandlot —was arrested last week and charged with beating a man handing out candy...

Cops: Shackled Inmate Runs Across Arizona Freeway

He allegedly kicked out a police van window to escape

(Newser) - Authorities in suburban Phoenix say a handcuffed and shackled inmate was seriously injured after he kicked out a window in a police transport van on a freeway and jumped out of the moving vehicle. Gilbert police Sgt. Jesse Sanger says Adam Arlington broke out of the city police van bringing...

$5M Gun Database Never Solved a Single Crime in 15 Years

Maryland program finally nixed

(Newser) - Since 2000, more than 300,000 bullet casings have piled up in an old fallout shelter in Pikesville, Maryland, the result of an ambitious program launched to catalog the casings in a database, which would then be used to help solve crimes, per the Baltimore Sun . But 15 years and...

Fruitcake Exec Punished for Wild Embezzlement

Sandy Jenkins defrauded bakery to fund seriously lavish lifestyle

(Newser) - A former comptroller at Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas—famous for its fruitcakes—will have to go without as he spends the next 10 years behind bars. Prosecutors say Sandy Jenkins, 66, ran "a massive scheme to defraud" the bakery and forged 888 checks from December 2004 until...

Judge: Man Charged in Rich Dad's Death Unfit for Trial

He's accused of killing his father over a disagreement about his allowance

(Newser) - A judge ruled today that 30-year-old Tommy Gilbert, suspected of killing his wealthy hedge-fund father over an argument about his allowance, is not mentally fit to stand trial. Authorities say Gilbert shot his 70-year-old father Jan. 4 after Thomas Gilbert Sr. threatened to dock his allowance by a few hundred...

Cops: Family of 5 Dead in Horrific Murder-Suicide

'There are no words to describe it'

(Newser) - Officers were horrified to find the bodies of a family scattered around an upscale home outside Minneapolis today in what appears to be a grisly murder-suicide, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. “There’re no words to describe it,” police chief Mike Siitari says. “This is a tough...

Children Found Stabbed to Death in Car Outside School

Police chief calls it a horrific incident

(Newser) - Three children between the ages of 8 and 12 were found stabbed to death in the back of an SUV parked outside an elementary school in South Los Angeles today, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police say a man suspected to be the children's father was found...

College Team Boots 5 Players After Arrests

Rutgers teammates charged with home-invasion robbery and assault

(Newser) - Coach Kyle Flood kicked five players—three of them projected starters—off the Rutgers University football team minutes before its season opener today, the AP reports. This week, players Nadir Barnwell, Razohnn Gross, Ruhann Peele, and Delon Stephenson were charged with assault stemming from a fight in April that left...

Attorney, 3 Cops, 5 Others Accused in Crazy Murder

Man who scavenged metal was allegedly killed because of it

(Newser) - In a plot seemingly right out of this season of True Detective, a well-known criminal defense attorney and three California Highway Patrol officers, along with five other people, were arrested yesterday in connection with the 2012 murder of a 26-year-old man whose body was discovered in a remote forest near...

Cops: Disabled Woman Kept in Closet for 6-7 Years

Sister is charged with unlawful imprisonment

(Newser) - A 42-year-old disabled woman spent the past six or seven years of her life locked in a closet by her sister—thirsty, starving, and with only a bucket for a toilet, the AP reports. A handyman reportedly discovered the victim, who has "cognitive and physical impairments," in a...

Police: Cop Assaulted Cop Fiancee Over Her T-Shirt

Denver officer Lane Gardner gets charged with domestic violence

(Newser) - A Denver police officer allegedly assaulted his fiancee—who is also a Denver officer—because he thought she was cheating on him with a firefighter, ABC 7 reports. Jennifer Jaidinger, 42, arrived home early last Friday morning to find Lane Gardner, 48, drunk and demanding to know where she had...

Beauty Queen Jailed on Fake Cancer Charges

Her alleged fraud netted her quite the bingo benefit

(Newser) - A 23-year-old Pennsylvania beauty queen is in jail after allegedly faking leukemia in order to reap the benefits of fundraisers. Miss Pennsylvania US International pageant winner Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates was charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property yesterday. Police say she received $14,000 from a bingo benefit...

Guy 'Likes' Ex's Facebook Posts, Gets Arrested

Social media apparently counts when it comes to restraining orders

(Newser) - A 26-year-old Pennsylvania man is in trouble with the law after "liking" a bunch of his ex-girlfriend's photos and videos on Facebook. The problem, authorities say, is that the "likes" violate the conditions of the restraining order she has against him, the Times Leader reports. April Holland,...

Cops: Social Worker Killed by Mom Who Lost Custody

Jody Herring to be arraigned in the death of Lara Sobel, a 14-year veteran of DCF

(Newser) - A Vermont woman who lost custody of her 9-year-old daughter last month fatally shot the social worker involved in her case yesterday, say Barre City police. Now Jody Herring could be implicated in the shooting deaths of three of her relatives, the Burlington Free Press reports. Herring allegedly shot Vermont...

Special Needs Siblings Found in Cages

Two women, including their mother, charged with child abuse

(Newser) - Two women were charged with child cruelty and false imprisonment after authorities found siblings with special needs living in what police called "homemade cages" inside a Georgia home yesterday. Acting on a tip that a child had been left alone at home in rural Chatsworth, officers discovered that while...

New Video Could Crack One of World's Great Art Heists

$5M reward for 13 priceless artworks stolen from Boston museum 25 years ago

(Newser) - The FBI hopes new surveillance footage released today will aid in the recovery of 13 priceless artworks stolen 25 years ago and help put to rest one of Boston's greatest mysteries. In the early hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as cops were let into the Gardner...

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