Tag Archives | Crime

When Your “Smart Home” Gets Hacked

By JacobSloan on September 10, 2013 in News 4

smart home

Via Forbes, Kashmir Hill reveals that the “demonic house” horror archetype may soon be coming true:

“I can see all of the devices in your home and I think I can control them,” I said to Thomas Hatley, a stranger in Oregon who I had rudely awoken with an early morning phone call.

He and his wife were still in bed. Expressing surprise, he asked me to try to turn the master bedroom lights on and off. Sitting in my living room in San Francisco, I flipped the light switch with a click, and resisted the Poltergeist-like temptation to turn the television on as well.

Googling a very simple phrase led me to a list of “smart homes” that had done something rather stupid. The homes all have an automation system from Insteon that allows remote control of their lights, hot tubs, fans, televisions, water pumps, garage doors, cameras, and other devices, so that their owners can turn these things on and off with a smartphone app or via the Web.

… Read the rest

16 Human Skulls Found On Streets Of Prague

By JacobSloan on September 10, 2013 in News 7

16 skulls

Via Fox News, it’s skull season:

Police in Prague say 15 human skulls have been found in a wooden box found on a street, and another was found in a garbage bin.

Spokeswoman Jana Roesslerova says police found the 15 skulls Thursday morning near a garbage container after they were alerted by a telephone caller. Roesslerova says each skull was numbered. She says another skull, also bearing a number, was found in a garbage bin Wednesday by a homeless person.

Police say it is not clear whether the two cases are connected. They have asked experts to help in their investigation.

… Read the rest

Florida Man Cites “Bush Doctrine” As Legal Defense In Killing Of Neighbors

By JacobSloan on September 6, 2013 in News 24

bush doctrine

Give this man the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Via Gawker:

A Florida man who shot three of his neighbors killing two of them has cited the state’s infamous Stand Your Ground law in his defense, but with a twist: William T. Woodward insists the “Bush Doctrine” of preventive war gives him the right to murder his neighbors before they murder him.

An ongoing dispute between Woodward and his neighbors, Gary Lee Hembree, Roger Picior, and Bruce Timothy Blake, culminated in a Labor Day shooting that left Hembree and Picior dead and Blake badly wounded.

Lawyers for Woodward, 44, have asked the court to dismiss the first-degree murder charges against his client, saying Woodward’s neighbors had verbally harassed him in the hours leading up to the shooting, and could even be heard saying “we’re going to get him, all three of us.”

In their argument, the attorneys mentioned the “Bush Doctrine” as a justification for preemptive attack in the face of a potential threat.

… Read the rest

Police Bust “Drug Fueled Sex Party” At Michigan Masonic Temple

By JacobSloan on September 4, 2013 in News 14

freemasons WWMT in Southwestern Michigan has a strange story which seems to be beyond their abilities to report:

Battle Creek Police make a bust at the Masonic Temple, sources have described as a drug fueled sex party. Police sources describe the scene on Michigan Avenue out of control, and arrests were made.

It’s a secretive organization, sitting right next door to the Battle Creek Police and county courthouse. “Thank you for calling the beautiful Masonic Temple. For renting our facility, please call Charlie…” says the automated voice message, when you call the Masonic Lodge.

Sources told us the first officer to walk inside, was shocked to find a couple performing a lewd sex act, along with drugs, multiple nude women and men videotaping it all behind these closed doors.

We make a call to Charlie, and told him what police sources described. Charlie said Freemasons don’t go on camera, but told Newshchannel 3 they did not know about the multiple arrests.

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Detroit Man Stole Father’s Corpse, Attempted To Bring Him Back To Life

By JacobSloan on September 1, 2013 in News 6

To be honest I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often. CBS Detroit reports:

A man accused of stealing his father’s body from a Detroit cemetery with the hope of bringing him back to life has pleaded guilty in exchange for avoiding prison.

Bright, then 48, stole the body of 93-year-old Clarence Bright from Gethsemane Cemetery on Jan. 14, just hours before it was to be buried, and stored it in a home freezer. Police, acting on a tip from other family members, found the corpse in Vincent Bright’s home on Detroit’s east side.

Police said Vincent Bright is religious and took the body in hopes his father would be resurrected.

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U.S. Government To Abolish Minimum Drug Law Sentences

By majestic on August 12, 2013 in News 10

Eric_Holder_official_portrait_small Finally something to like about Attorney General Eric Holder? Politico reports:

Attorney General Eric Holder is calling on the federal government to rein its use of one of the most ubiquitous tools in the war on crime—minimum mandatory sentences—and he’s making a unilateral move to cut down on such sentences in drug cases even as Congress debates a broader rretreat from the once-popular sentencing concept.

“Some statutes that mandate inflexible sentences–regardless of the facts or conduct at issue in a particular case–reduce the discretion available to prosecutors, judges, and juries,” Holder is to say in a speech to the American Bar Association Monday in San Francisco, according to advance excerpts the released by the Justice Department. “They breed disrespect for the system. When applied indiscriminately, they do not serve public safety. They have had a disabling effect on communities. And they are ultimately counterproductive.”

Holder plans to announce that he’s instructing federal prosecutors not to charge garden-variety drug dealers with crimes that lead to lengthy mandatory minimum sentences.

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Washington Man Charged With Blowing Up Family Dog He Believed Contained The Devil

By JacobSloan on August 9, 2013 in News 10

devil

Religious devotion as horrifying insanity. Washington’s KOIN reports:

A father with children in the house who was preparing for “the Rapture” blew up his family’s Labrador Retriever because the devil was inside the dog, court documents showed.

Christopher Dillingham, 45, allegedly attached an explosive device to his dog and detonated it Sunday outside their home.

A slew of 911 calls sent deputies to Dillingham’s home. They found the remains of the dog strewn about the yard and arrested Dillingham on the spot. Dillingham told Skamania County deputies “the world is going to end” because and he was preparing.

He said he believed “the souls of demons” were inside the metal objects in the house, the documents said. His ex-girlfriend, he told the deputies, gave him the dog, named Cabella, and “put the devil in it.”

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The Sorry Tale of Goldman Sachs, the FBI and Sergey Aleynikov

By majestic on August 1, 2013 in News 2

aleynikov.org

Michael “Moneyball” Lewis has written a lengthy article for Vanity Fair in which he suggests that ex-Goldman Sachs employee Sergey Aleynikov may not have done too much to deserve a jail sentence other than piss off his omnipotent employer:

To Sergey Aleynikov’s new way of thinking, every American could benefit from some time in jail, but in the event that you are yourself actually arrested and sent away, “there are certain practical aspects to keep in mind.” First, dress warmly. Detention centers tend to be freezing cold, even in summer, and so if you happen to be wearing shorts or short sleeves you’re in for a spectacularly unhappy night. Second, carry no cash. “If you have money, they charge you a convenience fee,” he explains. “If you don’t have it, they don’t charge you. The less money you have on you, the better.” Third, memorize a couple of emergency contact phone numbers.

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‘Fake Cops’ Robbing Detroit Drivers At Gunpoint Turn Out To Be Real Cops

By JacobSloan on August 1, 2013 in News 10

cops

Cops and robbers, via Information Liberation:

There were at least two reports of men with police badges, bullet proof vests and guns posing as police officers and robbing unsuspecting drivers at gunpoint.

The first incident took place at a Citgo gas station on Detroit’s east side last Sunday. The clerk says two white men in a black Ford F-150 with police lights pistol-whipped customers pumping gas. The men stole cash and cell phones from their victims. A warning went out to be on the lookout for “fake cops” but it turns out those officers were not fake after all.

A second incident happened near Harper and 3 Mile Drive. A man says he was pulled over by three men in a unmarked Crown Victoria. The man was searched and while he answered questions, his wallet and CDs were stolen.

Now under arrest are two police sergeants, a 20-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department and a 17-year veteran of the St.

… Read the rest

Los Angeles Man Receives Life Sentence For Skinning And Dismembering Mother In Satanic Ritual Killing

By JacobSloan on July 23, 2013 in News 8

satanic ritual

This incredibly disturbing saga harkens back to the heyday of heavy metal moral panic. Via the Los Angeles Times:

Prosecutors say that Moises Meraz-Espinoza strangled his mother and then skinned, filleted and dismembered her body as part of a satanic ritual. The woman’s internal organs were never recovered. A Norwalk jury convicted him of first-degree murder in June.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Heba Matta, said Meraz-Espinoza was motivated by satanic beliefs, which he was “heavily entrenched in.” His mother disapproved of his listening to death metal music and he regularly disobeyed her, Matta said.

“This crime was not in the heat of passion or rash and impulsive,” Matta said. “It was done for the purpose of devotion. That’s pretty much the ultimate sacrifice.”

Meraz-Espinoza has numerous tattoos that draw on satanic imagery, such as upside-down crosses and a 666 behind his right ear. Authorities recovered his copy of a satanic bible near the crime scene.

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