Free Republic

Sue Wentz and her husband, Eugene, saved for five years, living in a modest home in a low-income neighborhood of Houston, before they broke ground in January on a 4,300-square-foot house on 12 acres in Magnolia, Tex., a woodsy suburb about 40 miles northwest of the city. They are overseeing the construction themselves to control costs. So it was with dismay that they arrived at the job site one morning in July to find that all the copper wiring and air-conditioning tubing had been ripped out of the rough frame of the house. Besides the financial hit — $11,000 —...

Ask virtually any store manager at the Saint Louis Galleria about shoplifting, and you'll invariably get two responses: One, it's out of control; and two, it's gotten exceedingly worse since August 2006, when MetroLink opened a stop just 500 yards from the high-end shopping center. In the first six months of this year, Richmond Heights police made 345 arrests at the mall. That's nearly double the number of arrests made in all of 2005, before MetroLink opened its Shrewsbury line. This year police are on pace to take 276 juveniles into custody for shoplifting and other offenses — a sevenfold...

When Democrats gather in Denver, Colorado, and Republicans in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, for their political conventions this summer, they'll be taking along with them a big gift from federal taxpayers. Democrats will be holding their convention in Denver, Colorado, at the Pepsi Center. 1 of 2 The Federal Elections Commission has announced that each convention will receive $17 million in taxpayer funds, money approved by Congress as part of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

There is no source to this to click on but have I missed something? After seeing the video of Russians dragging away American military equipment, has our government said ANYTHING to protest and demand the return of the vehicles?

Not exactly criminal masterminds, but the three Ukrainian nationals busted for stealing PINs and debits, creating false cards, and pocketing the cash did have a pretty good run. And reading the legal documents on the case in the U.S. Eastern District Court offers a handful of lessons about ATM fraud and pre-paid card fraud—including the value of rotating your wardrobe. First, some of the facts in the case: three Ukrainians are charged with using fraudulent debit cards they used to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars from Citibank, WaMu and other bank ATMs in New York City. The thefts appear...

Russian soldiers in bank job By STAFF REPORTER RUSSIAN soldiers have been caught on camera ROBBING a bank in war-torn Georgia. The band of gun-toting men were caught on CCTV forcing their way into the bank in Gori. Once inside, the men are seen breaking into the teller offices and rifling through the desks. They are then caught making off with what appear to be armfuls of equipment including laptop computers and perhaps even cash. The outrage took place amid some of the bloodiest fighting in Gori, which is on Georgia’s main east-west highway.

RUSSIAN soldiers have been caught on camera ROBBING a bank in war-torn Georgia. The band of gun-toting men were caught on CCTV forcing their way into the bank in Gori. Once inside, the men are seen breaking into the teller offices and rifling through the desks.

The lure of a $30 trick with a Lowell hooker ended up nearly costing one man more than $60,000 in cash, police said. Jessica Garcia, 30, was released on personal recognizance yesterday after allegations that she agreed to perform oral sex on the drunken john for $30, but then tied him up and ran off with $62,000 in cash he kept in a duffel bag. The man had been drinking cognac for several hours on Saturday night when he hopped on his bicycle, cash in tow, to search for a street walker, police said.....

BETHEL, Vermont) -- The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Vermont State Police are investigating the theft of explosives from a granite quarry in the town of Bethel. Police say the theft occurred overnight Wednesday at the Rock of Ages quarry. The investigation has shown that the suspects broke in through a locked gate and then broke into several buildings. Police says that in addition to explosives, the suspects stole power equipment. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the state police in Royalton.

Something seems fishy about the following story of a shark being stolen from a shed. Unless the shark was a gang member from New York who snapped his fingers and walked in lock step with his brothers, I know Peter Benchley wouldn’t believe it. So why should I? (A live shark was stolen from a shed, police said today. The marble shark - one half of the only breeding pair in the UK - was taken from a garden in Farnborough, Hampshire, over the weekend.

(Updated) Mayor John DeStefano, offering new details about a dirt bike-van collision that led to a crowd beating a driver and a 15 year-old boy losing his life, renewed a call to tackle the challenge of “disconnected” teens. DeStefano made the remarks at an unrelated City Hall press event in the wake of a Wednesday afternoon incident that has shocked the city. The incident occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Wednesday. A 15 year-old boy racing a stolen Honda dirt bike up and down Shepard Street ran into the back of a van. A crowd of his friends subsequently beat...

Videos recorded by cameras in two Buffalo Grove squad cars show a U-Haul truck near the end of a wild police chase two years ago, veering from side to side in traffic and racing around street corners before a crash that killed a suburban teenager and injured two others.

With sky-high gas prices, 42 cents won’t get you very far nowadays. However, it will get you a trip to jail. A 43-year-old Bonita Springs man was arrested Monday morning after Naples police say he stole 42 cents from a mall fountain. Laslo Mujzer, 43, 26801 Silverado East Drive, was charged with petty theft under $100, a misdemeanor. Around 11:15 a.m. Monday, a customer at the Coastland Center mall approached a mall security guard, and told her that a man was stealing money from a fountain outside, police reported. The security guard, Heather Watson, found the man, later identified as...

French anti-terrorist officers are searching for 28 kilograms of Semtex explosive missing from a depot in the suburbs of the city of Lyon. Semtex is a powerful, odourless explosive which is difficult to detect and often used by terrorist groups. The theft was from a depot in a disused 19th century fort at Corbas in the southern suburbs of Lyon. The depot is used for storing explosives by a civil defence unit with the job of blowing up bombs and ammunition left over from the two world wars. Twenty-eight kilograms of Semtex was found to be missing in a routine...

Cost of Government Day By Grover Norquist This year Americans have worked until today, July 16, to pay for the total costs of federal, state and local government. This is 197 days of the year consuming 53.9 percent of national income. Over the past 22 years, in only four years (1982, 1983, 1991 and 1992) did Cost of Government Day fall later in the year. Federal spending will consume 83.7 days. State and local spending will consume 50.5 days effort. Federal regulations cost 4l.7 days and State regulations cost 20.9 days. The spending data is precise, the regulatory burdens are...

An Ida (Michigan) Township woman who handled a college scholarship fund named in memory of a local soldier killed fighting in Iraq was convicted yesterday in Monroe County Circuit Court of stealing money from the account.

The Eucharist was stolen Friday from the tabernacle at Corpus Christi Cathedral on the 500 block of North Upper Broadway, police said. Corpus Christi Police Lt. Raymond Lara said the Eucharist, the consecrated bread used in Catholic Mass, was taken after someone entered the church through an open door. The exact time of the theft has not been determined and there have been no arrests made in the case, Lara said. Corpus Christi Cathedral officials would not comment when reached Monday.

......far-left radical activist group ACORN is embroiled in financial corruption and cover-up.... The NY Times reports that Dale Rathke - whose brother started the group back in 1970 to help low-income people - embezzled nearly $1M back in 1999 and 2000. ACORN disguised it on the books as a loan and let Rathke's family make restitution at $30,000 a year. (An anonymous donor reportedly has agreed to pick up the remaining $800,000 tab.) ACORN also kept Rathke on the payroll at $38,000-a-year.....the Times reports most of the people who covered-up the embezzlement are still working for ACORN. Michelle Malkin wrote...

SUFFOLK Police have filed more than 150 charges against three people accused of stealing dozens of catalytic converters from vehicles in Suffolk and Chesapeake.Late Friday, police announced that the three were arrested Wednesday, after a Suffolk officer saw them near a car at King’s Fork Middle School, city spokeswoman Debbie George said.David Christopher Bone, 27, and Nicholas Edward Villi, 26, both of Windsor, and Tiffany Nicole Holt, 22, of Chesapeake are being held without bond at Western Tidewater Regional Jail, a jail spokesman said.Bone and Villi each face 27 criminal charges in Suffolk; Holt faces 12 charges. All were charged...

Although a new state law is making it harder to sell illegally obtained scrap metal, a cell phone tower at Tracy City that was pulled down apparently to get copper indicates how far thieves will go to get what recently has become a "precious" material. The incident occurred late Friday or early Saturday when guy wires were cut to get a DTC Wireless tower to fall in an apparent effort to get copper wiring, according to Ricky Gibbs, DTC cellular and marketing manager. The tower is owned by Wireless Properties and is leased by DTC Wireless. Gibbs summed up his...

HOUSTON -- A federal magistrate has released a convicted mail thief to participate in a nationally televised professional boxing event, Local 2 Investigates reported Wednesday. Donald Albert Mouton, 30, is part of an arrest sweep involving stolen mail from Continental Airlines jets at Bush Intercontinental Airport. He and another man have been arrested so far, with federal agents planning more arrests next week. "I'm not a bad person. I'm one of the finest gentlemen walking around," said Mouton while training Wednesday afternoon at the Ultimate Warriors Boxing Club on Mesa Drive in northeast Houston. After performing sit-ups and other exercises,...

Norman Baker is an American hero who has been detained against his will for more than three years. His "crime": owning too much property. 
 His sentence: a court-appointed guardianship on the brink of costing him everything he spent his life building.

Woman Received Social Security For Several Years, Despite Status A 74-year-old illegal immigrant from Stockton pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft of government property, U.S. attorney McGregor W. Scott said. Ramona Soto, also known as Feliciana Cortez Castro, crossed the border from Mexico into California sometime around 1960. At some point before 1968, she obtained the birth certificate of a United States citizen and applied for and received a Social Security card, Scott said. Soto applied for and began getting Social Security benefits in 2000. Scott said between 2000 and 2007, Soto fraudulently received approximately $30,400 in Title II benefits. Undocumented,...

Inside scoop … Shhhhhh … you did not hear it from me! I am not revealing the location to protect my source. When it is published by our local paper I will. Our local Wal-Mart called an employee (selected) meeting this evening to announce a change in scheduling and new procedures. It is expected that 9 employees will have their schedules drastically altered during the meeting. Law Enforcement Officers will arrive during the meeting and escort the 9 employees in handcuffs through the store to waiting vehicles. Or just out the back door, to avoid any kind of problems (law...

A group of Terre Haute kids were squeezed out of cash from their lemonade stand and now a man is behind bars. The children were running a lemonade stand in the Farrington Grove neighborhood when things went sour. Dominique Morefield and her friends set up their lemonade stand at the corner of Deming and Center streets. Police said 18-year-old Steven Tryon came up to the stand and asked for their money. "The guy comes up and was just like, 'give me your money,'" said Morefield. He grabbed it from the girl's hands and took off running. "I was just like,...

CHARLESTON, Ore. — It turns out the fate of Charlie the Tuna of Charleston, Ore., was sorry indeed. The 8-foot Monterey cypress sculpture that used to greet visitors to the coastal fishing town was filleted by two young men who stole it as a prank and then, panicked they would be found out, took chain saws to it. Not that Charlie would have lasted much longer anyway, the town learned, what with the way bugs and rot had hollowed out his innards. The statue stood beside the South Slough Bridge into Charleston until Mark Santos and Marvin Terry Jr. swiped...

Police are searching for the thieves who stole a statue of Jesus from the wall of a church on Detroit's East Side. CHERYL CHODUN REPORTS IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ON THE RIGHT

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — There were no merry men to protect a real-life Robin Hood who took $22,000 from a neighbor's home and handed out the loot to needy friends, relatives and neighbors. [snip] Police learned the boy also bought groceries for his family, gave his mother $400 to go "buy something nice" for herself and paid off another neighbor's car insurance.

FORT HUACHUCA — What could be the ultimate yard sale has led Army criminal investigators to look into a turf theft on this Southern Arizona Army post. Thursday a report was made of a “substantial amount of artificial turf” taken from an athletic field work site, said fort spokesman Ken Robinson. Allegedly the material was taken to be placed in a “private yard in the greater Sierra Vista area,” he said Wednesday. Because the reported theft is under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Detachment on the fort, Robinson he can provide no further information, to include the name of...

click the link to see video of these two specimens who stole from a girl scout selling cookies. There's a commercial first, then the video.

A nude maid cleaned up good at a Florida man's home. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says the maid stole more than $40,000 from a Cheval home despite not wearing any clothes. The 50-year-old man hired the maid through the Internet on Friday to clean his suburban Tampa home. Authorities said the woman arrived at the home in a one-piece, light colored dress. She took off the dress and cleaned the house for $100 per hour. Sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said the man told deputies he left the maid alone in the bedroom to clean. When the man's wife...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2865856.html Car thieves trapped by pigs A pair of teenage German car thieves ended up calling police for help after they were cornered by a herd of wild boar. Dieter Meier and Reiner Klose, both 18, had abandoned a stolen car and run into thick forests after being chased by cops in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region. They managed to lose the officers and planned to wait until the next morning but were charged at by a herd of wild boar. They climbed up a tree but the animals would not go away and eventually they had to call police. They...

Many readers have complained that Michael Moore, in the conduct of his latest crusade against whatever he is against this month, has illegally used one of my photos on the banner of his website. Mr. Moore is not the first to have done so, and my readers can get pretty upset when it happens. My lawyer has demanded that Mr. Moore take it down. I usually freely grant use of my work to truthful, peaceful, non-commercial, non-political outlets. For instance, a church group wanted to use one of my photos for their congregation. I was honored and gave it to...

The BBC has admitted that it banked £106,000 that should have gone to causes such as Children in Need and Comic Relief in the latest phone-in scandal to affect the corporation. Viewers who contacted fundraising phone-ins but whose calls were received just after the lines had closed were still charged for the call and a BBC subsidiary kept the money. Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, which uncovered the practice, expressed regret for what he described as “a failure in terms of the behaviour of staff and of the BBC’s own systems”. He added: “This did not help...

It is this reporter’s opinion that, after covering the invasion by illegal aliens over the past 40 years, it is difficult to find a story such as that related by Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times concerning illegal alien Ana Puente. “Ana was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care,” said Gorman. The child underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a small child in 1989, and a third in 1998 — all totally paid for by the state of California. Now it is reported...

Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art April 10, 2008 By Mark Simon Printable Version Mark Simon. As you know, I usually handle the subjects in my articles with a sense of humor. That is not the case this month. I find nothing funny about the new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress. In fact, it PISSES ME OFF! As an artist, you have to read this article or you could lose everything you've ever created! An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released...

...Latarian Milton is not your typical 7-year-old. Few his age have ever driven an SUV up and down several busy streets. It all started at his mother's townhouse. Latarian said he took the car keys and hopped into his grandmother's Dodge Durango.... "I took my grandmother's car because I got mad at my mom. And I saw my friend come in and he smoke cigarettes. He started the vehicle and put it into gear. I yanked. I yanked it. I yanked the thing and off they went," Latarian said. Latarian drove several miles through Lake Park and Palm Beach Gardens....

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Springfield police say a man tried to steal T-shirts from a store while his girlfriend was in another part of the business applying for a job...

Here is the link

HOUSTON — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul is considering using $4 million left over from his failed presidential campaign to start a for-profit publishing company that would reflect his Libertarian-leaning views.

MUSKOGEE — A Muskogee County sheriff's deputy was fired for using a county fuel card to purchase gasoline for his lawnmower, Sheriff Charles Pearson said Friday. Today This Week Sports Today 1. Police discover remains in missing... 2. How sex, obsession fueled city murder... 3. Oklahoma City actor, radio host dies... 4. Ex-wife charged in 28-year-old slaying 5. Oklahoma City murder-for-hire plot... 6. Missing woman's car found; a body inside 7. Police searching for missing woman 8. In Oklahoma: Henry backs Obama 9. Winning Powerball ticket about to expire 10. NBA says Seattle is harassing... 1. OU's mascot makeover 2....

They were passing out cash like it was candy — a few grand in Franklins for all their friends. When police and staff noticed this middle-school generosity at C.E. Williams Middle School, they quickly rounded up nearly $3,000 in $100 bills, and a new $500 iPod. This, they realized, wasn't any milk money. Two 13-year-old Charleston boys are charged with second-degree burglary and grand larceny, accused of stealing money and jewelry from a West Ashley home. They were suspended from school but are back now studying for PACT tests and facing an uncertain future. "They were kind of bragging at...

John Lennon's sons and widow, Yoko Ono, are suing the filmmakers of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" for using the song "Imagine" in the documentary without permission....

Laredo has once again been included on a national top 10 list, although not for a distinction the city may necessarily want.According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Laredo ranked sixth nationally in cities with the highest per capita rate of vehicle theft in 2007. The ranking marks a significant increase from 2006, when the agency ranked Laredo 22nd nationally. The agency ranks different metropolitan areas based on the number of vehicle thefts per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the figures, Laredo had 1,914 vehicle thefts last year, a rate of about 821 cars stolen per 100,000 residents. That also puts...

CASSELBERRY, Fla. -- A Casselberry police officer was hit by a pickup truck after he confronted gas thieves overnight. He was reportedly okay Tuesday afternoon. Five cars were lined up at the pumps stealing gas at the Hess station on 17-92. Two people were caught after a short chase, but several others got away. The thieves could have stolen as much as 95 gallons of gas. Now undercover detectives are adding gas stations to their patrols. "I think it's wrong, it's outrageous and something needd to be done about it," said driver Rae Stewart. Casselberry police said the thieves ran...

Six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the amber cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. The local governments in question have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

Thieves are ransacking house after house in search of copper they can sell to scrap dealers for as much as $20,000 a month. The gang descended on the house on Penn Avenue like carrion, ripping open wall board and gutting it of copper. They severed the pipes connected to the gas furnace and water heater, then hit the kitchen sink. Piles of lath lay at the foot of the stairs, the wall torn open to expose the upstairs bathroom. By the time officer Richard Jackson knocked down the door, the gang was gone -- along with most of the home's...

Dear Mr. [REDACTED]: This letter will constitute notice to you, as Chairman of Premise Media Corporation, of the copyright infringement by your corporation, and its subsidiary, Rampant Films, of material produced by XVIVO LLC, in which XVIVO holds a copyright. It has come to our intention that Premise Media and Rampant Films has produced a film entitled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," which is scheduled for commercial release and distribution on April 18, 2008. To our knowledge, this film includes a segment depicting biological cellular activity that was copied by computer-generated means from a video entitled "The Inner Life of a...

BROOKLYN, Ohio -- Have you ever put a case of water or something heavy under your shopping cart and then forgotten about it? A Cleveland man did, and it landed him in jail, television station WEWS reported. Tom Sturgis has a long receipt showing the $157.20 worth of two grocery carts full of groceries that he bought at a Brooklyn supermarket Saturday night. After going through the self checkout, Sturgis said he forgot a $4 case of pop under the cart.

Empty, upended boxes were all that remained of neatly stacked cases of canned tuna, spaghetti sauce and beef stew. That's how the food bank volunteers knew the Alexandria facility where they store canned goods for some of the area's neediest had been cleaned out by thieves. More than 1,000 pounds of canned goods was stolen from the food bank at a time when demand has soared and supplies are dwindling.