WebProNews

Tag: Crime

  • Drunken iPhone/Android Debate Leads to Stabbing

    In wait, so you’re telling me it didn’t happen in Florida? news, two men wound up bloody after a fight over smartphone supremacy turned violent.

    I know you probably regret your argument with Mark last weekend. I mean, you guys were both a little drunk and it was a dumb thing to argue about. And though you probably feel guilty, it’s important to know that your fight could have been exponentially dumber.

    Take the two Tulsa, Oklahoma men who police say let an argument about iPhone and Android get a little too stabby.

    From Tulsa’s KTUL:

    Tulsa police say a woman found a man covered in blood, stumbling around the parking lot of the Evergreen Apartments around 1 a.m.

    When police arrived at the apartment complex, they learned that the roommates had been drinking and arguing over their mobile phones.

    Police say the two men broke beer bottles and stabbed each other with them. One of the men smashed a bottle over the back of the other man’s head.

    Police are unsure why an Android user would even bother trying to argue with an iPhone user, and are also unclear whether or not Steve Jobs would’ve been incredibly disappointed by the iPhone user’s actions.

    According to KJRH, no arrests were made. I guess being stabbed during an argument about $500 porn and Facebook machines is punishment enough.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Facebook Search Nabs $9 Robbers

    Facebook Search Nabs $9 Robbers

    Today’s idiot criminals busted with Facebook files serves up a real doozy.

    Let’s head to Weatherford, Texas, where two men have been arrested and charged with robbery after stealing $9 from a 59-year-old woman.

    According to police, 18-year-old Diamond Salinas and 20-year-old Tyler Tice have been booked, following an armed robbery that took place at a woman’s home.

    From the Star-Telegram:

    The robbery took place Monday evening on Eden Road. The victim, a 59-year-old woman, told deputies that a man later identified as Salinas walked up to her home and asked to use a telephone. She complied and he used the phone briefly.

    The victim told deputies that she overheard Salinas say he would be at an apartment complex down the street. Then, he left.

    About 20 minutes later, Salinas returned, rang the doorbell and brandished a gun when the victim answered. A second armed suspect later identified as Tice followed Salinas into her home and demanded money, deputies said.

    The robbers got away with a whopping $9.

    Though this appears to be your run-of-the-mill scumbag home invasion, what led to the suspects’ capture is quite interesting.

    According to WFAA, Facebook helped.

    The woman’s family looked up the phone number Salinas had dialed from her phone, which led them to a [Facebook] account belonging Diamond Castillo, who police later identified as Salinas. Sheriff’s investigators obtained arrest warrants for both suspects and identified Tice.

    Just plugged the phone number into Facebook’s graph search and there you go. Mystery solved.

    Let this be a lesson to you. If you’re committing an armed robbery and your victim only has $9 – just let it go. It’s bad karma to take $9 from someone.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Florida Sheriff Charging Teen with ‘Hacking’: Change the Law If You’re Mad

    Sheriff Chris Nocco of the Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff’s office isn’t all that concerned that his department is being mocked across the country.

    Last week, we told you about the department’s decision to charge a 14-year-old hacker mastermind with a felony after he infiltrated his school’s network and put hundreds of lives in danger.

    And what I mean by that is he figured out the password by looking over a teacher’s shoulder, logged in, and set some softcore porn as a teacher’s desktop background.

    More context from our previous coverage:

    Hacker extraordinaire Domanik Green, 14, has been charged with offense against a computer system and unauthorized access after he “logged onto the school’s network on March 31 using an administrative-level password without permission. He then changed the background image on a teacher’s computer to one showing two men kissing.

    The sophisticated hack that allowed Green access to the impregnable system involved looking over a teacher’s shoulder and watching her type the password. It turned out to be the last name of a teacher at the school. Edward Snowden weeps.

    One of the main points of contention for authorities is that one of the computers Green ‘hacked’ contained FCAT questions on it. Green didn’t access or alter these files, however.

    “Even though some might say this is just a teenage prank, who knows what this teenager might have done,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said.

    Thoughtcrimes leader and amateur future teller Chris Nocco is standing by his decision, despite ridicule from all corners of the internet.

    From the Tampa Bay Times:

    Nocco is sticking to his guns. Green was suspended from school for three days for similar activity back in October, and the sheriff said it was obvious he hadn’t learned his lesson.

    “I think, unfortunately, when the story’s being told in other (publications), they’re not talking about the fact that he committed this crime previously,” Nocco said Monday. “We enforce the law. And if we don’t enforce the law, nobody else will.”

    Also, he said, the crime with which Green is charged is deemed a felony by the state Legislature. If people want to change it, they can write lawmakers, he said.

    Write your congressperson, folks. Nothing we can do about it now. Change the law if you’re mad.

    People are mad, for sure. Here’s a sampling of posts currently sitting on the Pasco County Sheriff’s Facebook page:

    – Felony charges because of what a 14 year old kid ‘might have done?’ Since when do we charge people based on the seriousness of crimes they ‘might’ commit. Your county sucks.

    – What has become of our society when felony charges are given for a harmless prank? We don’t live in the realm of “what if”. “who knows what this teenager MIGHT have done” -Sheriff Chris Nocco. I sincerely hope that this gets laughed out of court.

    – Missing children. Unsolved murders. And yet, you guys are arresting a kid for being a kid. Pigs

    – This is why even us law abiding Americans hates the police.. You people should really be ashamed of yourselves.. I mean, how do you sleep at night? Oh.. come to think of it… I’ll bet you sleep quite well.

    – I think it’s hilarious how you can charge a 8th grader with a felony and quite possibly ruin his life over a prank. When your own jackholes can just resign when they commit felonies. The double standards you have created in this country does not go over looked. You expect the public to show you respect and to trust you when you do the exact opposite. History will remember a ti.e in this country when our law enforcement were corrupt and could not be trusted. Shame on you.

    – This kid is 14 and the sheriff wants him to have a felony conviction on his record for the rest of his life. Despicable.

    – I’m embarrassed for you Chris.

    It’s probably unlikely the kid will see the inside of a courtroom – but the complications from this, and the legal bills likely to be incurred by his family – will not be inconsequential.

    Image via Pasco Sheriff’s Office, Facebook

  • Uber Driver Accused of Rape Spent 14 Years in Prison

    A Houston Uber driver accused a raping a passenger has a criminal record, and had just been released from prison three years ago, according to reports.

    57-year-old Duncan Eric Burton has been arrested and charged with sexual assault after allegedly taking a woman back to his apartment and raping her in January.

    According to court documents, the last thing the woman remembers is being at a bar with a couple of friends on January 26. According to her friends, she was pretty drunk (“Ill and throwing up”), so they called an Uber and gave the driver (Burton) her address.

    The Houston Press blog picks it up from there:

    The woman told the officer that “the last thing she recalls is being at the club with the two friends, ordering one round of drinks, and then has no recollection of anything after, until waking up the next morning, alone, in an unfamiliar apartment,” according to the affidavit. She went to Memorial Hermann Southwest to have a sexual assault exam conducted.

    When the officer contacted Burton, the Uber driver said that she did not live at the address on her driver’s license, but had moved around the corner, the affidavit states. But when the woman knocked “on an unknown apartment door…a male answered, advising [the woman] that she did not live there,” according to the affidavit.

    Because Burton “was unable to get an exact address” for the woman, he took her to his apartment off Wilcrest Drive, the affidavit states.

    It’s at his apartment where police say Burton “admitted to performing oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex with [her].” The victim says she has absolutely no memory of the Uber ride, the sexual assault, or even Burton himself.

    Now, the Houston Chronicle is reporting that Burton had a criminal record. Uber, as you may know, claims to perform extensive background checks on all of its drivers.

    According to the Chronicle, Burton served 14 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. He was released in 2012 after serving only part of his original 18-year sentence. And Uber spokesperson told the Chronicle that Burton has passed the company’s background checks.

    Of course, this raises a couple of questions – mainly how? and who let that slide by?

    Watchdog group Who’s Driving You highlights the pickle this puts Uber in:

    “Either this driver slipped past Uber’s criminal background check or Uber did discover his criminal history and decided it was OK to let him drive. Regardless, this case illustrates how trusting Uber to conduct its own criminal background checks amounts to allowing the company to decide whether or not to put this individual behind the wheel. Houston would not have allowed this now alleged rapist to drive. Uber did,” said Dave Sutton, spokesperson for ‘Who’s Driving You?’.

    Uber has called its background check “rigorous”.

    “All Uber ridesharing and livery partners must go through a rigorous background check. The three-step screening we’ve developed across the United States, which includes county, federal and multi-state checks, has set a new standard. These checks go back 7 years, the maximum allowable by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We apply this comprehensive and new industry standard consistently across all Uber products, including uberX,” said the company in a blog post.

    But it’s not just abut background checks. In Houston, there appears to be a backlog when it comes to getting Uber drivers up to speed with the latest city permits.

    Listen to what and Uber spokesperson told Houston Press:

    “When the city implemented its permitting process, thousands of driver partners were already using the Uber platform to make a living. We have been working closely with the city to move these drivers through the permitting process as quickly as possible, and every week hundreds of drivers complete the process, but the system is not designed to quickly and efficiently issue permits to a large volume of applicants.”

    Apparently, Uber is struggling to get its drivers the proper permits – a permit that likely would not have been granted to Burton.

    “Someone with a negotiated drug conviction on his or her record would not be eligible for a city-issued permit, but could appeal and attempt to receive one,” said Laura Cottingham, deputy assistant director with Houston’s Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department.

    It would be easy to pile this on top of all the other stories about Uber drivers and assault – but this one appears to be a bigger black eye for Uber. This is the first time a convicted felon seemingly slipped through the company’s background checks and wound up (allegedly) raping a passenger.

    Last month, Uber highlighted all the steps it’s taking to improve user safety.

    “Our Safety Product Team is developing more ways to put technology to work to ensure the safety of riders and drivers in key areas. We are initiating research & development on biometrics and voice verification to build custom tools for enhanced driver screening,” it said. The company has also discussed employing lie detectors during the screening process.

    On April 2, the day Uber revoked Burton’s privileges, the company poached Facebook’s Chief Security Officer.

    “We believe deeply that, alongside our driver partners, we have built the safest transportation option in 260 cities around the world,” said Philip Cardenas, Head of Global Safety, in a blog post back in December. “But we have more work to do, and we will do it. Uber is committed to developing new technology tools that improve safety, strengthen and increase the number of cities and countries where background checks are conducted and improve communication with local officials and law enforcement … Our responsibility is to leverage every smart tool at our disposal to set the highest standard in safety we can. We will not shy away from this task.”

    Just last month the story emerged of an Uber driver accused of kidnapping and rape in Philadelphia. Adding to the disturbing nature of the allegations is the fact that Uber only suspended the driver near the end of March, even though the alleged assault took place on February 6. Uber claims that they were not notified of the incident until then and it suspended the driver immediately, so it appears the police may have forgotten to mention it to Uber.

    Still, the incidents continue to pile up, and they’re becoming more and more disturbing.

    Image via Jason Newport, Flickr Creative Commons

  • ‘Black Widow of Facebook’ Lured Men, Drugged Them, and Robbed Them

    With a nickname like “Black Widow of Facebook”, you better be pretty good at your (con) job.

    And according to police, Sofia Davila was certainly that.

    Fox News reports that the 21-year-old Argentinian woman has been arrested after she was caught in one of her Facebook robbery schemes. Apparently, Davila’s M.O. was to use the social networking site to attract men, usually with suggestive photos. Once she had their attention, she’d offer to meet them for sex at a hotel or sometimes at their own home.

    Of course, what seems too good to be true usually is. According to police, Davilia would spike her victims’ drinks, wait for them to pass out, and rob them blind.

    “We went to a hotel and had a good time and when she suggested we meet again I didn’t think anything was suspicious. The next time we met she came to my place and said she’d like to drink her own alcohol and poured me one too. I then began to fill ill and passed out. When I woke up my feet and hands were tied and there were two men in my flat taking my TV, stereo and other things,” one of the victims told The Daily Mail.

    Las oportunidades tiene fecha de caducidad, aprovecha el hoy.

    Posted by Sofia Davila on Tuesday, February 24, 2015

    Davila has some balls, as police say she came into the station to report the thefts, claiming she had been forced to leave by said men and was unable to stop them. This eventually aroused suspicion, however, as more victims began to talk of meeting a woman on Facebook.

    Posted by Sofia Davila on Monday, March 9, 2015

    Here’s what the police had to say, via Metro:

    The problem with her statement was that we had already received a dozen complaints from other men saying they had been robbed after meeting a woman over Facebook. This was the first time the woman had actually shown up herself though, but because she matched the description we already had we decided to hold her for questioning. As soon as we spoke to the victim we knew she was the woman behind the robberies and it only took a little while before we had a full confession. We also found that the man had been drugged.

    In all, Davila reportedly confessed to more than 15 robberies. Once again, if a hot woman approaches you for sex on Facebook, think with your brain, not with your dick.

    Image via Sofia Davila, Facebook

  • Obama Approves Sanctions on Cyber-Attackers

    Today, President Obama signed an executive order that will allow the US government to go after those who perpetrate cyber attacks with sanctions

    “Cyber intrusions and attacks  – many of them originating overseas  – are targeting our businesses, stealing trade secrets, and costing American jobs,” says President Obama.

    “In response to these cyber threats, our government is using every tool at our disposal  –  including diplomacy, law enforcement, and cooperation with other nations and the private sector  – to strengthen our defenses and detect, prevent, respond to, and recover from attacks. Still, it’s often hard to go after bad actors, in part because of weak or poorly enforced foreign laws, or because some governments are either unwilling or unable to crack down on those responsible.

    “That’s why, with the new Executive Order I’m signing today, I’m for the first time authorizing targeted sanctions against individuals or entities whose actions in cyberspace result in significant threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States.”

    You can read the entire executive order here.

    According to Obama, the White House’s primary focus will be on international threats. “From now on, we have the power to freeze their assets, make it harder for them to do business with U.S. companies, and limit their ability to profit from their misdeeds,” says Obama.

    Obama also authorized sanctions against companies that use information gained from said cyberattacks, what he calls the “demand side”.

    “Malicious cyber activity — whether it be stealing sensitive information, including personal identifiers, or trade secrets — is often profit-motivated. Because those responsible want to enjoy the ill-gotten proceeds of their activities, sanctions can have a significant impact. By freezing assets of those subject to sanctions and making it more difficult for them to do business with U.S. entities, we can remove a powerful economic motivation for committing these acts in the first place. With this new tool, malicious cyber actors who would target our critical infrastructure or seek to take down Internet services would be subject to these costs when designated for sanctions,” says Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco.

    Back in February, Obama established a new cyber intelligence agency called the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center (CTIIC). The brand new agency tasked with centralizing and organizing intelligence related to cyber threats to help combat cyber attacks. With these two actions, Obama is making good on promises he made in the SOTU address to focus on cybersecurity.

    Image via Barack Obama, Medium

  • Uber Driver Tried to Rob Woman’s House After Dropping Her Off at the Airport

    Uber Driver Tried to Rob Woman’s House After Dropping Her Off at the Airport

    Tried is the operative word here, as our cunning Uber driver forgot that people oftentimes have roommates.

    Fifty one-year-old Gerald Montgomery was arrested on Tuesday and is facing attempted burglary charges after police say he picked up a women, drove her to the airport, and immediately drove back to her home and attempted to rob the place.

    Unfortunately for Montgomery, his fare had a roommate – who caught him breaking in the back door. He fled.

    The roommate identified the burglar as Montgomery after she saw his photo on the Uber receipt.

    “Uber takes rider safety very seriously and upon learning about this incident, we reached out the rider. We immediately removed the driver’s access to the Uber platform, pending an investigation. We continue to be in contact with the rider and will assist the authorities in whatever way we can.”

    Another day, another story of Uber driver malfeasance. As we told you last week, Uber has been putting a lot of focus on passenger safety following a year of high-profile incidents – many of which were very violent in nature. Last week, Uber posted an update on what it’s doing to make the service safer. This included the establishment of a safety advisory board, a new quality assurance program, and incident response teams. Uber also touted that all rides were tracked by GPS and that its criminal background checks were among the most comprehensive in the business.

    Of course, Mr. Montgomery didn’t have a criminal history in Colorado, reports 9News Denver. Which leads us back to the same question we’ve been asking for months. Uber says its committed to making the service safer, but is it capable?

    Image via Uber

  • Teens Tweet Group Sex Video, Get Hit with Child Porn Charges

    Teens Tweet Group Sex Video, Get Hit with Child Porn Charges

    Four Joliet, Illinois teens could spend the next few years in a juvenile facility after posting a group sex video on Twitter.

    Three boys, aged 14, 15, and 16, and one girl, aged 15, were arrested after the girl’s mother notified police of the footage, which was circulating around Twitter. All four teens have been charged with distributing child pornography.

    Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Did the teens technically distribute child porn? Yes, it was a group sex video involving minors. But they were the minors in the video. Can teens really be charged with child porn if it’s their own body in said “porn”?

    Yes they can, and have. Over the past few years, with the rise of sexting, smartphone cameras, and social media, states have been scrambling to figure out how to deal with teens’ technological expressions of sexuality.

    Teen sexting laws vary from state to state – with some having already penned new laws to address the practice. Other states, however, can only consider the act of disseminating your own naked photos and videos as child porn.

    Illinois authorities have chosen the latter route in this case.

    “The child pornography offense that was charged is in place for a reason, because we don’t want to accept that type of behavior as a society. It’s making a strong statement, and I think it’s important to do so, to send a message to others that kids shouldn’t be involved in this type of behavior, and hopefully this will serve as a deterrent,” said Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton.

    Did you catch that? There’s a huge problem with this logic, and Benton’s statement reads like the laws are in place to legislate morality, as opposed to really protecting children. Don’t like what teens are up to? Threaten them with lifelong sex offender designation. That oughta do it.

    “It’s an incident you may not recover from,” said Benton.

    Exactly. Are we really going to put teens on sexual offender databases for the rest of their lives for being kids and making arguably dumb decisions? I’m sure we can all agree that posting a sex tape on Twitter is ill-advised – especially for a 15-year-old. But is it really a sex crime?

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Woman Who Cut Out Baby After Luring Mother on Craigslist Won’t Face Murder Charges

    A decision not to file murder charges against a woman accused of cutting a seven-month-old fetus from its mother’s womb is setting off debates over so-called “fetal homicide laws.”

    Earlier this month we told you the horrifying story of a woman who lured a pregnant woman to her home with a Craigslist ad for used baby clothing. When she arrived, she was beaten and stabbed. It ended with 34-year-old Dynel Lane cutting 26-year-old Michelle Wilkins’ unborn baby from her womb and leaving her there to die. Wilkins didn’t die, however. After spending some time in critical condition she was just recently released from the hospital.

    According to police, Lane had been telling her family that she was pregnant for some time. When her husband came home he found Lane covered in blood. The baby was in the upstairs bathtub. She told him she had a miscarriage, which is also what she told doctors when she took the baby to the hospital. It didn’t survive.

    According to District Attorney Stan Garnett, the decision on what charges to file is a tough one, but murder is not an option due to the state of Colorado’s fetal homicide laws. In Colorado, a baby must show signs of life outside the womb to be considered a victim in a homicide.

    From The Denver Post:

    “Under Colorado law, essentially, there is no way murder charges can be brought if it’s not established that the fetus lived as a child outside the body of the mother,” he said.

    David Beller, a Denver defense attorney, says the charges present a complex legal challenge and deciding which ones to file is “incredibly complicated.”

    “In my experience, doctors (can) tell pretty readily whether or not the baby actually took a breath and if the lungs expanded,” he said. “I think the legal questions are going to turn to her conduct after the fact.”

    Beller said that “multiple issues” were likely at play in deciding what charges to file. He added that while there is a great deal of legal precedent in fetal death cases, there isn’t much that equates to last week’s case.

    There are 37 states that label the killing of a fetus as homicide in some cases. Twenty nine of those offer full coverage to the unborn through all periods of pre-natal development. Eight offer partial coverage – depending on the stage of development. Colorado is not one of those states.

    What Colorado does have on the books are laws that make the intentional killing of a pregnant woman an aggravating factor, as well as those that “specify that a court shall sentence a defendant convicted of committing specified offenses against a pregnant woman, if the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim was pregnant, to a term of at least the midpoint, but not more than twice the maximum, of the presumptive range for the punishment of the offense” and “establishing that a court shall sentence a defendant convicted of assault in the third degree to a term of imprisonment of at least six months, but not longer than the maximum sentence authorized for the offense, if the victim of the assault was a pregnant woman and the defendant knew or should have known that the victim was pregnant.”

    For pro-choicers, fetal homicide laws represent a slippery slope to curtailing abortion rights.

    For the pro-lifers, this tragic case is an example of the need for such laws and many blame the other side for interfering in their passage.

    This is already political, but it’s probably best to think about the human consequences first. A woman is lucky to be alive and now has to deal with one of the most traumatic experiences one can imagine for the rest of her life.

  • Fred Durst Would Like to Say He Is NOT Robert Durst

    Limp Bizkit frontman and purveyor of fine red hats Fred Durst would like you to know that he is not alleged killer Robert Durst.

    One set out on a killing rampage, murdering things that many people held near and dear – ruining their lives. And the other one is alleged killer Robert Durst.

    You might recall that earlier this month, shortly after HBO aired the finale of its Robert Durst docuseries The Jinx and Durst was arrested in New Orleans, the Associated Press made a hilarious error and issued one of the best corrections of our time.

    This came over the AP CA 10th Newsminute at about 6:27 p.m. PDT the day after Robert Durst’s arrest:

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Louisiana State Police trooper says millionaire Robert Durst has been booked on weapons charges in that state – on top of a first-degree murder charge lodged by Los Angeles authorities. Trooper Melissa Matey told the Associated Press that an arrest warrant was issued for the former Limp Bizkit frontman and he was rebooked in the Orleans Parish Jail on Monday under two new charges.

    Which prompted this incredible thing:

    In the second item of the California 10th NewsMinute sent March 16 to users of the state broadcast wire, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Robert Durst is a member of a band. He is a real estate heir; Fred Durst is the former frontman of Limp Bizkit.

    That, in turn, prompted a lot of jokes. Everyone had jokes.

    Anyway, Fred has finally responded … with a nice opportunity to sell a sweatshirt.

    I am NOT ROBERT

    A photo posted by Limp Bizkit (@limpbizkit) on

    UPROXX says that the merch isn’t yet up on Limp Bizkit’s official site – but you know that’s coming, right?

  • Burglary Suspect Snapchats That He’s Hiding in a Cabinet, Police Find Him Hiding in a Cabinet

    LOL the police are searching my house and I’m hiding in the cabinet don’t tell them haha 😉

    That’s probably not the exact message 24-year-old Christopher Wallace sent on Snapchat, but it could’ve been.

    Wallace has been arrested and charged after police tracked his location thanks to a series of Snapchat posts he made. Wallace had been wanted by police for some time in connection to a recent burglary. Somerset County, Maine police asked the community to help find Wallace, and they did – by alerting police to a series of Snapchat stories he posted while on the run.

    From the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office:

    Last night, using the Snapchat app, Wallace posted that he was at his house in Fairfield, which prompted people to call the Sheriff’s Office. Corporal Ritchie Putnam, Deputy Ron Blodgett (from our agency), and two officers from Fairfield Police Department went to the residence. They were given permission to search the house, and initially they did not find Wallace. Here’s where things went bad for him…While the deputies/officers were wrapping up their search, Wallace posted again on Snapchat. This time he posted that the police were searching for him in the house, and that he was hiding in a cabinet. Again, we received phone calls. A search of the kitchen cabinets turned up some food, some pots and pans, and also a pair of feet. The pair of feet just so happened to be attached to a person, and that person was Christopher Wallace. He was removed from the cabinet, and placed under arrest. All of that, brings me to the moral of the story. Always remain humble, my friends.

    Sometimes the only response, however lazy, is just lol.

    Police arrested a woman at the scene as well, for lying to police when they asked her if anyone was in the house.

    Good morning. How are you? I'm fine. Thank you for asking.The big news of the morning is…Christopher Wallace was…

    Posted by Somerset County Sheriff's Office on Monday, March 23, 2015

    Once again, lol.

    Image via Somerset County Sheriff’s Office

  • Uber Driver Accused of Rape, Kidnapping in Philadelphia

    In my god what the hell are people doing news, another Uber driver has been accused of rape and kidnapping, and was apparently not suspended until at least 40 days after the alleged incident occurred – a disturbing wrinkle in an already disturbing story.

    According to Philadelphia, a woman filed a report with Philadelphia police on February 6th, the same day she says she was raped and kidnapped for over two hours. According to the report, an Uber driver pinned her arms, ripped off her pants, and raped her. He then proceeded to drive her around for two hours before letting her out of the car.

    This is bad enough, but to make things worse the driver was not suspended until just recently.

    From Philadelphia:

    The Philadelphia Police Department confirms that the investigation is still open, and that the case is being handled by the Special Victims Unit. Although the incident was reported to police more than 40 days ago, an Uber spokesperson tells us the company was unaware of the rape claim until we told them about it today. Neither Lieutenant Anthony McFadden nor Captain John Darby from Special Victims Unit was available for comment.

    So according to Uber, it had no idea about this alleged incident until Philadelphia began asking questions. That means the driver could have been giving Uber rides for the past month and a half.

    There are a few possibilities here, all of which are deeply troubling. It could be that Uber isn’t being forthcoming on the actual timeline of events, and the company willingly let an accused rapist continue to drive. This seems very unlikely. Uber has had its fair share of problems with passenger safety, but have always been quick to remove any drivers suspected of wrongdoing.

    Or it could be the Philadelphia police department never bothered to inform Uber of the incident.

    Which leads us to the question – what the hell are people doing, my god.

    Uber has provided the following statement:

    “Our thoughts and prayers are with our rider. Upon learning of the incident, we immediately reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department to assist in their investigation and support their efforts in any way we can. As the investigation continues, the driver’s access to the Uber platform has been suspended.”

    I’ve reached out to the Philadelphia Police Department and will update this article accordingly.

    Image via Jason Newport, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Want to Avoid Getting Murdered by a Craigslist Killer? Try Selling Your Stuff at a Police Station

    Earlier this week, a pregnant Colorado woman looking to buy used baby clothes from a woman she found on Craigslist drove to the seller’s home. When she arrived, she was brutally beaten and stabbed. The attackers then proceeded to cut her unborn baby from her womb, leaving her there to die.

    She’s expected to survive, but the baby did not.

    That’s a sickening story, but it’s not an isolated one. According to reports, at least 48 people have been killed in altercations stemming from Craigslist since 2009. When you think about what Craigslist provides – partially anonymous transactions involving goods and money – this isn’t all the shocking.

    But it’s troubling nonetheless.

    That’s why counties in Florida are looking to make Craigslist transactions safer. The Boca Raton Police Department has been leading a campaign to raise awareness about Craigslist crimes, and also provide buyers and sellers with a safer place to make their exchanges – police stations.

    These so-called “Safe Exchange Zones” are what’s needed to curb Craigslist-spawned violence, says Police Chief Dan Alexander. He claims to have fielded no instances of Craigslist-related crime since the safe zones’ inception.

    According to CBS News, other counties in Florida are looking to do the same, including Jacksonville.

    This extremely troubling story is just another reminder to be careful when dealing with strangers online. This sort of Craigslist bait-and-attack happens more often than you might think. See here, here, here, and here. Scary stuff.

    Image via Boca Raton Police Department, Facebook

  • Facebook Friendship Ties Suspects in Murder Case

    Here’s a pro tip for all the criminals out there: the police can see who your friends are on Facebook. So if you tell them you don’t know someone when you do, you’re gonna have a bad time.

    A 18-year-old Indianapolis woman has been linked to a murder after police caught her in a lie, and all they had to do was spend a couple minutes on Facebook.

    Haley E. McKibben and Julius A. Gordon have been arrested in connection with the shooting death of John Kinsey Jr.

    Here’s how the crime played out, per USA Today:

    [Kinsey] was found shot to death in a car Saturday morning on the city’s west side. A revolver was on his lap, and the driver’s side window was shattered.

    McKibben and Gordon conspired to rob Kinsey of marijuana and Xanax, the probable cause affidavit alleges. Gordon asked McKibben to “set up” Kinsey, the affidavit says.

    McKibben smoked with Kinsey in his car and text-messaged Gordon to let him know where the car was parked and what drugs Kinsey had on him, the affidavit says. She text-messaged Gordon to warn him Kinsey was armed.

    The document alleges Gordon tried to rob Kinsey, but the men exchanged gunshots. Kinsey was killed, and Gordon was hit in the arm, police said.

    Police later made Gordon a suspect in the murder, and asked McKibben if she recognized him in a lineup. At the time, she claimed to be uninvolved in the crime, just a victim of wrong place, wrong time. She said she didn’t know him.

    All police has to do was fire up Facebook and see that the two were friends. When confronted with this, she admitted to knowing him. After that, all that was needed to make the case were text messages. Gordon’s been charged with murder and McKibben has been charged with robbery.

    First off, don’t rob people. That’s dumb. Definitely don’t shoot people. But if you’re going to commit crimes, you should probably whitewash your Facebook profile.

    Image via IMPD, Facebook

  • Mesa Shooting Victim Has Ultimate But First, Let Me Take a Selfie Moment

    I most certainly require medical attention, but first let me take a selfie.

    One way to document a traumatic ordeal is to Snapchat it and send it to your friends. Isaac Martinez, who was one of the people shot in the Mesa, Arizona shooting spree on Wednesday, took that route.

    Arizona Republic reporter Yihyun Jeong tweeted out Martinez’s selfies, one of which appears to be taken right after being shot in the shoulder. “I just got shot,” it reads. The other features a smiling Martinez presumably in the hospital.

    Check it out:

    On Wednesday, a man reportedly shot a man and two women at a motel. The man died at the scene and the two women have been taken to the hospital. He then went to a restaurant near East Valley Institute of Technology and stole a car, shooting an EVIT student in the process. That was Martinez.

    He then went to an apartment complex, broke into a room, and shot another man. Authorities say he’ll survive.

    Police eventually caught up to him and arrested him at a vacant condo building. They’ve identified him as 41-year-old Ryan Elliot Giroux. According to CBS News, Giroux is a white supremacist with a “lengthy criminal history.”

    [h/t CNET]

  • Florida Boy Enters Home, Steals Pop-Tart, Logs into Facebook, Gets Caught

    Apparently, teens couldn’t give less of a damn about Facebook these days. Every week you probably see an article about the troubling decline in Facebook use among teens. It’s Snapchat all the way these days. Facebook is for dad.

    Wrong. Teens love Facebook so much that they can’t even stop themselves from Facebooking in the middle of a burglary.

    CBS Miami reports that a 16-year-old Florida boy, the lesser known sidekick to the omnipresent Florida Man, was arrested and charged with burglary and theft after he went into a home, took some food items, moved a bunch of stuff around, used the family’s electronics, and left.

    Authorities were able to find the kid because he left his Facebook account logged in on an iPad…

    … which was “moved and charged.”

    Which brings me to the fact that there are so many hilarious things about this.

    1. The kid charged the family’s iPad for them. That’s just plain considerate right there.
    2. He did look a porn on it though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    3. Reports do not indicate that the teen stole much of anything, only that he “moved things around.”
    4. But he did take a Pop-Tart and a soda.
    5. According to Local10, the victims said “they never lock their front door” and they “don’t even have a key to it.” Ok, you deserve to have your Pop-Tarts eaten. You don’t deserve to have your iPad graciously charged.
    6. The teen admitted to doing this more than once. We have a serial iPad charger on our hands.

    This has happened before. Not the Pop-Tart part, but the logging into Facebook at the scene of the crime part. That one wasn’t as funny, as it was during an armed robbery.

    Image via Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, Facebook

  • Woman Lures Pregnant Woman with Craigslist Ad, Cuts Out Baby

    Online marketplace Craigslist has a reputation for attracting some pretty odd characters – some with severely bad intentions. The latest Craigslist-related crime story comes out of Colorado and it’s absolutely terrifying.

    A 26-year-old Longmont, CO, woman is in the hospital recovering after she was brutally beaten and stabbed after answering a Craigslist ad of a woman looking to sell baby clothes. The suspect, 34-year-old Dynel Lane, cut her unborn baby from her womb. The victim was around seven months pregnant.

    According to police, the pregnant victim went to Lane’s house following a Craigslist ad for baby clothes. But when she arrived, she was immediately attacked. Lane, who was once a certified nurse’s aide, then cut the baby from her body and left her there bleeding. Lane apparently took the baby to the hospital, claiming to have had a miscarriage.

    The baby did not survive the attack. The victim is expected to recover.

    “Officers arrived on scene and could hear a female calling for help inside the home. Officers entered the home and located a female who had been beaten and stabbed in the stomach,” Longmont police told FOX31 Denver. “It was later learned, the female was pregnant and her baby had been removed. The victim was transported to the Longmont United Hospital where she underwent surgery and is expected to recover.”

    Apparently police have a motive, but aren’t releasing it as of yet. From The Washington Post:

    Investigators have “a pretty good idea” of the motivation of the suspect, [Longmont Police Commander] Jeff Satur told The Post in a Thursday morning phone call. Although Satur declined to discuss details, he said “it would be something everybody would think.”

    This extremely troubling story is just another reminder to be careful when dealing with strangers online. This sort of Craigslist bait-and-attack happens more often than you might think.

  • Oops, Robert Durst Is Not a Part of Limp Bizkit, Says AP

    If you’ve been awake and breathing for the past two days, you’ve probably been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s new album and talking about Robert Durst. Not at the same time, really, but off and on I’m sure. That’s what most of the internet has been talking about since Sunday. Don’t know about you guys.

    Anyway, this is about Durst, who currently sits in jail charged with the 2000 murder of his best friend Susan Berman, and is the subject of the HBO original miniseries The Jinx. He was arrested in New Orleans hours before the finale of The Jinx aired, in which Durst seemingly confessed to a stretch of murders – including his wife’s and Berman’s.

    Or he didn’t really confess. That’s up for debate, I guess – but immaterial here. The important part is that Robert Durst was arrested for murder and on top of that, booked for weapons charges.

    Also, he is not Fred Durst and likely did nothing for the Nookie.

    Jim Romenesko brings us one of if not the best AP corrections of our generation. He says this came over the AP CA 10th Newsminute at about 6:27 p.m. PDT Monday night:

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Louisiana State Police trooper says millionaire Robert Durst has been booked on weapons charges in that state – on top of a first-degree murder charge lodged by Los Angeles authorities. Trooper Melissa Matey told the Associated Press that an arrest warrant was issued for the former Limp Bizkit frontman and he was rebooked in the Orleans Parish Jail on Monday under two new charges.

    Which prompted this incredible thing:

    In the second item of the California 10th NewsMinute sent March 16 to users of the state broadcast wire, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Robert Durst is a member of a band. He is a real estate heir; Fred Durst is the former frontman of Limp Bizkit.

    According to an AP spokesman, the error went through “solely on the California broadcast wire last night.” Of course, that doesn’t matter in the slightest.

    Fred Durst has yet to publicly respond. We wait anxiously, but presume he’ll be alright, and keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’.

    Image via Antje Naumann (AllSystemsRed) Wikimedia Commons

  • Three Men Charged in Biggest Email Data Breach in History

    Three Men Charged in Biggest Email Data Breach in History

    An unsealed indictment reveals that the US Justice Department has charged three men in what it is calling “one of the largest reported data breaches in US history. It is, in fact, that biggest email data breach ever.

    “These men — operating from Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Canada — are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the Internet,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell. “The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars by stealing over a billion email addresses from email service providers. This case again demonstrates the resolve of the Department of Justice to bring accused cyber hackers from overseas to face justice in the United States.”

    The indictment alleges that between February 2009 and June 2012, two Vietnamese citizens hacked at least eight email service providers. This netted them access to over a billion email addresses, from which they stole personal information. Twenty eight-year-old Viet Quoc Nguyen and 25-year-old Giang Hoang Vu allegedly made millions spamming “tens of millions” of email users.

    “In August 2012, the FBI, with the assistance of its legal attaches stationed abroad and in conjunction with Dutch law enforcement officials, executed a search warrant in the Netherlands that disrupted continued compromises of those companies while allowing U.S. authorities to advance its investigation,” explains the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson.

    Vu has already pleaded guilty to the charges. Nguyen is on the run. The third man in this specific indictment is Canadian David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, 33, who is accused of helping Nguyen and Vu launder their ill-gotten money. He’s currently sitting in jail awaiting trial.

    “This case reflects the cutting-edge problems posed by today’s cybercrime cases, where the hackers didn’t target just a single company; they infiltrated most of the country’s email distribution firms,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Horn. “And the scope of the intrusion is unnerving, in that the hackers didn’t stop after stealing the companies’ proprietary data—they then hijacked the companies’ own distribution platforms to send out bulk emails and reaped the profits from email traffic directed to specific websites.”

    “Our success in this case and other similar investigations is a result of our close work with our law enforcement partners,” said Special Agent in Charge Moore. “The Secret Service worked closely with the Department of Justice and the FBI to share information and resources that ultimately brought these cyber criminals to justice. This case demonstrates there is no such thing as anonymity for those engaging in data theft and fraudulent schemes.”

    Speaking of cyber crime, The US Government just created a brand new agency for organizing and disseminating information regarding cyber threats.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Cops to Guy on Facebook: Turn Yourself in Please. Guy: Ok

    More and more police departments are taking to social media these days, asking the community to help them locate wanted persons. You’d be shocked at how many of these wanted persons find it appropriate to comment on police department posts. Most of the time these bold criminals have a catch me if you can message for the cops, and most of the time they can and they do.

    Here’s a bit of a twist on that increasingly familiar narrative.

    The Butler County, Ohio Sheriff’s office took to Facebook on Monday to discuss Andrew Dale Marcum, who was wanted on numerous charges including burglary, assault, domestic violence, criminal endangering and more.

    Post by Butler County Sheriff's Office.

    About four hours after the post went up, Mr. Marcum himself decided to chime in. The Sheriff’s Office, seeing a golden opportunity, though it prudent to ask him to turn himself in. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right?

    Well, he did. 10TV in Columbus reports that Marcum did in fact turn himself in. Police confirmed it late Tuesday evening.

    Post by Butler County Sheriff's Office.

    I guess he saw this and thought it looked pretty cozy?

  • Florida Men Butt-Dial Employer, Detail Robbery in Voicemail

    In an era of smartphones and passcodes, one would think that the instances of “butt dialing” would decline, if not disappear altogether.

    But this is Florida.

    Two Key West men have been booked on charges of felony grand theft after leaving a voicemail detailing their crime. They didn’t know they were leaving the voicemail, of course, as one of the men had accidentally called his employer.

    From the Miami Herald:

    David Ricky Fanuelsen, 39, and Dean Ellis Brown, 22, are accused of stealing three saws from their employer, Concrete Solutions, at a job site on North Roosevelt Boulevard.

    They got caught after one of them accidentally “butt dialed” the office. The call went to voice mail, which recorded Fanuelsen and Brown discussing how they planned to pawn the tools, Key West Police Department spokeswoman Alyson Crean said.

    It appears this was rather damning evidence, as both men have since confessed to stealing the saws.

    If this story sounds too funny to be true, you should know that this happens all the time. It’s actually impressive how many criminals find a way to butt dial people and detail, at length, their various crimes.

    Like that time a couple of video game thieves butt-dialed 911 and discussed their plans to sell the stolen merchandise for over an hour as the operator listened in. Or the time a Pennsylvania man accidentally called 911 during a drug deal. Then there was that time Florida Man butt-dialed 911 and detailed a murder plot. Oh yeah, and we can’t forget about the modern day Bonnie and Clyde from Roswell, New Mexico, who unwittingly dialed 911 and discussed a just-committed robbery, all while blasting Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’.

    You can’t make this stuff up.

    Image via Martin Abegglen, Flickr Creative Commons