Articles Posted in Best Of

It was a bad idea, and it didn’t end well. Per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Witnesses told township police that [Jay Matthew] Tokar [age 46] was flying his glider dangerously close to children playing soccer in the area.

They also told police Tokar was yelling at people on the golf course and trying to spit on them.

[Witness] Mark J. Gazi told police that Tokar flew the glider so close that at times Gazi could have touched Tokar with his golf club.

Police didn’t test Tokar at the scene but …

…a search warrant served Aug. 28 for Tokar’s medical records revealed his blood-alcohol level was 0.151 percent and he had taken benzodiazepines before the crash. A motorist is considered intoxicated in this state with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent.

How did the ride end?

According to the criminal complaint, after Tokar’s plane struck the cable lines, one of the lines jumped off the pulley system and struck witness James Troutman, injuring him in the left leg.

Tokar’s injuries were much more serious, unlike the time in August 2003 when he …

… crashed his aircraft in the Cobblestone-St. Ives housing plan in Hempfield. It snagged a tree, spun out of control and dropped about 60 feet to the ground.

Tokar was not injured in that crash.

60 feet to the ground and no injuries! For this latest flight, Tokar faces charges of reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. Here’s the source.

Per the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision, Judge David Landry:

made inappropriate sexual comments to female court employees in the workplace. These included a note to a female employee that her “Hillbilly thermometers are distracting”, a note to a court clerk referring to a juror, stating, “I think Ms. _______ wants me,” describing one court clerk as a “shameless hussy”…

Hillbilly thermometers?! Where do you come up with that? Judge Landry also routinely signed blank bail orders, leaving it to the prosecutors to decide “the particulars for out-of-custody defendants.” Gee, think there’s anything wrong with that? There are a few more findings (like 14 criminal cases that had to be dismissed in 2005 because Judge Landry failed to schedule the trials within the time required by law), but I think you get the idea. Partially because Judge Landry was defeated in November 2006, his punishment was only a “public censure.” Oh, and “at no time in the future [may he] seek or hold a position as a judicial officer in the State of Alaska.” Where’s the accountability? I’m steamed.

A Chinese company called “Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics and Technology Co Ltd,” but operating as the “Lunar Embassy to China,” offered land on the moon at the low, low price of 298 yuan (about $40) per acre. And just in case you need to check up on your plot, this ambitious company also registered to engage in space travel.

According to the company’s CEO, Li Jie, they sold 49 acres to 34 clients in the first 3 days of operations! Unfortunately for the Lunar Embassy, a Beijing court shut it down, citing a 1983 treated signed by China. The treaty provides that

outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by other means… The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries.

Snap! Naturally, with such a solid claim, the Lunar Embassy appealed … and lost again. The Chinese government revoked their business license, fined them 50,000 yuan (about $6,250 dollars), and ordered that the investors be refunded their money.

They both sew with a steady hand, right? Somehow, a 30-year-old Indian man posed as a doctor for almost a year without raising even an eyebrow. So how was he caught? A security guard overheard the “doctor” telling a patient that he did not know the way to the pathology lab! And what did the man say when he was caught? He said he was a surgeon in India, had a applied for a job, and was just wandering around waiting for word on his application. But when the police checked him out, they learned that he works in a women’s tailor shop! No doubt that’s where he made (really) the doctor’s uniform that he wore around the hospital.

How many? In Paul Kavanagh’s case, 15,000! He’s been at it since 1995. On one day in February of this year, he made 65 calls! After all these years, how did they catch a guy who used unregistered cell phones? He gave the police a huge clue when he told one of his victims that he “liked the way [her] hair is today.” And, as reported in the Sunday Metro, he often called a gym that he had a clear view of from his home. Why did he get 2 1/2 years? Said the Judge:

It seems to me to simply have been the case that the defendant was taking drink and cocaine and making these calls for the purposes of sexual gratification and I must say to my mind for the purposes of cruelty.

For more (just a bit) click here.

Here’s the defense: “It wasn’t me. It was all the bear’s idea.” The crime? Per The Sydney Morning Herald:

Police said in April this year [22-year-old Russell] Hounslow’s 21-year-old flatmate found a camera inside a teddy bear on her bedside table and discovered it was linked to a video cassette recorder.

Mr. Hounslow has been charged with “using an optical device to record a private activity and possessing an obscene article.” Not cool. Here’s the source.

Pubic Hair! As reported by cbs4denver.com:

“According to the [police] complaint, a second kitchen worker told police [the cook] put a slit in the steak and pushed something inside, then stated, “These are my pubes,” referring to pubic hair.” [The cook said they were facial hairs. Huh?]

Why would a cook do this? He was pissed that the customer said the first steak was “medium,” not “rare” per his order. What happened to Ryan Kropp, the cook?

Kropp, 24, of West Bend, was charged Wednesday with a felony of placing foreign objects in edibles, carrying up to 3 1/2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was released on a signature bond.

Damn! A felony? Up to 3 1/2 years?

Since this is a “best of” post, I can tell you what the sentence was: 6 months in jail! And the victim said that wasn’t enough! You can read a fair amount more here.

Although he had examined the patient several times in 2002 and 2003, the doctor failed to notice that his patient had a 32 pound cyst! What did he tell her? Per the Otago [New Zealand] Daily Times online, that …

…she was overweight and prescribed weight-loss pills.

Wrong. Very wrong.

The woman, a 44-year-old mother of three, was eventually was taken to Christchurch Hospital in severe pain where the cyst was removed. The woman told The Press yesterday the cyst was cancerous and she needed an operation to remove her womb, ovaries and fallopian tubes.

What happened to the doctor?

[He] was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in 2006. He was censured and fined $22,500 but his name was suppressed to protect his practice and family.

Wow. That’s it? I agree with the victim:

“I’ve lost my insides, but he’s still practising,” she said.

She felt ill that the doctor continued to treat patients who were unaware of the misconduct finding. The patient called for a radical change from the health system so the names of medical professionals found guilty of professional misconduct were made public.

Here’s the source.

Oh no you didn’t K-Mart. You didn’t just charge Mary Bach tax on that toilet paper. Everybody knows that, unlike other paper goods, toilet paper is not taxed in Pennsylvania. No, Ms. Bach is not making a federal case out it – just a teeny, tiny $100 state court case. Now maybe you think a lawsuit over 14 cents is trivial. Perhaps you didn’t know that Ms. Bach went back to the store just to see if they corrected the problem. They didn’t. So she’s owed 28 cents.

Why sue for $100? Because that’s the amount allowed under Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. And if you think I’m ridiculing Ms. Bach, you’re wrong. I salute her. If nobody watches these little things, companies will get away with them. And if you multiply the little things by the number of purchases, they’re not little things any more. To read about this and other dragons Ms. Bach has slayed in the past (and there have been a few) click here.

A 1-year-old boy was waiting for a relative to pick him up at the police station in Schererville, Indiana because his mom was busted for drunk driving. So his dad drove to the station to get him, only he was drunk too, and was also busted for drunk driving. So his grandparents came to get him and … yup, they had been drinking too! But, per the AP, grandma, who had been driving, wasn’t legally drunk, “so officers escorted them home with the child.” On the drinking front anyway, hopefully the apple didn’t fall anywhere near the tree…