Category:
Goofs and Screw-ups
The Norwegian courts base criminal fines on the amount of money the offender has. Recently a 49 year old gentleman from Kristiansand, Norway, was fined $109,000.00 for driving under the influence.
The Story. Can you imagine trying to adjust such a system to be used in the US? I think it's a great idea but I'm afraid that our most frequent offenders are flat broke to start with.
Your Daily Loser - During an argument back in October of 2006, Chytoria Graham picked up her infant son and swung him like a baseball bat, hitting her boyfriend, and fracturing the baby's skull (the boy survived). She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. So why is she back in the news? Because Chytoria is appealing her sentence and claims the public defenders who represented her at trial were ineffective.
She's also just been released on bail.
Jury Duty - Some people just don't see the line between acceptable and not acceptable. Todd Marcum, of Salem, Oregon, is one of those people. Marcum was arrested for putting an electronic, shocking dog collar on his children. And not because they were misbehaving, but because he thought it was funny.
The Story. //
The Mugshot.
Your Daily Loser - Talk about a wrong number. The Webster County, West Virginia, prosecutor received text messages asking if he wanted to buy drugs. Dwayne Vandevender originally thought the messages were a joke but after confirming the text senders were serious, he set up a sting. Michael Cowger and Anna Green were arrested and charged with possession with intent to sell.
The Story.
Jury Duty -
Eric Carmen. Yes, that Eric Carmen, crooner of 'Hungry Eyes' and 'All By Myself' was arrested for driving under the influence in Ohio.
Your Daily Loser - "Honey, I can't find a babysitter to watch the kids while we go rob houses!" "That's ok dear, just bring them along." At least, I imagine that's what the conversation would have sounded like in the Santana household in April. Erika Santana of Queens, New York, had her two daughters in the get-away van when she was arrested, along with two men, for a whole crazy mess of felonies and misdemeanors.
The Story.
Your Daily Loser Bonus For Mother's Day - It's a time honored tradition for kids to bring their mother breakfast in bed. But when this man let his kids try to cook breakfast, they set the kitchen on fire ... all the while mom is blissfully unaware upstairs. Oh sure, she heard "a commotion" but she thought the kids were arguing. Meanwhile,
dad's rushing off to the hospital with badly burned hands. Remember Dads, on Mother's Day, only you can prevent kitchen fires.
Jury Duty - Either this is one of those things you do to yourself after a really long night of boozing it up with your friends, or if you hate yourself. Whatever the excuse, when Anna Clifford was arrested for driving under the influence, the mugshot officer had to make special allowances in order for her hair to fit into the picture. Her mother must be so proud.
The Story. //
The Mugshot.
Your Daily Loser - Where's the best place to teach someone to drive? A smooth, flat stretch of road without a lot of cars would be nice, right? And nevermind if that stretch of road has planes taking off and landing on it... they'll be sure to get out of the way. The son of the airport's manager decided to give his girlfriend a driving lesson. On the runway. His father has since been suspended.
The Story.
Jury Duty - And you thought Post-It Notes were harmless... truth is, they are accessories to evil. Walter Healey of Troy, New York, used his Post-Its to record the social security numbers of the thousands of people he planned to abuse for his identity theft scheme. It's bad enough that Healey worked for the state's Tax Department. But I guess that was just good training for his future misconduct.
The Story. //
The Mugshot. (Healey's in the middle.)
Your Daily Loser - A former exotic dancer was caught with her pants (or should I say G-string) down in California awhile back. Seems that Nicole Faller of Pleasanton is a bit absent-minded when she's high on methamphetamine. You see, she set up a video camera to record herself having sex with an older man, but unfortunately his heart couldn't take the excitement and he died. So Nicole went through his things, took whatever she decided was valuable along with the rest of his drugs and split... leaving the camera behind.
The Story.
Jury Duty - Peter Addison, on the left and Mark Ridgeway, on the right, broke into a charity campsite and trashed the place. How were they caught? Peter had the not-so-good sense to write "Peter Addison was here!" on the white board... I'm sure this is not what his mother had in mind when she told him "My son, someday you will leave your mark on this world!"
The Story. //
The Mugshot.
Many of you may have heard of the
Amphicar, the classic half boat, half car that did neither job well, but at least it looked good not doing its job. The same could not be said about the 2009
WaterCar Amphibious, however. Supposedly styled after the 2002 Camaro convertible, it looks more like someone welded the front half of a Dodge Ram truck to the back half of a Chevrolet Corvette, and then replaced the chassis with the bottom of a speedboat. The link contains several pictures of the vehicle on land as well as in the water.
Your Daily Loser - Ishmael Makone of Johannesburg, South Africa, paid the ultimate price for his stupidity. Apparently noone bothered to warn Makone that it's a really bad idea to be underneath the structure you're trying to tear down, even though
the article claims dozens of witnesses had been watching him for days and worrying about his safety.
Jury Duty - This has to be the happiest drunk guy to ever end up in jail. Chris Carter of St. Petersburg, Florida, doesn't seem to mind that he was cited for violating his parole, driving under the influence and holding an open container of alcohol.
The Mugshot.
Hi there! I'm Salamander Sam, and you may remember me from such comment sections as
Follies of the Mad Men #33 and
Follies of the Mad Men #31. As you may know from my comments, I like vintage technology, and so you can imagine my excitement when I found out that Google Books obtained the rights to every issue of Popular Science ever made. The good news for you is that you don't need to waste countless hours searching through the archives for hilarious articles, because I was already doing that anyways! This will be the first entry in my "What Were They Thinking" series, which will probably be the first of many series devoted to the weirdness that once was. And, like the Top Ten List, I will start out with the best example:
One of Popular Science's longest running segment was called "I'd Like To See Them Make...", in which readers suggested ideas for new products. Many were quite brilliant, but there were some which can only be enjoyed with the benefit of hindsight...
(from the January 1956 issue of Popular Science)
Special Bonus Product:
(from the April 1953 issue of Popular Science)
Your Daily Loser - If the police are kind enough to put your drunken butt into a cab and send you home rather than write you a ticket for being drunk and disorderly, do yourself a huge favor and
stay home! Unfortunately this advice comes too late for Erik "Knucklehead" Salmons of Copley, Ohio. Once he arrived home, Salmons thought it over and decided he wasn't too drunk to drive. To prove his point, he drove himself to the police station and insisted on being given a breathalyzer... which he failed.
The Story.
Jury Duty - Is it really possible that he smokes pot? It could be that he just sells it, but I have my doubts. Being high as a kite would help to explain the hair.
The Mugshot.
All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.
Category: Crime, Your Daily Loser, Alcohol, Goofs and Screw-ups