This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Crime

  • Thursday almost feel good story

    This story doesn’t quite reach the level of our normal feel good stories, but, here it is anyway. An unnamed victim in Oakland was playing his video game;

    The unnamed victim was playing video games in his bedroom Sunday. He was wearing a headset and didn’t hear the robber enter the house — until his door opened and he was confronted by a stranger. And that person was pretty surprised to see him as well.

    The gamer grabbed a nearby fake gun, stopping the would-be robber in his tracks and keeping him there until police arrived. The accused, 23-year-old Oakland resident Kymarr Freeman, was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing, and possession of a criminal instrument.

    I guess the Kymarr feels pretty damn stupid right about now, you know, other than the feeling that he gets from being a normal criminal.

  • POW/MIA rig found

    POW/MIA rig found

    Davenport-truck

    Mary sends us new that the POW/MIA truck that was stolen the other day has been recovered;

    Steve Davenport’s phone rang on Friday, and he hoped it was the call he’d been waiting for. And it was. After spending three days searching for his missing show truck – a rolling tribute to the Gold Star Mothers and soldiers killed in action in Vietnam – the good news came.

    “I got a call and we’re going to get her right now,” Davenport said mid-afternoon on Friday, as he and a friend headed up the road to Irving, Texas, about 21 miles from where the truck was last seen in Davenport’s hometown of Lewisville.

    “My mind is racing right now,” he told Land Line.

  • FL couple arrested for bilking VA

    FL couple arrested for bilking VA

    MCPO Ret. In TN sends us a link to NBC in regards to a story about a Florida couple who supplied training to veterans and then billed the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for the training, occasionally at a rate more than ten times the actual cost;

    According to the documents, Hyde, the president of Hy-Tech Training Center in Miramar, and Clark, the company’s vice president, billed the VA inflated amounts for training courses in private investigations provided to veterans at the center.

    In one instance, the company billed the VA $5,750 for a private investigator course that cost students $499, the documents said. The course was also offered on Groupon for just $249. The company billed the VA for 103 veterans. The VA lost approximately $200,000, the documents said.

    Yeah, the pair are at fault, but then, so is the VA. I know it comes from different piles of money, but they’re so damned careful how they pay disabled veterans, unless the vet is a phony, but they throw money at people like this who are in business to defraud the VA.

    Their lawyer’s defense runs along the same lines;

    I presume the VA looks at invoices that are submitted to them,” said defense attorney Martin Roth. “They audit the invoices and they pay them when they’re appropriate. These are paid invoices.”

  • FBI to investigate VA

    FBI to investigate VA

    The Washington Times reports that FBI Director James Comey told a Congressional panel that his agency will be opening an investigation of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs given the initial reports from the VA’s Office of the Inspector General regarding the thousands of veterans who weren’t served by the hospital in Phoenix and the possibility that scores had died as a result;

    He did not elaborate on the investigation, but a U.S. law enforcement official said earlier in the day that the Justice Department had formally asked the FBI to assist in reviewing materials provided by the inspector general’s office. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation on the record.

    I guess all of the horses are out now, so they come in and close the barn door.

  • Las Vegas murderers met good guy with a gun

    Las Vegas murderers met good guy with a gun

    According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the cop murdering scum, whatever their names were, ran into a good guy with gun confirming their earlier reports;

    After the shooting, the couple headed toward a nearby Wal-Mart, where Jerad Miller was confronted by Joseph Robert Wilcox, 31, of Las Vegas. Wilcox was legally carrying a concealed pistol. Wilcox was unaware that Amanda Miller, who was pushing a shopping cart, was involved in the incident and “lying in wait,” the official said.

    She slipped behind Wilcox and shot him at close range.

    “He had no idea the wife was walking behind him,” the police official said of the murdered man. “This guy (Wilcox) was not some idiot with a gun. To me, he was a hero. He was trying to stop an active shooter.”

    Police said this morning that Wilcox was killed without firing a shot.

    That part is unfortunate, but at least he warned others and gave them time to get away. A lack of targets is probably what prompted the two murderers to finalize their murder-suicide pact. The male murderer seems to have an extensive criminal record and it looks like when they departed for their short-lived crime spree, they announced to neighbors that they were going out to kill cops. It doesn’t look like the neighbors took the loons seriously.

    The female doesn’t seem to have a criminal record, according to the article.

  • Vegas cops killed in ambush

    Vegas cops killed in ambush

    LV Victims

    We heard yesterday about the shooting in Las Vegas where two police officers were ambushed at Cici’s while getting their lunch. They have been identified as Officers Igor Soldo, 32, and Alyn Beck, 42. Information is still sketchy in regards to the identity and motives of the male and female shooters, although the media is convinced that they are white supremacists.

    Witnesses told police one of the shooters yelled “This is the start of a revolution” before shooting the officers. Gillespie later said he could not confirm that.

    The shooters then stripped the officers of their weapons and ammunition and badges, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. They then covered the officers with something that featured the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me.”

    The flag is named for Christopher Gadsden a Revolutionary War general who designed it. It has recently come back in vogue as an adopted symbol of the American tea party movement.

    I’m not sure how they make the leap from the Gadsden Flag to White Supremacists, but there it is.

    The Las Vegas Review Journal also reports that someone with a concealed weapon may have tried to stop the duo;

    One unconfirmed report is that the two exchanged gunfire with a citizen who was carrying a concealed weapon, and that one of the shooters was injured.

    That’s the only mention that I can find of a concealed weapon in the countless news reports, so….

    Fox 5 Vegas reports that there may have been a murder/suicide pact involved in the demise of the shooters;

    According to Gillespie, arriving officers exchanged fire with the two suspects inside the Walmart. Police said another round of shots were heard in the store that appeared to result in the suspects’ deaths.

    Gillespie said the female suspect appeared to have shot the other male suspect before turning a weapon on herself.

    FOX5 Vegas – KVVU

  • Thomas Keller: Ten years for stealing from DAV

    Marine_7002 sends us a link to the Detroit Free Press in regards to Thomas Keller who was sentenced to 10 years “in custody” Friday for stealing $160,281.99 from the Disabled American Veterans organization;

    He tried and failed to choke back tears as he offered more apologies during testimony.

    “I would like to say to the veterans that I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you down,” he said. Throughout his sentencing hearing, he maintained that he stole the funds because he had been ill, lost his job and fallen behind on bills.

    “Why did you steal? Did you do it to support your lifestyle?” prosecutors asked.

    “I still had to pay utilities,” he answered, adding that his motorcycle had been repossessed and his house foreclosed upon.

    […]

    When prosecutors mentioned that some of the checks were written to Staples, Comcast and Verizon, Keller became almost hostile.

    “With all due respect, I’ve already plead guilty. I’ve taken full responsibility,” he said.

    Keller said he just started taking a few bucks at a time, but it was like a drug, I guess.

    The organization asked him for a full financial accounting back in 2010 and instead of doing that, he’d hoped they’d just forget about it, then he dropped out of sight when they called for a complete audit. So, good plan, Tommy.

  • Bookkeeper embezzles $800k from vet organization

    cynthia tanner

    Chief Tango sends a link from NBC News about Cynthia Tanner, a bookkeeper for the National Veteran Services Fund who over five years’ time stole $830,000 from them in addition to another $185k in checks that she wrote to friends and family. Meanwhile, the judge set her bond at $500,000 – surely she can afford that.

    Tanner had worked for the National Veteran Services Fund since 2008 and was responsible for payroll and disbursing funds to the charity’s clients, according to police.

    The fund, based in Darien, accepts donations to help veterans and their families across the country and used the money to pay for wheelchairs, scooters and ramps for veterans.

    They have also paid utility bills for veterans and their families in danger of homelessness, as well as provided temporary housing.

    The fund has also provided veterans with snow tires, dentures and a veterinary bill for a veteran’s companion animal.

    Police said Tanner is accused of writing checks from the fund to pay herself money she was not entitled to, as well as checks to relatives.