What was this guy thinking at the time?

SALT LAKE CITY – If you can’t stand the heat, don’t pour gasoline down the toilet. An apartment tenant made that $75,000 mistake Tuesday.

The man came home for lunch and found gas leaking from the tank of his car. He caught the gas, and decided to dispose of it by dumping it down the toilet.

But the pilot light of a water heater ignited the fumes, causing a small explosion. The blast destroyed the porcelain toilet, and the intense heat from the flames melted the remaining pieces.

Sounds like another Darwin candidate in action.

There have been times when I’ve wanted to tackle someone who was talking loudly on a cellphone in a public place, but I think this might be going a bit too far.

Can we talk about talking on cell phones?

The matter has been simmering for years as wireless gabbing takes place in more and more settings. For one woman in the Washington, D.C., area, it came to a head recently when she was arrested, reportedly for speaking too loudly near a bus stop.

According to a story in Tuesday’s Washington Post, a transit police officer thought that the woman was disturbing the peace with loud cell-phone talk and eventually wrestled her to the ground. Police said the woman was cursing into her phone, but she said she cursed after she’d been grabbed, according to the newspaper.

Maybe this will make her realize just how inconsiderate she’s been.

This article in today’s paper really grabbed my attention.

At first, Arlington police thought Michelle Hughes was just an uncooperative witness, or maybe a victim as a passenger in the truck that ran a red light and caused a double-fatality accident last week.

She lay in a hospital bed, saying she couldn’t remember the wreck, while officers searched for a man who bystanders said fled the scene.

But after being confronted with forensic evidence, the 32-year-old Arlington woman has acknowledged being the driver of the Chevy 3500 dually pickup that killed Emilia Terry, 43, and her son, Bryan Terry, 21, on Thursday, police said.

Hughes was in custody Monday at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth on suspicion of two counts of intoxication manslaughter with bail set at $100,000, police said. The Terrys were returning from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a relative said.

I’m not trying in any way to make light of what happened, but the irony in being killed by a drunk driver on the way back from an AA meeting is stunning.  Damn!  You couldn’t make up something like this.  People wouldn’t believe it.

I was digging around in the Texas statutes looking for anything that might define the power of the police officers or firemen to issue “lawful orders.” While I haven’t found the legal basis for these orders yet (although I did find the statute requiring a citizen to assist a peace officer in apprehending a criminal or serving a warrant if requested), I did come across this interesting tidbit in the Government Code:


     § 557.021. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
         (1) "Communist" means a person who commits an act reasonably calculated to further the overthrow of the government:
            (A) by force or violence; or
            (B) by unlawful or unconstitutional means and replace it with a communist government.
        (2) "Department" means the Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas.
        (3) "Government" means the government of this state or any of its political subdivisions.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.

    § 557.022. RESTRICTIONS. (a) The name of a communist may not be printed on the ballot for any primary or general election in this state or a political subdivision of this state.
    (b) A person may not hold a nonelected office or position with the state or any political subdivision of the state if:
        (1) any of the compensation for the office or position comes from public funds of this state or a political subdivision of this state; and
        (2) the employer or superior of the person has reasonable grounds to believe that the person is a communist.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.

    § 557.023. ENFORCEMENT. The attorney general, a district or county attorney, the department, and any law enforcement officer of this state shall enforce this subchapter.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.


Something about this story just seems fishy to me.

A 5-year-old girl was shot and killed Sunday after her stepfather mistook her for a burglar, police said.

Alejandra Hernandez, who was shot in the chest with a single bullet, was taken to a Houston hospital, where she died.

Police said Agun Ortega Pina, 25, told them he heard suspicious noises and reached for his gun about 1 a.m. He shot when someone tried to open the door of the bedroom where he and his wife were sleeping.

First of all, with a small child in the house he had a responsibility to ascertain where the child was before shooting.  But what bugs me most is the shot placement.  If the news report is correct, he shot the girl in the chest.  Given that a five-year-old girl wouldn’t be very tall, he’d have to have either missed really low or at least registered in his mind that his target was very short when aiming for center mass.  If the latter, then he should have recognized that it was the little girl and held his fire. 

Perhaps this really was a terrible accident, caused by the step-father’s failure to identify his target.  But I really wonder if there isn’t something more to all of it.

Two men in Scottsbluff, Nebraska were arrested for walking through a Wal-Mart while wearing women’s thong underwear.

The men, ages 35 and 36, bought two pair of underwear at the store Tuesday, went into a bathroom and came out wearing only the thongs and T-shirts, police said.

Of course, when they told the DA why they did it, he had to let them off.

When asked why they were wearing thong underwear, one of the men said a friend “triple-dog dared” them. They will not be prosecuted, authorities said.

Ouch!

LaFAYETTE, Ga. – A Walker County man was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine after his pants exploded while he was talking to social services workers outside his home.

…

He said Doyle apparently had mixed red phosphorous and iodine in a film canister and stuck it in his pocket.

The chemical reaction caused second- and third-degree burns to Doyle’s testicles and leg, Sheriff’s Maj. Hill Morrison said.

I think this is a valuable lesson in why you shouldn’t play with chemicals unless you know what the hell you’re doing.

Sometimes you get an unexpected combination of input data and the system barfs all over you.

Jim Cara wanted a vanity license tag that would make people laugh.

But when he chose “NOTAG” for the plate on his Suzuki Hayabusa, a sleek blue and silver motorcycle with a speedometer that reaches 220 mph, the joke backfired.

The new tag arrived Saturday under an avalanche of Wilmington parking violations.

“All the traffic tickets say, ‘Notice of violation. License number: no tag,’ ” Cara said.

City computers, talking to state Division of Motor Vehicles computers, had finally found an address for ticketed vehicles that lacked license tags: Cara’s home in Elsmere.

“I messed up the system so bad,” Cara said. “I wonder if they can put me in jail or something?”

He has received more than 200 violation notices. The mail carrier came twice on Saturday. Cara opened a few. They ranged from $55 to $125 for violations such as meter expirations.

Fortunately, they’re going to correct the problem in the system, but I find it kind of amusing.  I guess no one thought that anyone would ever try to actually use “NOTAG” as a valid license number. 

The Nigerian 419 scammers have moved on to a much more aggressive form of email scam.  Now they claim to be representatives of an organization that’s been hired to put a hit on you unless you send them $40,000 immediately.

I particularly liked this last bit:

CAUTION.

1.you are to attach and send with immediate effect,the payment slip,confirming the payment and to enable us to reconcile with our files and deploy our men already monitoring you.

2.we will as well waste no time to carry our operations,if we discover that this contact is disclosed to any second party including the following:-

police relation and friends

3.we guarantee your saftey locally and internationally,on the completion of this contract and will not hesitate to disclose our men in your country to you and as well render our service if needed or on request.

we seek your urgent co-operation,for it is not our wish to get you eliminated.

Note : – Your death has been paid for by someone you offended sometime ago and it will be adviceable that you co-operate with us a.s.a.p.

Hmm…  that could be a lengthy list, given my rather abrasive personality before I mellowed into my current laid-back style. 

Link via Slashdot.

Be careful about surprising someone at inopportune moments.

A St. Paul woman who became frightened Wednesday morning when her boyfriend squeezed her too tightly while they kissed bit off part of his tongue, police said.

“I guess I bit down too hard,” the woman told officers, explaining that she has been victimized by men.

The woman, who is 43, was arrested for assault and could be charged today in Ramsey County, investigators said.

I find it odd that they arrested her if it was an accident, though.