2014 Year in Review: Crime

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      Our year-in-review special looks back at the wacky, weird, and wondrous stories of 2014.

      Salt-and-pepper hair?
      In September, 23-year-old Oklahoma City resident Jorge Arturo Perez was arrested for washing his hair with mayonnaise in a public fountain. He was later released.

      Pigeons, yes; people, no
      Ninety-year-old Florida resident Arnold Abbott was arrested in November for feeding homeless people, an activity outlawed by several ordinances of the City of Fort Lauderdale, whose mayor, Jack Seiler, and city commissioners have characterized the laws as designed to “ensure that public places are open to everyone” and to protect the homeless population from illnesses.

      Taking a bite out of time
      In February, John R. Morales, an actor who had previously played McGruff the Crime Dog, was sentenced to 16 years in U.S. prison. His guilty plea came after a 2011 police raid of his home, during which police seized more than 1,000 marijuana plants, a grenade launcher, other weapons, and 9,000 rounds of ammunition.

      Free(ze)
      Kentucky resident Robert Vick turned himself back in to authorities after he escaped from Blackburn Correctional Complex in January. Vick’s escape took place during the height of the so-called polar vortex, which saw temperatures in the region drop unusually low overnight, to about –18° F.

      It takes a village
      Chinese authorities used 3,000 paramilitary police, helicopters, and speedboats to invade the southern village of Boshe, arrest 182 suspects, and bust a massive crystal-meth operation that involved a fifth of the village’s households. “The village [was]…a clan-based, industrialized operation with local protection,” a police spokesperson said.

      Dogged duty
      A driver in Laval, Quebec, received a $258 speeding ticket after police caught him driving 107 kilometres per hour in a 70-kph zone while trying to get his pet Chihuahua to the vet after it suffered cardiac arrest. Even though the officer escorted the car to the vet’s office, where the dog died, he still wrote the ticket.

      Flying rats
      Argentina’s tax agency used drone aircraft to fly over an exclusive neighbourhood near Buenos Aires to take photos of swimming pools and mansions on lots registered as empty. The property owners will be investigated and ordered to pay heavy fines on avoided taxes estimated to be about $2 million.

      Give and take
      A man with an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine of $910 was identified in a Bochum casino by German police during a routine check. As officers advised him that he would be arrested, the slot machine the man was playing delivered a $1,270 jackpot and the man paid his fine in cash.

      Theft a roaring success
      Thieves stole a 660-pound, nine-year-old male lion from an animal-rehabilitation facility in the city of Monte Azul Paulista in southeastern Brazil, according to police.

      Do as I say…
      Two Washington, Pennsylvania, organizers of a local branch of Stop the Violence were arrested and charged after kicking and beating a former roommate until he vomited blood and collapsed in the street. One of them, Nikole Ardeno, was still wearing the “Stop the Violence” T-shirt she had been sporting at an antiviolence rally the day before.

      Soaring crime rate
      According to the International Air Transport Association, criminal incidents involving unruly passengers soared 12-fold in only four years, from about 500 in 2007 to more than 6,000 in 2011, the latest year for which figures are available.

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