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Is that a Japanese Special Forces troop covertly monitoring nefarious terrorist activity? Well, not exactly. It’s all about catching illegal trash dumpers:
When they find an illegal dumping site, they send a stakeout team to watch the spot so that anyone who tries to dump again in the same place will be caught in the act. Because the dumping takes place in wooded mountainous areas, the cops wear camouflage and sneak around like commandos. [...]
The police stakeout shown in the video drags on for 88 days until they finally arrest one man who is dumping a small load of trash.
Japan Probe has the video clip: Link [embedded Daily Motion, in Japanese, but you'll get the gist]
A routine call turned out to be something straight out of Keystone Kops for two Cornwall policemen. It all started with a report of disturbance …
Police constable Jason Mepham was responding to a disturbance call in Redruth last month when things took a turn for the slapstick.
The officer, confronted by Jason King, whipped out his pepper spray and doused the suspect. Then a second blast blew back into the cop’s eyes, temporarily blinding him, according to The Independent. A second officer grabbed King, but another perp at the scene punched Mepham in the face, dislocating his jaw.
The other officer released King and fired his Taser at the new assailant. One of the electrodes hit the perp, but the other struck Mepham. Mepham collapsed and King allegedly kicked him in the face — strangely relocating the cop’s jaw.
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If you are going to help yourself to a five-finger discount, the worst of all possible times to do it would be during the “Shop with a Cop” event. But that’s exactly what happened Wednesday in Clackamas, Oregon. Portland police were at Fred Meyer to help children shop for back-to-school items when security personnel caught 20-year-old Shane Alexander and 30-year-old Jason Vantress allegedly filling their backpacks with store merchandise.
“They were a little freaked out when they saw all the cops at first, but then decided the police would be too distracted, helping kids to notice them,” said police Spokesman Pete Simpson.
Police officers assisted security in making the arrests.
Otherwise, the back-to-school event was a big success. Link -via Fark
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Last night, author Jami Attenberg returned to the place where she locked her bike and found it gone.
I didn’t cry but I jutted my lower lip out the entire way home. It was a genuine sad face. I tried to stop the sad face but I could not. I really love my yellow bike, and it is summer and riding your bike is the best, and also it is my main form of transportation around town. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to afford a new one, and seriously, I was super bummed. It is a material object, yes, and it can be replaced, but it’s MY BIKE AND I LOVE IT.
I sad-faced myself to sleep.
This morning I woke up around 9 AM and checked Craigslist to see if there were any reasonably priced bikes on there and lo and behold, there was a picture of my bike for sale for $75. They even had a picture of the scratches.
The story gets exciting from that point. Her friend did some detective work, and the police set up a sting operation. Then she had to meet the guy who had her bike. It sounds like a television show that wraps up in an hour, and it all happened just today. Link -via Buzzfeed
Sharing your chicken nuggets during school lunchtime? I’ve got two words for you: LAW BREAKER!
Adam was accused of stealing chicken nuggets from a $2.60 meal. Those are the nuggets his friend, Gakaree Garner, gave to him. Garner says, "Although that month I was fasting so I couldn’t eat meat, and we had chicken nuggets that day."
Garner gave the nuggets to Adam, who got in the lunch line to get some sauce for them. According to Garner and the police report the cafeteria cashier told the Assistant Principal Adam stole the chicken nuggets. The Assistant Principal then told the police officer in the school, who called a squad car. Garner says, "They actually put him in handcuffs, and actually tried to force him into the car."
Ava Hernandez says, "They were like, ‘Well do you know that friend receives federally free lunch?’, and I said, ‘I do now.’, and they said, ‘Well, it’s illegal to share a free lunch so either way Adam was breaking the law’."
Stupid: Robbing a Starbucks
Stupider: Cutting in line to rob a Starbucks
Even more stupider: the people you cut are police officers.
Neatorama-worthy: IN UNIFORM!
According to police, a short time later the officers were inside the coffee shop ordering at the till when the man they had spoken with outside walked directly up to the till, threw a drink at the employee and demanded cash.
"[The officers] looked at each other in astonishment that someone would attempt that with two uniform officers in the room," Sgt. Bruce Carrie told ctvbc.ca.
Link – via The Consumerist
Plattsburg, Missouri police officer Nick Shepherd responded to a call for help involving a dog stuck in a fence. The wire was twisted, and Shepherd cut the fencing to free the dog. He then tried to capture the dog. What happened next makes it worth sitting through the jumpy footage from Shepherd’s automatic camera. Link -via Buzzfeed
German police have trained “Sherlock”, a vulture, to hunt for dead bodies in remote locations:
Birds generally rely mostly on sight to locate their supper. But vultures like Sherlock have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect the scent of rotting flesh from 1,000 metres (3,000 feet) up in the air.
He can even find remains in woodland or in thick undergrowth. And unlike sniffer dogs, who need regular breaks, Sherlock is indefatigable and can cover vast tracts of land.[...]
The bird, whose is more at home soaring over South America’s Andes or the Atacama Desert than northern Germany’s Lueneburg Heath, is being taught by trainer German Alonso to love the putrid smell of dead human flesh.
Every day Alonso puts pieces of meat in small cups, on top of a strip of cloth — provided by the police — that has been used to cover a corpse. Sherlock’s mission is to locate these tasty morsels.
Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: AFP
Police in Hampshire, UK, have a new patrol vehicle in their fleet — a five-speed, pedal-powered car:
Officers believe building their new five-gear vehicle, which has a top speed of 20 miles per hour, will help combat anti-social behaviour.[...]
PC Keith Waller, who will pilot the vehicle, spent 40 hours painstakingly building the replica car with children aged 13 to 16 at Ringwood Comprehensive School.
He insisted that getting involved with the project allowed police to show their “fun side” and made them look “cooler” and “more approachable”.
But he also admitted it had made him a laughing stock as people drew comparisons with him and Mr Plod from cartoon series Noddy from Toytown.
Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Metro
Every Easter in Stratford, Ontario you can see the swans returning to the Avon River in style. They are escorted from their winter quarters in a fenced area to the water by a parade of bagpipers! The Stratford Police Services pipe band wore kilts and marched to the river while playing music. The swans waddled behind. Link -via Arbroath
Move over police K-9 unit! There’s a new animal cop in town: the Monkey Police.
A Thai police force has begun taking a monkey dressed in officer’s uniform on patrol each day to help improve relations with Muslim separatists.
Trainers taught Santisuk, which means peace in Thai, to pick up coconuts and he now lends a hand collecting the fruit with residents.
The monkey also helps supervise a police checkpoint and his boss says he has made it a much happier place. Motorists now stop to play with Santisuk, rather than getting angry at the hold-up.
Other forces are now considering introducing monkeys to better their image in the troubled province.
Police sometimes use rubber bullets to subdue protesters or rioters without killing them. Unfortunately, rubber bullets can still kill people, especially at close range. In response to this problem, Lund Technologies has developed a rifle that will automatically determine the range of the target and slow down the velocity of the bullet (fired with compressed air) as needed in order to reduce the likelihood of killing the target:
“Less-lethal,” of course, is a term that replaced “non-lethal” because it turns out most rounds being billed as non-lethal – like rubber bullets for instance – are actually quite fatal at close range. Too keep less-lethal intentions from turning into lethal actions, the LVVWS is equipped with a range finder that locates the target and calculates distance; if the shooter is working in less-lethal mode, the rifle ratchets down the muzzle velocity of the round, maintaining its less-lethal status even in close quarters.
Link | Photo: Lund Technologies
There’s just something about a man in uniform. However, most of us don’t throw ourselves at the object of our affection in such a blatant manner. The music adds a special touch to this video. -via YesButNoButYes
The Kenosha, Wisconsin Police Department recorded their own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas using gifts they are accustomed to.
About 20 members of the Police Department were involved in the making of the video, which was directed by Crime Prevention Officer Jeff Wamboldt and edited by Safety Officer Dennis Walsh. Work on the video began in September with filming throughout the month of October; the video was finished before Thanksgiving.
Members of the department hope it helps people laugh amid the stressful holiday season.
Police cars that are sports cars, smart cars, and off road vehicles from all over the world.
While our cars say something about our personality, they are also tools we use to get a job done. One of those jobs is police work, and sometimes the police cars can be just as unique as our own personalities and the jobs they need to do. Here’s a list of over 30 different police cars from around the world, with everything from exotic sports cars, small mini cars, huge SUV’s off road vehicles, luxury sedans, buses and trailers. Chances are if it’s on the road there’s probably a police force using it.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by digimouse.
Drive sober in Salinas, California, and Tuesday could be your lucky night. At a certain DUI checkpoint, some motorists who pass through will be awarded a free turkey!
This is the seventh year Salinas police have added a giveaway to the Thanksgiving week DUI checkpoint.
It’s become so popular, Salinas police are now asking drivers not to go through the checkpoint more than once just to try to win a turkey.
Police keep the location secret ahead of set up.
The turkeys were donated by police, businesses, and private citizens. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Tiburon, California, has become the first community in the United States to record the license plate of every car that enter or leave the town:
Plates will be compared to databases of stolen or wanted cars, with matches triggering an immediate alert to local officers. If detectives are investigating a crime, they will be able to search the records to try to find possible suspects. [...]
"If it lowers the crime rate even a little bit, then it’s a great idea," said Yami Anolik, a 64-year-old real estate investor whose husband, Al Anolik, spoke in favor of the cameras at the meeting.
She said she did not share the privacy concerns of some of her neighbors, explaining, "If you’re driving on a public road, you gave up your privacy already. If you want to be private, stay at home."
Do you think this is a good idea? Link
(Photo: CJ Sorg [Flickr])
Can’t speak English? You better not be pulled over in Texas … Nearly forty people have gotten "no-English" traffic violation tickets:
The Dallas Police Department said it was embarrassed by what it calls a mistake by rookie Officer Gary Bromley after he stopped Ernestina Mondragon for making an illegal U-turn.
In addition for being cited for the U-turn violation, Mondragon received another ticket for being a "non-English speaking driver."
Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle issued an apology:
"We don’t have abilities to determine proficiency in any language, and we shouldn’t be doing it in the first place," Kunkle said. "I apologize to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community."
After a review of the records, Kunkle said about a half-dozen officers had issued a total of 38 similar citations. He said police would recommend to the courts that any pending cases be dismissed.
Forget tranquilizer darts – that’s the stuff of Hollywood. Real police officers use taser, even on a wayward emu:
Authorities in Mississippi said they had to handcuff an emu and shock it with a Taser to remove the ostrich-like flightless bird from a roadway.
Oh, and they used handcuffs, too. I’m assuming they meant emu legcuffs: Link (Sadly, no photo of the cuffed emu)
Legendary musician Bob Dylan had a brush with the police last month in New Jersey. Long Branch police officer Kristie Buble responded to a call about an “eccentric-looking old man” in a residential neighborhood. Buble approached the man and questioned him. He had no ID, and said he was Bob Dylan and was checking out a house that had a “for sale” sign. Buble later said,
“Now, I’ve seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn’t look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head.
Buble decided to humor the old man who didn’t know the address of where he was staying, and gave him a ride to the hotel he described. There were tour buses parked there, and entourage members vouched for Dylan’s identity. They went so far as to produce his passport for the officer.
A police department source said Buble had taken her share of good-natured ribbing from some of the older officers.
“To really appreciate the story from our end, you have to see Kristie,” one cop said. “She looks like a 16-year-old kid, next to this living legend. It was unbelievable.”
Link -via Boing Boing
Natalie Jasmer was so good at hide-and-seek that her frantic family called the cops to help them look for the two-year-old toddler:
Natalie went missing Tuesday evening while playing the game with her brother and sisters and the best efforts of neighbors, police and firefighters called by her frantic parents weren’t enough to turn up the tot.
The terrifying ordeal for her parents ended happily after more than an hour of scouring the neighborhood around the 10th Street mobile home park where the Jasmers live.
In the end, it was the family dog that flushed her out.
“Copper found her,” Natalie’s brother Kenny Findley said, crediting the mutt with discovering the tiny girl asleep inside a drawer underneath the washing machine in the family’s home.
Photo via Duo de Hale [Flickr]
A man in Kenya found his dog had ate eaten his rent money. To get even, he brought his dog to the police station and ordered the police to arrest his dog. When they wouldn’t do it, he offered them a “fee” to get them to lock the dog up. The officers put the dog in jail and ended up getting fired for taking a bribe as a result. The dog was returned to his owner who now is trying to sell the pup and trying to figure out how to pay rent.
I’m somehow doubting the landlord will buy the old “my dog ate my rent money” story.
When a local bakery got in economic trouble, the brave officers of the Michigan police department swooped in to protect it: they bought their favorite doughnut shop and re-named it Cops & Doughnuts!
"To Protect and Serve" has taken on a new meaning for the Clare Police Department.
When officers heard that the Clare City Bakery was closing its doors, they protected the business from certain demise.
Now, they’re serving up doughnuts. [...]
In addition to doughnuts, cookies, muffins, brownies, bread, fruit turnovers and other baked goods, the bakery sells mugs and T-shirts bearing the "Cops & Doughtnuts, 100 Percent Cop-Owned" logo on the backs, and "You Have the Right to Remain Glazed," and "Handcuffs and Cream Puffs" on the fronts.
Link | Cops & Doughnuts website
Officers of the Palm Bay Police Department in Florida keep an eye on a large area by using motorized paragliders!
Police Chief Bill Berger says they are a way for the department to have a bird’s eye view of the semi-rural city at minimal cost.
“Because we don’t have a lot of roadway here, this gives us the ability to basically take short cuts,” said Berger.
The vehicles and training cost $10,000 per officer, which is cost-effective compared to using helicopters. And they have other benefits.
Chief Berger sees the gliders as an ideal tool for searching for missing elderly people who have wandered away.
“The problem with helicopters is you can’t go below 1,000 feet,” said Berger. “The canopy of trees in our community prevented the helicopter from seeing a woman who had [died] close to her car. The paragliders would have been able to get much lower.”
(image credit: ABC News)
If you’re over 18, can get to the Miami area, and have $25, you can race your car against police officers driving cruisers -legally! Officers from several local departments race at County Line Drag Way once a month in an event called Beat the Heat.
“You could bring your mother’s minivan. You can bring a pure racing car. It doesn’t matter,” said Officer Jose Ayala with the Medley Police Department.
“We’re actually getting a lot of kids and adults alike come here and say, ‘We used to race in Davie. You probably used to chase us around, and now we’re here on the track and we want to race your car,’” said Officer Ron Bradley with the Davie Police.
Officers said they have seen a drastic reduction in illegal street racing since Beat the Heat started in 2007.
The next Beat the Heat race is May 23rd. Link -via reddit
Retired arson investigator and state trooper Ken Borders has opened a doughnut shop in Kentucky and named it Police Doughnuts.
“Being in police work for 32 years, it’s been a standing joke that cops and doughnuts, they go hand-in-hand,” he said. “I just figured that it would be a catchy name.”
Borders said Police Doughnuts is meant to recall a time when officers really did hang out at doughnut shops, whereas today’s police “are all into this fitness crap.”
And what do the police think?
“I have two words for it: hysterical and genius,” said John Keeling, a metro police patrol officer who lives in Eastwood. “I wish I had thought of it.”
Louisville Assistant Chief Troy Riggs said doughnut shops once were the only places open in the middle of the night, which is why officers hung out there, establishing the stereotype.
He thinks that’s outdated now, but “if it helps them do business, good for them,” he said.
Link -via Unique Daily
Remember the story sent by Neatorama reader Chris Whiteoak about Google Street View Car in Bradford, England, that got pulled over by the police? Well, the street view has been released for UK, and Chris noticed that the entire drama was caught on the all-seeing Google’s cam!
Chris walking down the street just before he noticed the police car up the road (pan left to see it in the distance) | Police in pursuit, picking up a fellow policeman | Police pulling over the Google Street View Car
Thanks Chris!
Update 4/7/09 – Seems like this story went everywhere! Besides being featured on Digg‘s front page, Chris told us that a few newspapers also picked it up. Here are the articles on The Sun, The Telegraph and Argus, Daily Mail, and Metro. Of course, none of these fine newspaper even mentioned Neatorama
Driving through the little town of Tenaha, Texas, may cost you a lot more than just gas money. A lawsuit contends that driving the stretch of highway that goes through the city is akin to highway robbery … by the police!
Howard Witt of Chicago Tribue has the story:
You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you’re African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it—at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.
That’s because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.
More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.
Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking and call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state’s asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.
(Photo: Howard Witt/Chicago Tribune)
Prawo Jazdy has become the bane of every Irish police officer’s life over the past few years, racking up countless fines and traffic offenses. Whenever officers pulled the offender over, they were given a different address so the police didn’t connect him to the other crimes.
Now however, police have managed to catch up with Prawo, and they’ve discovered an embarrassing truth as to why they have never caught up with him before.
When translated into English, the name Prawo Jazdy, becomes "Driving License" It seems officers pulling over Polish driving offenders have been mistakenly noting down what they thought was the offender’s name, but in fact were reading the title on the card. Officers have been warned to take more care during traffic stops in the future
“Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.
“It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities.”
The officer added that the “mistake” needed to be rectified immediately and asked that a memo be circulated throughout the force.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.
Chris Walker, a police sergeant with the Petersburg police force, was shocked to find out the man listed on his birth certificate was not his father. After his mother gave him the name of his real father, Clayton Hamilton, he thought about a 53 year old police detective who had recently joined the suburban Petersburg police unit.
Although the two men are spitting images of each other, Walker thought he had hit a dead end when chatting with Hamilton, who informed Walker that his name was short for Claiborne, not Clayton.
Still, Hamilton’s age matched with what Walker’s mother had told him, and Hamilton told Walker he once dated a woman who went by the name of Billie Joe Walker.
Walker called his mother, but she was insistent that her son hadn’t found his real father, because the names didn’t match. Then Walker asked his mother if she knew a woman named Billie Joe.
“There was a pause on the phone, and she said, ‘That’s your dad,’ ” Walker told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It turned out his mother’s teen nickname was Billie Joe, based on a hit song of the time, “Ode to Billie Joe.”
One DNA test later, Walker had found his father.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
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