Misdial mishap: 5 craziest crimes of the week
Criminals generally don't want cops coming anywhere near them. Yet we've got at least two people who allegedly went right to the cops themselves, plus a few other weird crime stories for the week:
1: Woman jailed after misdial: Police say a woman selling drugs made a big mistake that landed her in jail — she mistakenly called an Albuquerque police detective. Renea Lucero, 30, was arrested after she accidentally called the detective, whom she knew from a prior criminal case, on his department-issued cellphone. The officer then arranged to meet her and she allegedly pulled some heroin from a secret hiding spot.
2: Fake cop pulls over someone he shouldn't have, police say: A man accused of impersonating a police officer had the bad luck to pull over ... an actual police officer. An off-duty cop in Dumfries, Va., says he was pulled over at around 1 a.m. on Jan. 29 when the Crown Vic behind him turned a spotlight on his car then pulled up alongside. Things went downhill from there.
3: Man tries to pay taxes with insanely folded bills: The quirkiest part of this story is not that a Wichita Falls, Texas, man attempted to pay a $600 property tax bill with $1 bills. It's what Timothy Andrew Norris, 27, did to each individual bill that caused a Wichita County tax assessor collector to accuse Norris of interfering with his office's efficiency and finally call the cops when Norris wouldn't leave.
4: Parents left kids strapped in cold car to go to wine tasting, cops say: Two Washington, D.C., parents were arrested last Saturday after police say they left their two toddlers locked in a car while they attended a wine-tasting at a posh restaurant. Cops say they received a call about the kids and found a 22-month-old boy and 2-1/2-year-old girl, who was "crying hysterically," strapped into their car seats with coats but no hats or gloves; the temperature outside was about 35 degrees. Christopher Lucas and Jennie Chang claim they did have a babysitter of sorts.
5: Man's alleged crime involves clogged toilet, potatoes: Some might call a desperate need to use the toilet an "emergency" — but probably not the police. That's why a Philadelphia-area man has been arrested after pulling his apartment building's fire alarm for a very odd reason. Apparently, he had filled his toilet with potatoes; it's not clear why. His efforts to get help unclogging it landed him in hot water.
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