Curses, Foiled Again
Authorities charged Carolyn James, 55, with assaulting her 96-year-old mother in Dickson City, Pa., after a neighbor recorded James slapping the invalid woman on the back and neck, screaming obscenities and threatening to break her arm. Mark Gruss told investigators he was testing webcams when he picked up a live feed from a webcam in James’s living room. James had installed the webcam herself so she could keep an eye on her mother. (Scranton’s the Times-Tribune)

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Curses, Foiled Again
Two car thieves being chased by police holed up in a house in New Haven, Conn., while a dozen officers surrounded the building. When hostage negotiators threatened to unleash canine units, the suspects heard barking and surrendered. There were no dogs, however, only officers pretending to bark like dogs. “These cops were trained to do stuff like that,” witness Gideon Gurley said after Kwame Wells-Jordan, 20, and Norman Boone, 23, were taken into custody. (New Haven’s WFSB-TV)

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Curses, Foiled Again
After someone broke into a church in St. Charles, Mo., and stole an undetermined amount of ice cream from a freezer, police spotted Andrew Steven Jung, 24, three blocks away, with ice cream all over his face and clothing. Jung told officers he was an “ice cream junkie.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)... Read more

Curses, Foiled Again
Authorities charged Ruth C. Amen, 46, with embezzlement after she paid for a surprise birthday party for her boss. Amen had been the office manager at a real-estate company in Boca Grande, Fla., for more than 10 years, but her decision to foot the bill for the party aroused the suspicion of company officials. They alerted Lee County sheriff’s investigators, who discovered that Amen had stolen $181,674. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)... Read more

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Curses, Foiled Again
Police investigating a nightclub burglary in China’s Yunnan Province arrested a suspect who covered his head with a wastepaper basket to shield his face from surveillance cameras. Police identified him anyway because the basket was transparent, allowing them to make out his face. (Britain’s Daily Mail)... Read more

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Curses, Foiled Again
Police investigating a drive-by shooting that wounded 13 people in the District of Columbia identified Craig Steven Wilson, 19, as a suspect after surveillance videos showed shots fired from a vehicle registered to him at the scene. Wilson was also wearing a court-ordered electronic ankle bracelet with a GPS tracking device, which indicated his movements coincided with those of one of the shooters. (The Washington Post)

Future in the Past ... Read more

Curses, Foiled Again
Mario Hili, 64, avoided thousands of dollars in traffic fines by reporting his car stolen each time a traffic camera caught him speeding or running a red light. After the latest incident, Senior Constable Siobhan Daly told an Australian court “it was the 21st time since 2000 that Hili had reported his car stolen. Each time he would find it himself at various locations around Geelong.” Daly said that after the latest incident, police fingerprinted the car and found only Hili’s prints. (Australia’s Geelong Advertiser)... Read more