Karl's Weird News

Driver of Silver Bentley Shot, Seriously Injured in Los Angeles Freeway Gunbattle

The driver of a silver Bentley was shot early Friday in an apparent car-to-car freeway shooting in the southbound lanes of Highway 101 in downtown Los Angeles.

California Highway Patrol and police officers responding to a 3:25 a.m. shots-fired call discovered the bullet-riddled Bentley stopped on the freeway near the eastbound Interstate 10 connector.

Police Lt. Paul Vernon says the Bentley driver, who has several bullet wounds, was found slumped over the steering wheel. The lieutenant says he’s hospitalized with serious injuries.

Vernon says no witnesses have come forward to the apparent car-to-car shooting. Investigators don’t know if the shooting is gang or narcotics related or the result of road rage.

The Bentley, which is peppered with bullet holes, does not have license plates.

Prominent Trader Accused of Defrauding Clients

Bernard L. Madoff, a legend among Wall Street traders, was arrested on Thursday morning by federal agents and charged with criminal securities fraud stemming from his company?s money management business.

The arrest and criminal complaint were confirmed just before 6 p.m. Thursday by Lev L. Dassin, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Mark Mershon, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the complaint, Mr. Madoff advised colleagues at the firm on Wednesday that his investment advisory business was ?all just one big lie? that was ?basically, a giant Ponzi scheme? that, by his estimate, had lost $50 billion over many years.

Related accusations were made in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Manhattan. That complaint accuses Mr. Madoff of defrauding advisory clients of his firm and seeks emergency relief to protect potential victims, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm.

Albino girl killed for body parts:

A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine. Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September.

Drug Gang Hangs Beheaded Man From Overpass:

A beheaded man was hung from an overpass Thursday, a gruesome display even for this northern border city long used to drug-related violence. Shortly after the grisly sighting about 5 a.m., police found the victim’s head in a black bag in a nearby plaza, said state police spokesman Alejandro Pariente. Pariente said the body was wearing black jeans, a red T-shirt and white sneakers, and was handcuffed. A banner apparently directed at rival drug-gang members was hung next to the corpse. The victim’s father identified the 23-year-old man.

Police: Suspect Steals Cash, Leaves Thumb

A man was ordered to be held without bail after police tied him to a recent armed robbery. But at least he has his thumb back. Police said Bryan Perez, 22, and an accomplice made off with hundreds of dollars in cash in an Oct. 11 raid at an alleged brothel in Washington’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. According to charging documents, one of the victims took control of Perez’s silver machete during a struggle and hacked off his right thumb. About two hours after the robbery, a nine-fingered Perez went to an emergency room. Police found out about it, fingerprinted the thumb and transported it to the hospital for a comparison, according to a report in The Examiner.

Gunfight At Baby Shower; Four Hurt

Detectives on Sunday continued collecting evidence and interviewing people as they investigated a baby shower that turned into a gunfight at a union hall on Oakwood Avenue.

Four people were shot and are recovering at area hospitals, said police Det. Capt. Paul Melanson.

Police were called to the United Auto Workers hall at 666 Oakwood Ave. about 11:20 p.m. Saturday for a report of a disturbance. By the time the first officers arrived, two of the wounded were on their way to Hartford Hospital by private car. Another victim was taken by ambulance. It remained unclear Sunday morning how the fourth victim got to the hospital.

One of the victims taken by car to Hartford Hospital suffered a life-threatening wound to the abdomen, but was recovering after surgery, Melanson said.

In addition to collecting and cataloging evidence, police interviewed the approximately 60 people attending the baby shower.

“Some were very helpful,” Melanson said of those at the shower. “Most were less than forthcoming.”

Woman walks through market holding severed head of man who tried to rape her

Crowds in a busy market fled in terror as a woman walked among them holding aloft the severed head of a man who had attacked her.

Covered in blood, she held the head high like a trophy, said police – her way of showing that she had delivered her own kind of justice to her attacker.

The gruesome scene was played out in Makkapurva village, 170 miles south east of the Indian city of Lucknow, where, last night, the woman was being held behind bars.

According to police officer Ram Bharose, the unnamed 35-year-old woman had sliced off the man’s head with a sickle she had been using to cut grass near her village.

‘She was getting grass for her cattle when the man came up from behind her and tried to sexually assault her,’ said Mr Bharose.

‘In a bid to save her dignity, she turned on him and during a struggle managed to chop off his head with the sickle.

British Man Sentenced to Prison for Hacking Wife to Death Over Facebook Status

A British man who killed his wife with a meat cleaver because she changed her Facebook status to “single” was sentenced to at least 14 years in a U.K. prison Friday, the Daily Mail reported.

Wayne Forrester, 35, was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine when he drove to their family home and murdered his wife, Emma, as she slept in her bed. The couple had recently separated and Forrester felt humiliated when Emma changed her relationship status to single on Facebook.

The police were called amid Emma?s screams for her life. Wayne emerged from the house, drenched in blood and gripping a carton of juice when the police arrived. Holding his stained hands out for handcuffs, the Mail Online reports he told police, “Who called you? My wife is in there. I killed her.”

Teen Girl Allegedly Enslaved, Sexually Assaulted in Seattle

Five immigrants from Afghanistan enslaved a teenage girl they brought to the United States, with some forcing her to do chores and one ? her 37-year-old husband ? beating and sexually assaulting her, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.

The girl is from an impoverished single-parent home in Afghanistan, and she was informally adopted by another family there that forced her to marry at age 13 in 2005, Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said Thursday. The girl’s husband is Mohammad Atahee, a friend of the adoptive family; U.S. officials don’t recognize the marriage.

1 in 3 ATL police academy grads have criminal records

Keovongsa Siharath was arrested in Henry County on charges he punched his stepfather.

Jeffrey Churchill was charged with assault in an altercation with a woman in a mall parking lot.

Calvin Thomas was taken into custody in DeKalb County on a concealed weapons charge.

 All three are now officers with the Atlanta Police Department.

 More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime, according to a review of their job applications. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault. More than one-third of the officers had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, and more than half of the recruits admitted using marijuana.

O.J. Simpson Found Guilty on All Charges in Robbery-Kidnap Trial

O.J. Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after he was acquitted of murder in 1995, was found guilty Friday of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. The 61-year-old former football star could spend the rest of his life in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 5. A weary and somber Simpson released a heavy sigh as the charges were read by the clerk in Clark County District Court. He was immediately taken into custody.

Crikey! 7-Year-Old Breaks Into Zoo, Feeds Animals to Croc

A blank-faced 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo’s director said Friday.

The boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia early Wednesday, then went on a 30-minute killing spree, using a rock to slay three lizards, including the zoo’s beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to “Terry,” an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.

The boy, whose deadly acts were caught on the zoo’s security camera, also threw several live animals to Terry over the two fences surrounding the crocodile’s enclosure, at one point climbing over the outer fence to get closer to the giant reptile. In the footage, the boy’s face remains largely blank, Neindorf said.

“It was like he was playing a game,” he said.

System administrator steals almost 20,000 pieces of computer gear

Now this is some serious computer theft. We’re talking 19,709 pieces of stolen computer equipment from the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. The theft included everything from PCs and printer toner to hard drives, software and other office equipment amounting to over $120,000 according to court documents and published reports.

 The systems administrator, Victor Papagno plead guilty in federal court today to stealing the items in a period between 1997 and 2007 to benefit Papagno and his friends, reports said.

He took so much stuff that he stored some of it in neighbors’ houses, according to WTOP.com a local news outlet.

 Tenants Say Dead Cats Used To Try To Evict Them:

Tenants of a Brooklyn building say their landlord came up with a new idea for how to kick them out: Let the smell of the cats out of the bag.

 Dead cats, that is.

The stench from the carcasses did catch the tenants’ attention — but they stayed and sued.

One tenant, Daisy Terry, told a City Hall news conference on Friday it was so bad she had to hold her nose coming down the stairs.

 The building in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood was purchased last year by a company listed in court papers as Heskel. A call to Heskel Properties in Manhattan was not immediately returned.

Engineer In Deadly Metrolink Crash Sent Text Message Just Before Collision

Metrolink officials Saturday put the blame squarely on the engineer of the train for the deadly crash that has claimed at least 25 lives. They say he ran a red light.

But a group of local teens, train enthusiasts, who know the engineer well doubt that he was to blame.

 They called their friend professional and caring and said he helped them learn about trains and being an engineer. To a man, they said he would “never” have been reckless or unprofessional or run a red light.

But one minute before the deadliest crash in Metrolink history, one teen — Nick Williams — said he received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer, whom the teens identified as Robert Sanchez.

Nearly 125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer:

An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That’s nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

Three Babies Found Dead in Freezer in West Germany, Mother Arrested

The bodies of three German infants have been found stuffed in a basement freezer and their mother has been arrested, a prosecutor’s spokesman said Monday.

Johannes Daheim said police determined the three infants had not been stillborn but did not say how old they were or what the cause of death was. He said the bodies were found Sunday night after police received a tip and searched the home in Wenden in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The name of the woman was not released. Police said they planned to hold a news conference about the case later Monday.

There have been a number of similar cases in Germany.