Lowell, Massachusetts Police asked a 21 year-old motorist if he would like to take anything from his car before they took him to the station to be booked on motor vehicle charges.

Police say he pulled a one-pound bag of marijuana out of the trunk.

The man now faces charges of possession of the drug, with intent to distribute.

Ernest Dumpti was feeling so wealthy after he allegedly helped steal $90,000 from an elderly woman that he decided to pay off a year’s worth of his rent, police said.

The problem was he tried to pay it off in $50,000 cash, to his landlord — a Reno police officer.

Dumpti, 39, and his alleged accomplice Patrick Payne, 43, were booked Monday into the Washoe County Jail for investigation of grand larceny.

The men allegedly took the money from the attic of a Reno woman whose home they were renovating, Reno police said.

Officer Jim Stegmaier said he became suspicious when Dumpti told him he had come into some cash and wanted to pay a year in advance on the property he rents from the officer.

Dumpti allegedly showed Stegmaier the money while Stegmaier was wearing his police uniform.

Police detectives then obtained a search warrant for Dumpti’s home and recovered the $90,000. The woman was not aware the money was missing until she was contacted by police.

An elderly man tried to firebomb a Brisbane, Australia home in the mistaken belief it was occupied by someone alleged to have cheated him out of a $2.5 million Lotto win, a court heard today.

Milan Laus, 77, of Red Hill in Brisbane’s inner west, pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted murder and one of attempted arson. Prosecutor Charlie Clark told the Supreme Court jury that on that on August 18 of last year, Laus rode his moped at 5am to a nearby street in Red Hill and lobbed a Molotov cocktail at the back of a home owned by Andrew and Sonya Clay.

When Mr. Clay, a former police officer, raced outside to see what was happening, Laus allegedly attempted to fire his Chinese assault rifle at him half a dozen times, but it failed to discharge.

The Molotov cocktail - a petrol-filled wine bottle with sparklers strapped to it - had also failed to ignite when it landed next to the dog’s kennel near the backyard deck.

Laus told police he had lived in the Clay’s house 16 years earlier with a coal miner called Dusan Gribic.

The court heard Mr. Gribic had sold the house to the Clays in 1999.

Laus had admitted he was angry with Mr. Gribic, whom he believed had stolen a Gold Lotto ticket from him worth $2.5 million.

“There was an ongoing dispute since 1986 and he had sought numerous avenues of redress all to no avail,” said Mr. Clark.

“The issue was on the boil in his own mind as late as 2002 when he had solicitors pursuing it.”

Mr. Clark said Laus had denied any wrongdoing.

He told the police he only stopped there because his moped light wasn’t working and he had just gone for a walk with his gun.

A 20 year-old man told San Rafael, California police he was wounded in a drive-by shooting while using a pay phone. But after several hours of questioning, he told police the gun went off as he tried to draw it from his waistband.

The man described himself as a member of a Richmond gang and said he tried to pull the gun when saw rival gang members approaching.

It then went off accidentally, wounding him in the buttock and thigh.

Police searched his vehicle and found the small-caliber handgun, another gun that turned out to be stolen and methamphetamine.

Friday, March 25, 2005

By PATRICK JOHNSON

SPRINGFIELD - It turned out that Andre Luckey wasn’t lucky at all.

The 27-year-old resident of 4 Peer St. was arrested on drug and weapons charges yesterday morning in his girlfriend’s School Street apartment after he was caught - literally - with his pants down, said Capt. William J. Noonan of the police Detective Bureau.

Luckey already was under arrest for warrant charges related to heroin distribution, Noonan said, but when he asked officers to hand him his pants from the bedroom floor, Luckey’s luck went from bad to worse.

When police checked the pockets before giving him his pants, they found 12 rocks of crack cocaine and some Ecstasy, Noonan said.

Then they noticed the handle of a gun sticking out from the pillow of his bed, and the gun, a .22-caliber loaded with 10 rounds, turned out to have a defaced serial number, Noonan said.

As a result, Luckey faces several additional offenses beyond the warrant charges, Noonan said.

Lucky was charged with possession of a Class B substance, crack cocaine, with intent to distribute, possession of a Class E substance, Ecstasy, possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card, possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and possession of a firearm while having three prior drug convictions, according to Noonan.

The arrest was made by Springfield detectives Norman Shink and Sean Condon and Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Michael Habel of the Hampden County District Attorney’s Violence and Firearms Task Force.

Story courtesy of Patrick Johnson. Copyright 2005 MassLive.com. All Rights Reserved.

While on holday in New York, my friend had her wallet stolen out of her purse. We knew there was nothing we could do so we reported it to the police and went home to Virginia.

A couple of days later we got a phone call from Victoria’s Secret asking us why we were getting stuff delivered to an address in New York, rather than to our address in Virginia. Needless to say we got the cops to look into it and the crooks had given their home address for the delivery.

A man and woman went into their local Target, selected $330 worth of DVDs and CDs, stuffed them into a shopping bag and proceeded to leave the store. Naturally, store security wasn’t thrilled with the idea and stopped them. Turns out the woman lived across the street from the store and had been in earlier in the day to apply for a job.

We understand she wasn’t hired.