Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Snippets...

Had a bunch of stories sent in that I wanted to address, so here's a bunch all at once. Call it the "shotgun" approach...

Stretch sends one in that's going to have me seriously thinking about sleeping with a .308 under the pillow...

Giant rat killed by pitchfork in Marcy Houses is believed to be Gambian pouched rat

Be careful. There's a picture at the link. I now understand why we have flamethrowers...

Wally sends in this infuriating story:

Burglar's family awarded $300,000 in wrongful death suit
An El Paso County jury on Friday awarded nearly $300,000 to the daughter of a burglar who was fatally shot in 2009 while breaking into an auto lot.

Parents of the victim, Robert Johnson Fox, embraced their attorneys after a judge announced the jury’s verdict, capping a two-week-long civil trial in which business owner Jovan Milanovic and two relatives were painted as vigilantes who plotted a deadly ambush rather than let authorities deal with a string of recent burglaries.
Right. Because the authorities had been ever-so-eager and willing to stake out the business all night long to catch meth-heads stealing stereos. Watch how fast they move. Anyone that's ever had their car broken into and has dealt with "the authorities" knows that smash&grab crimes are not particularly high on the list of "crimes that get significant attention by the police". What's worse, though, is that the recently deceased had three knives on his person, yet was allegedly "no threat" - hello? I was unaware that the police were now able to read dead people's minds...

Reader 8notch sends in a cautionary tale about being a speedtrap tattletale:

Class action suit says Florida Highway Patrol illegally tickets motorists who warn others about speed traps

Tampa, Florida -- When the Florida Highway Patrol pulls someone over on the highway, it's usually because they were speeding.

But Eric Campbell was pulled over and ticketed while he was driving the speed limit.

Yep. The "offense"? "Improper flashing of high beams". You can almost hear the cops laughing as they wrote the ticket... Mr. Campbell is suing the police for improper ticketing - plus $15K in damages. I hope he gets it.

The Big Guy informs us that we have our very own lounge. Something tells me you don't want to order a screwdriver there...

One last one from Stretch, a warning to be careful in the desert:

Two tourists killed by heat stroke after getting out of car to go for help in California desert
A Dutch music promoter and his German girlfriend died from heat stroke after apparently getting out of their car in the California desert to go for help.

Augustinus Van Hove, 44, and Helena Nuellet, 38, drove into Joshua Tree National Park before noon on Monday and took a remote, dirt road to head towards Arizona, according to police.
They chose the wrong vehicle, and upon getting stuck chose the wrong option. Rather than calling for help and sitting tight, they proceeded on foot. It proved to be the last mistake they would make.


Be careful out there, for a wide variety of reasons.

That is all.

5 comments:

Veeshir said...

I recently moved to Arizona and it's weird.
I grew up in upstate NY and have lived my life mostly on the coasts (when not in upstate NY) and it's weird.

The margin for error is much slimmer here, you can tell that just walking the dog.

It's hard to understand when you've been raised in a place where all the really dangerous stuff has been killed and it's basically a big park.
Out here is almost like a jungle or rain forest in that it's actively trying to kill you an awful lot.
Saw my first scorpion in the house the other day. My friends are still laughing at how freaked out I was.

Braden Lynch said...

Shake out your shoes before trying to put them on! Scorpions like to hide in them. Ouch!

TinCan Assassin said...

That El Paso judge should be shot for allowing the wrongful death case to go forward. Then shoot the burglar's family before they can collect. Obviously they didn't get the message from thier son's death. You steal, you die. Vigilante my ass.

Armed Texan said...

I have a feeling that the El Paso case will be overturned on appeal. The castle doctrine law specifically states that you can not tried civily for protecting your property and/or life if you can not be held criminally liable. Now maybe there are other circumstances that opened the door for the civil suit, but I would need a lawyer to explain it to me. It's more likely that the judge decided he didn't like the law and decided to deny the motion for dismissal because of the law, seeing as El Paso is only slightly less blue than Moscow on the Colorado (aka Austin).

Anonymous said...

The El Paso case is El Paso COunty, Colorado. COlorado is weird about gun stuff, especially the Front Range cities like Colorado Springs, Boulder or Ft. Collins. They've been heavily Californiated, which seems to terminate many functions of common sense.

LittleRed1