Buster Archive

Monthly archive

  • While the identification of possible nightclub suicide bombers is an estimable goal, a new NYPD guide offering security tips casts a wide net when it comes to possible dancing terrorists.

    As excerpted here, the police “Best Practices For Nightlife Establishments” guide suggests that club employees should be trained “in the detection of possible suicide bombers.” Noting that there are “many factors which may create suspicion of this activity,” police describe some things that could set off alarms, like “visible wires or tape.”

    But many other suspicious activities detailed by the NYPD sound like the routine behaviors seen in dance clubs and nightspots (especially when alcohol or Ecstasy are involved). Like:

     * “Two or more people communicating and trying not to be observed”

     * “Individuals with obvious signs of extreme stress or nervousness, such as bulging veins in the neck, profuse sweating, shaking hands, touching the face continuously, involuntary motions, apathy, distant stare or unfocused gazing, feeling the body continuously"

     * “Individuals whose speech includes stuttering, mumbling or chanting, or are hesitant or unresponsive.”

    Though that NYPD warning about the clubgoer who is holding a heavy piece of luggage close to their body seems to be a good one to heed.

  • What does a celebrity have to do to snag a six-figure endorsement deal for a fledgling appetite suppressing beverage? 

    Well, for “Dancing With The Stars” co-host Brooke Burke--who is svelte and does not appear prone to eating binges or super-sizing--the gig involved providing a yearly minimum of six “public consumption shots” memorializing her purported use of underWAY, a weight loss drink that promises to corral your hunger pangs via vitamins and a “super fiber.”

    In late-2009, Burke, 40, entered into endorsement and commercial contracts worth nearly $600,000 with Better Health Beverage, producer of underWAY. But after banking $312,500, Burke alleges in a federal lawsuit that Better Health recently defaulted on payments due to her.

    As seen in this excerpt, Burke’s U.S. District Court complaint includes a description of how she was required to stage paparazzi photos showing her “holding Products in public places during each Contract Year of the Term.” She could also deliver “mention or public consumption shots” of underWAY through “tweeting, blogging, on-air mentions, press or video interviews.”

    It is unclear whether Burke was contractually obligated to actually swallow the stuff, which comes in three flavors and was invented by Dr. Sasson Moulavi, who, according to the underWAY web site, has “helped thousands of patients lose millions of pounds.”

  • A 53-year-old man who was spotted watching “cartoon pornography” on a laptop while inside a McDonald’s “PlayPlace” is facing a pair of criminal charges, according to Mississippi police.

    Ronnie Hobbs was busted Friday night after a Natchez cop standing outside the McDonald’s playground looked through the window and saw Hobbs “watching cartoon pornography pictures inside a public place the images of which could be viewed from the parking lot and drive thru by other customers.”

    Hobbs, pictured in the above mug shot, was at McDonald’s with two minor children, according to a Natchez Police Department report. Hobbs’s relationship with the children is not further described by police.

    When confronted by Officer Stanley Starks, Hobbs “started logging his Acer Computer off. The suspect admitted he was addicted to pornography for several months.” Hobbs was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and publicly displaying sexually oriented material, both misdemeanors. He bonded out from custody after posting about $1400.

  • Meet Raj Rajaratnam.

    The billionaire hedge fund manager is pictured above in a mug shot taken after his arrest in October 2009 for securities fraud and conspiracy. In May, a U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan convicted Rajaratnam, 54, of 14 felony counts.

    The Wall Street titan is scheduled to be sentenced September 27. His booking photo (click to enlarge) was released by the United States Marshals Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

  • Here are the booking photos (click to enlarge) of the eight members of an Amish sect who were ordered jailed by a Kentucky judge after they refused to pay fines for failing to affix orange safety triangles to their horse-drawn buggies.

    The men, who were booked Monday night into the Graves County jail, refused to pay the fines on grounds that their religion bars them from wearing or displaying bright colors. Jailed for misdemeanor contempt of court, the inmates were provided dark-colored jumpsuits in place of the standard issue orange coveralls.

    The defendants were hit with a range of time in the county lockup (between three and 10 days) by District Court Judge Deborah Hawkins Crook.

    While members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect will affix reflective tape to the rear of their buggies, they eschew use of the bright safety triangle, which they consider too modern.

    Amish, buggy, Kentucky
  •  

    Now that video of some NYPD officers dirty dancing at last week’s West Indian Day parade is going viral, here are a few images showing some other members of New York’s Finest enjoying themselves at the annual Brooklyn celebration.

    As seen in the above images (click to enlarge each photo), one officer from the 78th Precinct in Park Slope was pinned against metal barricades by a costumed reveler who appears to be grinding the appreciative patrolman in the vicinity of his, um, utility belt. After those Caribbean ministrations, the cop accepted a kiss.

    Another dancer backed up on a second policeman, who actually pulled out his phone to record the view from above (which bemused onlooking cops and performers). As seen in this photo, the cop receiving the impromptu lap dance kept his weapon holstered at all times.

    The parade images were taken by photojournalist (and TSG pal) Nancy Siesel.

  • While driving yesterday with his wife and young daughter to a 9/11 ceremony in the Florida Keys, a Highway Patrol officer spotted a pantsless man exposing himself through the sunroof of a Mercedes-Benz, according to a police report.

    After the off-duty cop called in the sighting, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies pulled over the vehicle and quizzed its three occupants. The driver and a backseat passenger both admitted seeing Julio Mompeller, who was seated in the front seat, “standing up through the sunroof with his pants down and his genitals and buttocks exposed as they traveled southbound on US1.”

    The 31-year-old Mompeller, an unemployed Cuban native who lives in Miami, was arrested on a misdemeanor indecent exposure charge. It is unclear why Mompeller allegedly exposed himself to motorists at 8:30 on a Sunday morning.

    Mompeller, pictured in the above mug shot, was booked yesterday into the Monroe County lockup. He was released earlier today after posting $500 bond.

  • Meet Caius Veiovis.

    The Massachusetts man, 31, and two cohorts are facing murder and kidnapping charges in connection with the deaths of three men, one of whom was expected to testify against one of the accused killers in an upcoming criminal trial.

    Veiovis and his codefendants are connected to a Hells Angels chapter, according to investigators. The three men were scheduled to be arraigned this morning in District Court.

    While the “666” forehead tattoo is self explanatory, the significance of those foosball-sized implants is unknown. If you must, just click to enlarge the above booking photo.

    To view two other similarly skin-crawling mug shots click here and here.

  • Doesn’t Google supposedly use some high-tech program that supposedly pixelates the faces of unsuspecting individuals caught by its invasive Street View cameras?

    Well, as seen in the above photo (click to enlarge), one Miami woman did not receive that courtesy. She was caught sans clothes by the Google camera as she stood on the doorstep of her home, with a water jug in her hand. It is unknown why she was naked.

    In a second image, the woman appears to notice the Google Street View car as it continues driving down her block.

    At press time, the woman’s photo remains on Google, though the search giant will soon likely remove (or fog) the explicit image.

    9/10 UPDATE: As expected/predicted, Google has altered the Street View photos so that the naked woman is now behind a pixelation shroud.

  •  

    Meet the PayPal 14.

    The individuals pictured above (click to enlarge) were indicted in mid-July for allegedly participating last year in a coordinated denial of service attack against PayPal.

    The operation, the Department of Justice alleges, was orchestrated by “Anonymous,” the so-called online hacktivist collective, in retaliation for PayPal’s decision to suspend Wikileaks’s account with the online billing service.

    The 14 defendants--the combined frightening face of Anonymous incarnate--were each hit with two federal felony counts carrying a combined maximum of 15 years in prison (and a $500,000 fine).

    The alleged “Anonymous” affiliates--12 men and two women--are seen in United States Marshals Service mug shots. During an arraignment last week in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, each of the accused entered a not guilty plea.

  • Former prison guard-turned-gangster rapper Rick Ross will be likely be pleased to see lyrics of his turning up in a police arrest report.

    Iowa cops Monday night arrested Lindsey Sinn, 29, on a public intoxication charge after they were summoned to Iowa City’s Blue Moose Tap House due to “a female passed out on the bar stools.” Sinn, who refused to speak with police, initially agreed to leave with paramedics, but then “sat down at the bar and asked for another drink.”

    Since she smelled of booze, had slurred speech, and was uncooperative (which, we thought, were the reasons to go out drinking), Sinn was arrested, placed into a police cruiser, and transported to jail.

    Upon arrival at the Johnson County lockup, Sinn “began singing ‘Everyday I’m hustlin’, hustlin’, hustlin’,” to herself. That is the chorus from “Hustlin’,” Ross’s account of his purported days as a drug trafficker, pimp, and overall crime boss.

    Here’s hoping that Sinn gets a mention in one of those Maybach Music Group videos that Ross seems to churn out daily for Worldstar visitors.  

    Iowa, Rick Ross
  • The holiday weekend’s most amusing police report comes courtesy of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, whose officers Saturday morning responded to a vandalism call at the home of Brian Scott.

    According to investigators, Scott reported that during the evening someone had driven through his front yard, leaving behind about 15 feet of tire tracks. When a deputy asked about any other damage, the 35-year-old Scott replied that the unknown motorist had also left him a “present.”

    When Deputy M. Miller asked about the gift, Scott “pointed to what appeared to be a porcelain toilet,” according to the report. “Upon further inspection I confirmed that it was in fact a porcelain toilet and that the toilet contained what appeared to be human feces,” noted Miller.

    Scott told Miller that the toilet was “brought onto his property and left in his driveway.” The South Carolina homeowner added that, “whoever brought the toilet onto his driveway had sat down on it and had a bowel movement.”

    No arrests have been made in connection with the skid marks left on Scott’s lawn or the “present” deposited in his driveway.

    toilet, vandalism