Man kicked out of Wisconsin store after using his shirt as a ‘mask’
This bellyacher was no match for workers at a Wisconsin store who kicked him out after he pulled his shirt over his face – exposing his big gut — and insisted it was a mask, according to a report.
The sartorially challenged customer was caught on video at the LDF Country Market on a Native American reservation in Lac Du Flambeau, where he refused to wear an actual mask amid the pandemic, Newsweek reported.
“There’s an irate white man on the reservation trying to boss us around right here folks,” the worker recording the incident is heard saying, prompting the customer to ask why “race” was dragged into the situation.
“This is what they look like. You were asked three times
and you didn’t listen. You’re on a sovereign nation, if you don’t like it, get out,” the employee replied.
“Please leave, sir,” another employee tells the stubborn shopper, who is wearing a US Marines cap. “You have to purchase a mask at the door or you have to go home and get one.”
But the man keeps holding his shirt up to his face.
“This mask is fine, what’s wrong with this mask? It’s the same as yours,” he says.
“That’s not a mask,” a few staffers in the Lake Superior Chippewa reservation area tell him.
The local tribal council recently passed a resolution that allows only permanent residents on tribal land during the coronavirus pandemic, Newsweek reported.
“We are requiring consumers and staff to do the six-foot distancing and masks are required within the business,” a store manager told the mag.
“We do have the right under tribal reservation codes to enforce the mask requirement and we’re also within our rights to call tribal PD to escort out people being rowdy or refusing to follow our guidelines,” the manager added.
After fruitlessly asking the employees to provide their names, the customer was later removed by authorities.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/man-kicked-out-of-wisconsin-store-after-using-shirt-as-a-mask/
Photo Credit: twitter
Two Chinese hackers charged with trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research
Two Chinese hackers have been charged with attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research from government agencies and private companies, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
The two men allegedly worked with the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the Guangdong State Security Department to conduct a “sweeping global computer intrusion campaign,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said during a news conference.
Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 31, targeted intellectual property and confidential business information held by companies related to coronavirus treatment, testing and vaccines, he said.
Pharmaceutical and defense companies, high-tech manufacturing, makers of medical devices, gaming software corporations and solar energy companies were among the industries the two focused on.
“According to the indictment, these malicious cyber activities began more than 10 years ago and were ongoing as of the date of the indictment,” Demers said. “During that time, the hackers stole terabytes of data from hundreds of targets, establishing themselves as a prolific threat to U.S. and foreign networks.”
The charges allege the hackers also tried to access the accounts of non-governmental organizations, dissidents, clergy and human rights activists in the US, China and Hong Kong.
Li and Dong focused on high-tech companies in the US, Britain, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Spain, South Korea and Sweden.
The indictments, filed in US District Court in Washington show that Beijing is using cyber thefts as part of a worldwide campaign to “rob, replicate and replace” non-Chinese companies in the global marketplace, the Justice Department said.
Demers also noted in his remarks that China is providing a “safe haven” for criminals in exchange for their work.
“China has now taken its place, alongside Russia, Iran and North Korea, in that shameful club of nations that provide a safe haven for cyber criminals in exchange for those criminals being ‘on call’ to work for the benefit of the state, here to feed the Chinese Communist Party’s insatiable hunger for American and other non-Chinese companies’ hard-earned intellectual property, including COVID-19 research,” the assistant attorney general said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/chinese-hackers-charged-with-trying-to-steal-vaccine-research/
Photo Credit: FBI
Michigan woman tried to use fake hitman website www.rentahitman.com to kill ex-husband
A Michigan woman tried to have her ex-husband killed for $5,000 by contacting a fake hitman website, state police said.
Wendy Wein, 51, of South Rockwood, was arrested Friday after she visited a bogus website — www.rentahitman.com — and completed a “service request form” requesting a consultation to help her with an “issue,” Michigan State Police said Tuesday.
“Wein specified her ex-husband as the target of her problems,” police said in a news release. “The owner of the website contacted the Michigan State Police because he was concerned that Wein may be attempting to kill her husband.”
An undercover state trooper posing as a hitman then met with Wein in a parking lot in her hometown, police said.
At the meeting, Wein offered the undercover trooper $5,000 to kill her ex-husband, who lives in another state, police said.
Wein was arraigned Tuesday on charges of solicitation to commit murder and illegal use of a computer to facilitate a crime. She was ordered held at a Monroe County jail on $500,000 bond, the Monroe News reports.
Since launching the fake website in 2005, the owner of http://www.rentahitman.com told investigators he had been contacted numerous times by people requesting murders, school shootings and even a child abduction, state police said.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/22/michigan-woman-tried-to-use-fake-hitman-website-to-kill-ex-husband/
Photo Credit: Monroe County Jail
Montana man accused of over 60 child sex abuse counts gets a year sentence
A man in Montana who was initially charged with more than 60 counts of child sex abuse has received a deferred one-year sentence after agreeing to a plea deal, according to reports.
William Edward Miller Jr., 51, of Great Falls, was arrested in February 2019 after a 14-year-old high school student accused him of raping her at her home a year prior. She alleged that Miller allowed an 11-year-old boy to rape her while he watched in a separate encounter.
Later that August, state prosecutors filed 64 counts of sexual abuse of children against Miller after investigators allegedly found images of child pornography and bestiality on his phone and laptop, the Great Falls Tribune reported. Police received a search warrant on his home after Miller allegedly began calling people from jail asking them to destroy his phone, KFBB reported.
Miller would later accept a plea deal that involved prosecutors dropping the majority of the charges against him. He pleaded guilty to one count of felony sexual abuse of children and one count of misdemeanor unsworn falsification to authorities.
Cascade County District Judge Elizabeth Best on Monday sentenced Miller to six months in the Cascade County Detention Center for the misdemeanor. He received credit for 384 days of time served. On the felony charge, Miller was slapped with a one-year deferred sentence and was ordered to complete sex offender treatment in the community, according to the Tribune. Under a deferred sentence, the child sex abuse charge could be wiped from Miller’s record if he doesn’t commit a crime over the next year, according to KFBB.
The felony count for which Miller pleaded guilty came in connection to a photograph of then 17-year-old Shiloh Young. The woman, now 19, has been married to Miller for three months and testified that she took the photo herself two years ago to help her overcome body issues.
“William is a kind, compassionate, empathetic man. Never has he manipulated or controlled me,” Young told the judge, according to the Tribune. “I ask that we be free of this charge. I feel that we have suffered enough, and I am not a victim of my husband.”
Photo Credit: Cascade County Detention Center
Man faked death to avoid jail but typo gave him away
NEW YORK (AP) — A Long Island criminal defendant tried faking his death to avoid a jail sentence, but the phony death certificate his lawyer submitted had a glaring spelling error that made it a dead giveaway for a fraud, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Robert Berger, 25, of Huntington, New York, now faces up to four years in prison if convicted in the alleged scheme. That’s in addition to pending sentences for earlier guilty pleas to charges of possession of a stolen Lexus and attempted grand larceny of a truck — punishment prosecutors say he was looking to avoid.
“It will never cease to amaze me the lengths some people will go to to avoid being held accountable on criminal charges,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a telephone interview.
Arraigned by video Tuesday because of the coronavirus pandemic, Berger pleaded not guilty to a single count of offering a false instrument for filing. A judge set bail at $1 but ordered Berger back to jail because of his underlying cases. His next court date is scheduled for July 29.
A message seeking comment was left with a public defender who took over Berger’s case after the lawyer who submitted the suspicious death certificate claimed he’d been used as a pawn and had nothing to do with the alleged shenanigans.
Scheduled to be sentenced to a year in jail last October on the theft-related charges, Berger fled the state, while taking steps to convince his then-lawyer, prosecutors and the judge that he had killed himself — including allegedly using his fiance to pass along a bogus death certificate, prosecutors said.
At first glance, Berger’s purported death certificate looked like an official document issued by the New Jersey Department of Health, Vital Statistics and Registry, but there was one big problem: Registry was spelled “Regsitry,” prosecutors said. There were also inconsistencies in the font type and size that raised suspicions, they said.
The real New Jersey Department of Health, Vital Statistics and Registry confirmed that Berger’s death certificate was a fake, prosecutors said.
Berger was alive, but not entirely well. While supposedly dead, he’d been arrested in suburban Philadelphia on charges including allegations he provided a false identity to law enforcement and stole from a Catholic college. He was sentenced in January to up to a year in jail, according to Pennsylvania court records.
Berger’s case was reminiscent of one six years ago in which a former Coast Guard petty officer-turned-shoe salesman posed as a former military lawyer, soliciting clients and appearing in court. That man, Kenneth Goldstein, was outed as a fraud when he started rambling in an un-lawyerlike fashion in a Long Island courtroom.
“You’re gonna get caught,” Singas said. “We say it all the time. Crime doesn’t pay. We’ll catch up with you eventually. In this case, it’s never a good idea to submit phony documents to the district attorney. We were able to make sure that he wasn’t able to get away with it.”
via: https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/xandr/da-man-faked-death-avoid-203349315.html
Photo Credit: courthousenews.com
Boy, 7, found unconscious in street with serious head injury after apparent random attack in Desert Hot Springs; Arrest made
A man faces an attempted murder charge after a 7-year-old boy was attacked and seriously injured in Desert Hot Springs over the weekend, authorities said.
Officers were dispatched to the 9600 block of Vista Del Valle around 7:10 p.m. Saturday after the child was found unconscious in the street, according to a Desert Hot Springs Police Department news release.
He had suffered a critical head injury and was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center.
After speaking with witnesses and gathering evidence, officers determined the boy “had been deliberately attacked and injured,” the release stated.
They identified 32-year-old Daniel Poulsen as the suspect and arrested him early the next day, police said.
He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and is being held on $1 million bail, according to Riverside County inmate records.
Poulsen lives in the same neighborhood as the boy, but did not appear to know him, Deputy Chief Steven Shaw told Palm Springs television station KESQ.
“Everything is indicating this is an absolutely random attack,” he said to the station.
The victim, identified only as Gavin, had to undergo surgery and is “fighting for his life,” according to a GoFundMe account.
“He was intubated and some of his very fractured skull removed to allow his brain to swell without further injury,” the page stated.
A breathing tube was removed Monday. While Gavin’s condition appears to be slowly improving, he remains hospitalized.
The GoFundMe seeks to raise money for costs related to this child’s medical care and recovery. His mother, a teacher, recently lost her husband to cancer and is raising two children by herself, according to the fundraiser’s organizer.
“Y’all, she is the kindest and best of us. Definitely one of our better angels and Gavin did NOT deserve this,” wrote Mandy Franklin, who identified herself as a family friend. “I know the world is haywire right now. I know the future is uncertain. But this is where we need to shine and lift up those of us in need.”
Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident, and anyone with information is asked to call
Detective Tooth at 760-329-2904, ext. 352.
Photo Credit: ktla.com
A Florida mother lost a son to Covid-19. Days later, her daughter also died of it
(CNN) — A Florida mother said two of her adult children died of Covid-19 within 11 days of each other.
Monete Hicks’ son Byron and daughter Mychaela, of Lauderhill, had health issues but were fine and “basically homebound,” she said. Then they took a trip to Orlando just before they became sick, Hicks said.
Byron, 20, had trouble breathing when he woke up one Saturday in late June. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but about noon, “I lost my baby,” Hicks said in an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
Mychaela, 23, started feeling ill the following Tuesday and insisted her mother take her to the hospital, she said.
“‘Mama, just crank up the car, let’s go,'” Hicks said her daughter insisted, even though she didn’t like hospitals.
“She went in with a headache, fever,” Hicks said. It went from not breathing, got worse “She lost a kidney, her liver began to fail. And it just went one after another, one after another.”
Her children “are my heart and will always be my heart,” Hicks said.
Byron was a gamer who loved his games and his family, his cousin, Darisha Scott, said. He was “very funny, just the goofball of the family.”
Mychaela “was the light of the family, her smile could light up a room,” Scott said.
Hicks and Scott are urging other people to take the virus seriously.
“All I can say is, take this, take this (virus) very seriously, because it’s real, it’s out there,” Hicks said.
“It’s not a joke. It’s not a game, it’s not something that the government … made up,” Scott said.
Wear a mask, wash your hands, keep your distance and “don’t come out unless you really, really got to, especially here in Florida,” she said.
“Nobody should have to feel the pain, my auntie shouldn’t have to feel this pain.”
Photo Credit: kmov.com/Courtesy Monete Hicks
Mom charged after crying baby found in trash outside North Carolina church
A mother accused of leaving her newborn in a trash can outside a North Carolina church has been arrested, police said.
Maryuri Estefany Calix-Macedo, 21, was taken into custody on a first-degree attempted murder charge by Wilmington police after a woman walking her dog near Christ Community Church discovered the newborn boy Thursday, the News & Observer reports.
Police announced the woman’s arrest on Saturday, days after releasing a statement that a newborn boy was “left for dead” in a trash can in the church’s parking lot until someone heard his cries and called cops.
“I knew he was alive when I found him and I knew that was a good thing,” Cynthia Burton, who discovered the child, told WECT. “But I knew I didn’t have a lot of time.”
Burton found the boy — who “cried out to live,” she said — covered in blood with his umbilical cord still wrapped around his neck, the station reports.
“I know God put me at that place at that time,” Burton said.
The boy, who was taken to a hospital after he was found, was “healthy and doing well,” Wilmington police said Thursday.
Calix-Macedo, who was initially taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center for an assessment, was later booked into the New Hanover County Detention Facility, where she remained held on $800,000 bond, jail records show.
Photo Credit: Wilmington Police
Show me your papers’: California ‘Karen’ confront landscaper
A white woman repeatedly asked a landscaper at a city-owned housing complex in California to show her his “papers,” video shows.
The unidentified woman first blows a kiss to the landscaper as he worked Wednesday at an affordable housing complex in Rancho Mirage, according to a 2-minute clip shot by Juan Carlos Andrade Mendez.
The smiling woman then circles Mendez before blocking his way, prompting the man to ask her to step aside as he shuts off his mower, video shows.
“Can you move?” Mendez said. “I’m doing my work. Can you move?”
The landscaper also asks the woman to put on a face covering, saying she was standing “too close” to him amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the clip.
“You’re not wearing a mask, can you step away?” Mendez asks.
“Can you show me your papers?” the woman calmly replies before cutting the landscaper off when he asks if she an immigration official. “No, no, I want to see your papers.”
The woman then walked away briefly before returning and continuing to ask where the man was from,” video shows.
“No, you’re not Mexican,” she told Mendez after he made a playful reference to Mexico.
“What am I?” Mendez replies.
“I don’t know, you tell me,” said the woman, who later surmises he may Filipino or Vietnamese, according to the clip.
“I’m Chinese, actually,” the man replies. “Oh my goodness, you’re funny. You just made my day.”
The vile clip that went viral on social media sparked an investigation in Rancho Mirage that had been “pretty much” completed as of Sunday, the Desert Sun reports.
“It wasn’t very difficult,” city attorney Steve Quintanilla told the newspaper.
The investigation centered on city housing policy and whether any steps needed to be taken to prevent similar encounters from occurring, but officials decided it was an isolated incident, Quintanilla said.
Still, property managers at the development – Parkview Villas on San Jacinto Drive – are conducting a separate investigation that could to the woman’s eviction, Quintanilla said.
“I can say action will be taken,” Quintanilla told the newspaper, declining to elaborate.
Quintanilla also refused to identify the woman. City officials have said, however, she was a resident of the complex for people 55 and over, the newspaper reports.
“This matter will not be ignored, nor tolerated,” Mayor Dana Hobart said in a statement. “It is appalling to learn of the hateful misconduct of one of Rancho Mirage’s senior living residents. Racist conduct if any sort is strictly prohibited and not taken lightly in our public housing.”
Mendez, meanwhile, told Storyful it wasn’t the first time the woman interrupted his work, saying he recorded the interaction to show a property manager at the property, where he works twice a week, he said.
Mendez told NBC Palm Springs the woman also told him to “go back to his country” as he worked there some months ago.
“Like any other complex, I was just doing the work for all of them, mowing the lawn,” he told the station. “I passed by her apartment and when I turned around to do the second round, that’s when I saw her standing … When she was harassing me, I started to feel mad because I was just doing my work.”
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/20/show-me-your-papers-watch-this-california-karen-confront-landscaper/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Woman pees on floor of Verizon store after refusing to wear mask
A California Verizon store’s mask-wearing rule really pissed one customer off – so she dropped her pants and urinated on the floor, according to a report.
A police dispatch operator in Roseville told officers that three people “are refusing to leave, not wearing a mask … they’ve asked several times and she refuses,” according to CBS Sacramento.
“They’re calling back and advising that the female is pulling down her pants and is now urinating inside the business,” the operator adds a few minutes later.
The responding officers collared the woman and found several items that had been stolen from a nearby Dick’s Sporting Goods store in her car, according to the outlet.
“That’s totally inappropriate. We’re not animals,” resident Michelle Davidson told CBS Sacramento about the woman’s vile act in the store.
“I’m very disappointed that we as a society choose to have this unity and let the virus divide us,” she added about those who reject calls to wear face masks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Another resident, Kelly Berger, said: “I don’t really have much to say except that’s probably not the right way to react to it. Simply wear the mask or leave, I guess.”
Verizon rep Heidi Flato told the outlet that the company is requiring all customers to wear masks in their stores.
She added that the incident wasn’t just about the mask policy but wouldn’t comment further.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/07/20/woman-pees-on-floor-of-verizon-store-after-refusing-to-wear-mask/
Photo Credit: dailymail.uk.co