Small Town Misfit

Montpelier, VT
The incident began routinely, when Officers Josh Macura, Wade Cochran and Andy Apgar went to investigate what sounded like a large party in progress at 31 Barre St. Cochran asked the people on the deck of the house to quiet down because it was late and then went around the corner of the house to talk to another group.

As the officers were getting ready to leave, a man walked down the fire escape declaring, “I will show them. I will kick their ass.” When he got to the bottom stair, Cochran asked the man, whom he said was intoxicated and disorderly, for identification. He was identified as John Whalen IV.

Whalen is a student at the New England Culinary Institute, Macura said. Cochran told one of Whalen’s friends to take him home or Whalen would have to be put in detox. Cochran and Macura started to leave, but Cochran saw Whalen fighting (verbally) with his friend, noticed that Whalen had blood on his hand and told him that he was putting him in protective custody. Whalen was tested later and found to have a blood alcohol concentration level of .161 — twice the level at which a person is considered impaired under Vermont law.

Officers Macura and Apgar put Whalen in a cell, and Macura repeatedly sat Whalen on the bench and told him to stay seated. Each time, however, Whalen stood up and followed him to the door, not giving Macura and Apgar time to get out of the cell and lock the door. Consequently, Macura said, he put Whalen in leg irons, which were looped through the bench in his cell. He told him to stay seated because if he tried to stand up, he would trip and fall. About 10 minutes later, Macura saw Whalen on the video monitor lying on the floor of his cell with his hands under his buttocks as if he were again trying to bring his handcuffed hands in front of his body. Macura said Whalen was yelling that he needed medical care and that he wanted his hands and feet uncuffed. He had fallen and cut his face.

The Montpelier Ambulance Service arrived and tried several times to help Whalen but, Macura said, Whalen refused to let them get near him until the police uncuffed his feet.

Whalen was handcuffed again, and the handcuffs were double locked and checked for tightness. Whalen resumed yelling and “being uncooperative,” Macura said. Whalen was put in the police car and buckled into the seat belt, but every time the officers got him seated and buckled in, Whalen removed the belt and tried to get out of the car.

When the police arrived at Central Vermont Medical Center around 2 a.m. with Whalen, he refused to walk, so he was put in a wheelchair. He was wheeled into a room in the emergency department, where he continued to yell and swear. The hospital staff told him that they would not tolerate such behavior, and that if he didn’t calm down and stop yelling, they wouldn’t treat him. Whalen was put in a bed and the hospital staff attempted to treat his injuries while he continued to yell at them and at Apgar, Macura and an officer from the Berlin police department. Ultimately, Whalen received three stitches to his left eyebrow and put ointment on the knuckles of his right hand, which the officers had earlier noticed was bloody.

Afterwards, around 3 a.m., Whalen was taken to the St. Johnsbury Correctional Center, the long-term holding facility for the Montpelier Police Department, because he was so intoxicated and aggressive. While he was being transported, he was put in leg irons, handcuffs and a helmet (he was hitting his head on the car window). When the group arrived at the correctional facility, Whalen yelled and swore at the corrections officers who were trying to remove his cuffs, the police report said.

Read the whole saga in the Times Argus

Thanks Patrioticgorilla!

Newport, KY
The Ferrari.

Insanely fast. Absurdly expensive. And - in the path of a 10-year-old boy - utterly defenseless.

Just ask Arthur James Ibold.

The Cincinnati man’s million-dollar-plus, mint-condition 1971 Ferrari, with all its vaunted Italian-made power, proved virtually powerless against the destructive force of a fourth-grader in Newport Monday, police said.

The problem began about 5:15 p.m. when the boy - whose mother asked that he remain anonymous - was doing what 10-year-olds do best: running mindlessly through the neighborhood.

To be fair, this particular boy had a pretty good reason to run. He was being chased by another boy, who on that afternoon happened to be armed with a very dirty diaper he had just “found.” In other words, it was a life-and-death pursuit.

The 10-year-old might have gotten away had it not been for that bright orange Ferrari, parked at the corner of East Ninth and Washington streets. That, according to the police report, stopped the youngster when he apparently ran headlong into the machine.

The boy “slid across the hood … causing the hood to scratch and crease. The crease was approximately 18 inches in length,” wrote Newport Police Officer Todd Suszek

“The vehicle is a classic vehicle that is in excellent to mint condition. The vehicle is all original. Listed suspect admitted to this officer that he did it.”

The officer’s words suggest that even the objective eyes of the law got a little misty at the sight of the pricey Ferrari’s new flaw. Whether Ibold was shedding any tears at this point is unclear - he did not return calls for comment.

But the boy’s mom said she was soon crying, as was her son, even before he learned that he had been charged with first-degree criminal mischief Wednesday.

The boy’s mother, who is currently unemployed, is stumped as to how she will pay for the damage, no matter how small. She said she has not heard anything further from Ibold or the police.

Be sure to read the whole story in the Kentucky Post

Thanks Luann!

Chico, CA
4:40 p.m. Welfare check reported on the 500 block of Nord Avenue. “Reporting party’s mom has painted herself and thinks the reporting party is not her son, but a stranger in a skin suit.”

Found in the Orion

Appleton, WI
Suspicious incident: Police approached a man who was using a laptop computer in his car in the 200 block of E. Brewster Street. The man was using someone else’s insecure wireless Internet connection to download music. Because the man was parked outside of an apartment building, officers could not determine the victim.

Found in the Appleton Post-Crescent

Chico, CA
1:18 a.m. Disturbance reported on the 600 block of W. Fifth Street. “Subjects were throwing toilets out of the second floor window. Broken toilet all over the front yard.”

Found in the Orion

Columbia, SC
A man called police at 9 a.m. Saturday saying a woman had stolen his car. The 25-year-old man said he met a woman at a bar and they went to a nearby motel. He said he awoke the next morning to find his car, car keys, watch, necklace and $20 missing, along with the woman. The man described what the woman was wearing, but told police he didn’t know her name.

Found in the State

Palm Beach, FL
On Saturday, May 12, officers and Fire Rescue were dispatched to Best Western in reference to an ill female requesting to go to the hospital. Arriving on the scene, they met with a guest from Georgia who seemed quite embarrassed. She had merely called the desk asking about the nearest hospital due to there being a difficulty with a pregnancy. The matter was concerning her domesticated rabbit that was in the room in a cage with all the amenities, behaving strangely and apparently pregnant.

Found in the Weekday Newspaper

Rio Grande, NM
5 p.m. — A woman came to the Police Department and reported that a man she knew was following her around town after they had exchanged a child. A report was taken.

Found in the Rio Grande Sun

Durango, CO
7:17 p.m. A woman said a 50-year-old man in a white truck with New Mexico plates threw pornography out of his vehicle at her children in the 300 block of East Fifth Avenue.

Found in the Durango Herald

Appleton, WI
A resident in the 300 block of E. Harrison Street reported that someone broke into a parked vehicle using two coat hangers, a screwdriver and a meat skewer.

Found in the Appleton Post-Crescent

Cincinnati, OH
All John Louis Winter wanted was a ride to his Price Hill home.

Instead, police gave him a ride to the pokey.

Winter, 59, was arrested at 2:04 a.m. today, accused of making three calls to 911 knowing there was no emergency.

Twice, police warned him to stop.

When he did it a third time, police documents note, he was arrested and charged with making false alarms.

He told police he just wanted a ride home.

He is expected in court Thursday.

Found in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Thanks Luann!

Rio Grande, NM
12:03 p.m. — A caller stated that someone had stolen his 1969 Ford Escort from Home Improvement, but canceled his call for an officer when he realized that he had been driving his work truck instead.

Found in the Rio Grande Sun