Legal Juice

As a parent, you want to make sure your kids can handle themselves when they are on their own. This is not how you do it. As reported by swflcrimestoppers.org:

Southwest FloridaCrime Stoppers is asking for the public’s help identifying two women who utilized the innocence of several young children to commit a felony crime earlier this week.

According to deputies, two adult females, and five young children, entered the Gymboree store at 20350 Summerlin Road, Fort Myers, on Tuesday evening, July 23, to go shopping. When they approached the check out counter, another female was there speaking with one of the employees. When the suspect became engaged in that conversation, one of the children swiped the victims wallet, which was left on the counter. Once the stolen wallet was in hand, the troupe quickly exited the store and left in a white colored vehicle. The victim’s phone was also taken, but was found shortly thereafter along the roadside near Tanger Outlets.

“Down on the floor!” – or something like that – said the knife-wielding, would-be robber of the Cigarette Outlet in Des Moines, Iowa. Although employee #1 complied, #2 (Ruth Wright) didn’t, and grabbed a couple cans of chewing tobacco. Per the Des Moines Register:

Wright threw two cans of chewing tobacco at the man, one of which bounced off his face. A customer tackled the robber, but the robber broke off and ran out the door. Wright then called the store’s manager, who contacted police.

The almost robber? Old Mr. Wrong, “still wearing his black mask and a jacket, fled west on foot.”

This story reminds The Juice of the time he was in a bank years ago and he happened to overhear a conversation between a disgruntled account holder and the manager. “They cleaned out my account” she said. “They said I won the lottery, and they needed my account number to wire the proceeds. How could you let them do this?” Yes, she was trying to blame the bank. The manager asked her if she had played the lottery. When she replied that she hadn’t, the manager asked “Then how did you think you could have won it?” Bam! Manager of the Year! Here’s a somewhat similar, though much less egregious, story as reported by brooklynpaper.com:

68th Precinct – Bay Ridge—Dyker Heights

A scammer bilked an 80th Street woman out of $1,500 over the phone between Oct. 21 and Oct. 30, police state. The victim said she got the first call at 10:45 am at her home between 11th and 12th avenues, informing her that she had won the lottery and needed to send a $1,500 deposit to receive the prize. After getting several more calls during the next week, the woman decided to send the dough in the form of three $500 gift cards. She got a check for $3,950, but when she went to cash it at 11:20 am, it bounced.

This guy must have played Grand Theft Auto, because what he did could have come straight out of the game. As reported by kaj18.c0m (Montana):

The day-long crime spree happened on May 23, 2013.

And what a day it was.