Archive for the 'I've Got Something' Category
Scantily clad barista charged
February 24, 2010The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington)
BYLINE: ADAM LYNN; Staff writer
Pierce County, WA
Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday filed a misdemeanor charge of unlawful public exposure against a bikini barista spotted last year serving coffee while wearing only pasties on her breasts.
It’s the first time Pierce County prosecutors have leveled such a charge since some area espresso stand owners began requiring their baristas to show skin in addition to making drinks.
Charged was Megan Elizabeth Lenn, 19. She will be issued a summons to appear in court during the next few weeks, deputy prosecutor Kevin Benton said.
Benton said he charged Lenn because her alleged conduct, if true, would constitute “a blantant violation” of the county ordinance banning public nudity.
Efforts to reach her or the owners of the Bikini Bottoms espresso stand where she works were unsuccessful.
A woman driving by the stand at 7919 176th St. E. on Oct. 7 called sheriff’s deputies after she spotted Lenn outside the stand. She was wearing a thong bikini bottom and no top, according to court records.
A deputy dispatched to investigate the call found Lenn inside the stand making drinks, according to an arrest report.
Lenn was topless but had X-shaped pasties covering her nipples, the report states.
Lenn became angry when told she would be cited for indecent exposure and began to yell that baristas at other stands also wore pasties on the job, deputy Kevin Fries wrote in his report.
“I asked Lenn if she was aware that it was illegal to wear the pasties in public,” Fries wrote. “She said no. Lenn said that the female owner, Cheryl England, had told her and the other girls that it was OK to wear them.”
Lenn then went into the back of the stand, removed the pasties and put on a bikini top, Fries continued.
The deputy confiscated the pasties and booked them into the South Hill precinct property room as evidence, his report states.
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Adam Lynn: 253 – 597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement“
www.IAPE.org
Police find housekeeping a little trying;
February 22, 2010TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (Massachusetts)
BYLINE: Brian Lee, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Southbridge, MA
Some items in overflowing evidence rooms go back as far as 15 years
A small hot tub and a set of brass knuckle with three knives sticking out of it are among unusual items that have accumulated in the Southbridge Police Department.
They are examples of a common housekeeping issue for police departments — the need for more room for evidence and recovered items.
Authorities in Westboro are going through inventory, police Lt. Robert T. Fryer said. They have guns and old televisions, computers and different things that are of no particular interest, he said.
“We’re going through our old cases — things that are 10, 12, 15 years old — and making sure that the cases are not active and disposing of what we can to make more room,” Lt. Fryer said.
Westboro has a small room for valuables such as guns and drugs. Other items are kept in cold storage in a 12– by 25-foot space off the garage.
Bicycles and other items are in yet another area — a storage container at the Westboro Department of Public Works.
Many bikes were auctioned, the lieutenant said.
Sutton Police Chief Dennis J. Towle said his staff met last week about the same problem.
Chief Towle said his predecessor years ago bought a storage container for items. That’s now full.
Sutton police have also partitioned part of their garage for evidence.
“We have an extensive amount of jewelry from a specific case that we’re waiting to get a disposition on,” Chief Towle said. “At that point we’ll try to find who the owners are. It’s unlikely we ever will find them.”
The chief classified some of the jewelry as “real, real unique stuff.” A pocket watch has an estimated value of $3,000 to $5,000.
“Somebody has to be missing it, whether or not (the owner is) still with us,” Chief Towle said.
The Auburn Police Department’s 30-square-foot evidence room probably has about 500 items and is nearly out of space, Chief Andrew J. Sluckis said. The items are “run of the mill” guns and drug evidence, such as things used to cultivate marijuana.
“A lot of it has to do with either open cases that we’re waiting to come up for trial, or cases where we have to hold on to the evidence because the person is in default and has never appeared in court,” he said.
In Southbridge, unidentifiable headstones are among other unusual items, Chief Daniel R. Charette said.
Southbridge police have a plastic tub containing about 30 or 40 swords. “We must have 300 or 400 firearms,” he said.
The department has checked with the town’s lawyer to see what it can do with this property, the chief said.
“It would seem pretty simple on the surface,” Chief Charette said. “You have the recovered property from a breaking and entering. You know whose it is, you give it back to them.”
But the problem is that sometimes the court case has been disposed of and the insurance company has paid for the loss. The insurer usually doesn’t want the item back so it sits with police, Chief Charette said.
An auction is a possibility, but when items are declared surplus the town gets to keep the portion of money from the auction.
“My hope with that is the money stays within the police department,” he said with a laugh.
Southbridge police Sgt. Jose A. Dingui recently met with Northboro-based Village Vault, a firearms storage facility that in some cases will give the police 60 percent of the proceeds from a gun sale.
For the most part Village Vault stores guns that were taken by police in restraining-orders cases, license revocations or were abandoned or donated in instances when a gun-owner died and the family didn’t want the weapon.
About five years ago, an Internet company called propertyroom.com emerged, and it has been helpful for departments, said retired Shrewsbury Police Chief A. Wayne Sampson, who is the executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
The company logs the items, takes pictures and posts them on the Internet.
Chief Sampson said this is a better program because the items are on the Internet permanently, and as materials are sold the company sends a check to a community.
State law allows “property which has been stolen, lost, abandoned or taken from a person under arrest” to be disposed of.
Just to be thorough, the chief’s association filed legislation to allow auctioning property on the Internet, Chief Sampson said. The bill passed in April.
In the old days, an officer would spend weeks or months going through property, trying to track down owners through letters, Chief Sampson said.
The officer would have to make sure the case was cleared before the department hired an auctioneer, which requires a newspaper advertisement.
“We would have to bring in extra help on the day of the auction to be there and process it,” Chief Sampson said.
In most cases, after paying for the public auction, the department probably would lose money to get rid of the property, he said.
However, some items still find their way home the old-fashioned way.
Seven days ago in West Brookfield, a West Springfield woman lost a diamond ring. She told a reporter it was a family heirloom that fell out of her purse as she got out of her car for a Valentine’s Day dinner with her husband at Salem Cross Inn.
Jean Smith of Wilbraham found it and turned it over to staff at the inn, who in turn gave the ring to police.
By Wednesday it was in the rightful owner’s hands.
Sgt. Charles H. Laperle, who handled the case, said the owner was lucky to have honest people turn in the ring.
West Brookfield police certainly don’t need any more unclaimed items, which are kept in various locations in the department.
The ring’s owner did not want her name mentioned, but she said she was “thrilled and relieved” and “forever grateful” to Ms. Smith.
Contact Brian Lee by e-mail at blee@telegram.com
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement“
www.IAPE.org
Rare dinosaur skeleton turned over to researchers
January 25, 2010The Bismarck Tribune
Great Falls, MT
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A rare and nearly complete dinosaur skeleton stolen from private property in Montana and stored in an evidence locker for more than two years has been turned over to researchers.
Scientists at the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research in South Dakota say the 70-million-year-old turkey-sized predator could be a new species of raptor.
“It’s a mean and nasty little dinosaur,” said Peter Larson, president of the institute. “Even though it’s not very big, you wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alleyway.”
Researchers say it’s unusual to find the skeleton of a meat-eating dinosaur, and especially one that’s so small.
The commercial fossil hunter who dug up the dinosaur removed it without the knowledge or permission of the property owners. Nathan Murphy was convicted last year in state court of felony theft for taking the raptor fossil from a ranch in northern Montana and sentenced to 60 days in jail.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement“
www.IAPE.org