OREGON: “They have unborn dogs in this fight,” read the headline. We learn that two dog breeders won $400,000 from a sperm bank they sued for mistakenly destroying high-quality frozen Labrador-retriever semen. The owners – including one named Dick Weiner –- said they could have produced hundreds of pricey puppies, if not for the 1997 mishap at the international Canine Semen Bank in Sandy, Oregon. Dick Weiner, really?
NEW YORK: Block Head Uber Thief Arrested? We learn that a Long Island man hi-jacked an Uber to use as his getaway car. However, he forgot that he was still wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet from his last arrest which led police straight to him, police reported. Police tracked down Genri Acosta, 35, of East Meadow, outside his home after he tried to shoplift from a Target store on a Thursday in February 2020 and took off in the stolen Uber vehicle. Mr. Acosta was wearing a court-ordered electronic bracelet from a previous drug arrest when he was arrested, said police. Yep A Real Block Head!
OKLAHOMA: Box Turtle Trade Sentence? We learn that William Gangemi from Freehold New Jersey pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court in Tulsa in mid-January 2020 to two years of probation and ordered to pay $350,000. His crime? He smuggled more than 1,000 box turtles out of Oklahoma. He was ordered to pay $250,000 to the state Department of Wildlife Conservation and $100,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Authorities said Gangemi was part of a syndicate that exchanged three-toed and western box turtles back and forth between the U.S. and China. O, So Weird!
RHODE ISLAND: The headline read, “Worst Date. Ever.” The man who met a woman on a dating app unexpectedly robbed a bank on their first date, then forced her to be his getaway driver. The unidentified woman picked up Christopher Castillo, 33, at his home in Chepachet, and later asked her to pull over at a bank, police said. When he returned, wearing sunglasses and carrying $1,000, he shouted for her to go. We learn that he pleaded guilty to robbery in February 2020. BIRDBRAIN!
TEXAS: Gas Mask? A man wore a gas mask for a flight in Texas and had to be escorted off the plane when the face covering alarmed other passengers. The passenger was on an American Airlines flight at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport when his black mask sent people into a frenzy and delayed the takeoff to Houston by 50 minutes. It was not clear why the man donned the gas mask. WEIRDO
TEXAS: What’s in a name? A woman thought she was being sneaky when she provided police with a fake name. Unfortunately, there was a warrant out for that fake name. Shareeka Strawn, 28, allegedly told police her name was Porshala Strawn after she was pulled over for failure to signal a turn. She was being taken to jail she decided to confess to the made-up name. HOW STUPID!
The post Weird Criminal Law Stories # 673: Dick Weiner, really? appeared first on Birdsong’s Law Blog.