Hammer guy

A 48-year-old man walked to his garage in Milwaukee to wash his car August 9 and found a masked man with a hammer standing outside. The homeowner asked the guy what he wanted.

"Everything that is in there," hammer guy replied.

Luckily for the car washer, he was holding the business end of the hose, so he sprayed the suspect before he ran and yelled for his wife to call police.

The soaked suspect ran off empty-handed.

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Hazards at work, 1

An Italian musician who could not board his flight because of overbooking was so enraged that he assaulted a Turin airport worker and almost bit his ear off.

An airport spokesman said on Tuesday that a 41-year-old man had been due to fly to Naples with his band on Monday for a news conference to present a new tour.

But only six of the band's 11 members boarded the Alitalia plane, with the assailant and the others stranded in the northern city of Turin.

A row with airport workers ensued. The man was arrested for the attack on the airport worker, whose left ear lobe was left dangling after being almost bitten off.

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A low kick

Here's a tell-tale about the effect of using kicks - low kicks.
Though we all tend to agree that it's not the best course of action to fight back against a mugger, anyone can understand how tempting it is to do just that. People have been killed or seriously hurt after trying to defend their possessions.
Luckily this woman was not injured.

Story:
Ohio -- Police in Manchester says a local school teacher was attempting to go to her car, to go to work, when she was approached by a masked male subject that attempted to grab her purse.

The woman fought off the attacker who, along with a possible second participant ran away after the woman allegedly kicked the original attacker in the knee.

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G-string thing

A guy in a g-string. Very ... uhmmm "masculine".

A woman who lives alone in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky apparently awoke early Wednesday morning to a man standing over her bed and holding a knife.

The intruder told her to be still or he'd kill her, but instead, she fought back. Witnesses said he ran out the door and down the parking lot -- wearing nothing but a G-string.

The woman immediately called 911, but the knife-carrying attacker was gone.

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Clever

South Carolina -- Police have arrested the 37-year-old man they believe is responsible for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl who sent a text message to her mother that led to her rescue from a booby-trapped bunker.

The girl was found by sheriff's deputies about a kilometre from her home in a plywood-covered 4.5-metre-deep hole in the side of a hill. The bunker had a hand-dug toilet with paper, a camp stove and shelves made of cut branches and canvas.

The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from the man's mobile phone. Investigators used telecommunications towers to determine the general location of the phone used to send the message.

He said the girl cried out as searchers approached the bunker where she was found.

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Very, very scary

Yes, the Austrian story about the kidnapping and escape of Natascha Kampusch is both fascinating and to some extent scary.
Now there are even rumors that her mother sold her to the guy!
But come on ... Girls becoming scared to go out after dark? It seems like all of a sudden it has become so much more dangerous to move around?
It could be wise some times to stop and reflect for a couple of minutes before running wild with a "media emotion". Like the simple fact that this tragic incident happened years ago.
What is "very, very scary" is the way that people let media influence their thoughts and behaviors, and how we so easily stop being rational about real and perceived dangers.

Story:
The dramatic escape of an 18-year-old Austrian girl after being held in an underground cell for eight years has had a profound impact in this otherwise safe city with many of its citizens, including Indians, scared to go out after dark.

Indians, particularly young girls, say the shocking tale that hogged international headlines earlier this month has scared them so much that many dare not go out of the house after dusk.

"After watching television reports on the Kampusch story, I am really scared to get out of the house. It is very, very scary," said Jasmin Perumadan, a business administration student at Vienna University.

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Pushed the door

South Korean movie an TV star Lee Ji-hyun (28), has escaped a kidnap attempt by amateur criminals in her car two hours after they abducted her, it emerged Thursday.

She was threatened by two men said to be in their 20s while she was getting into her car parked in Seoul at around 10:15 p.m. on Monday, police said.

The two, who were armed, forced her to sit on the back seat, handcuffed her wrists and ankles and robbed her of a credit card and some cash as they drove the car away.

But when the men stopped at a local gas pump to fill up the car at around 12:25 a.m., Lee managed to escape.

“When the car was unlocked, I pushed the door with my body and escaped,” police quoted her as saying.

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"Crossed legs" strike

Lose the gun, or lose the fun :-)

Story:
Colombia -- They are calling it the "crossed legs" strike.

Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and wives of gang members in the city of Pereira have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to give up their guns.

After meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a disarmament programme, a group of women decided to deny their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a song for local radio to urge others to follow their example.

"We met the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some were not handing over their guns, and that is where they came up with the idea of a vigil or a sex strike," said a mayoral spokesman.

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The 'A-team'

South Africa -- An 80-year-old man received stitches to his head after his brave and desperate attempt to protect five fellow pensioners with his walking stick during a mugging in Newlands Forest (Cape Town) earlier this week.

The two muggers, one tall and the other short, were in close range of the elderly when they were taking their routine stroll near the stream at 9:30am on Monday.

The six pensioners put up a fight as the attempted mugging took place. The 80-year-old struck with his walking stick at the Laurel and Hardy characters.

Two of the elderly women started screaming which caught the attention of passers-by, when the two assailants ran off and left in a car that was waiting for them.

These ‘A-team’ pensioners reported the incident to the Table Mountain National Park.

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No kidding...

A 30-year-old salaryman was riding on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line in Tokyo recently when he decided to make a pass at the woman sitting beside him. So he reached over and began fondling her thigh. Although she resisted, he kept at it for more than 10 minutes.

The man was collared on the train, then arrested on molestation charges, and has recently appeared in court.

"Did you really think you could have your way with the victim despite her resistance?" his lawyer asked while he was on the stand.

"That had crossed my mind," he told the court.

"His explanation that he thought he could make out with a resisting woman shows a complete misunderstanding of female psychology."

----
No.... Are you saying women don't like being fondled by strangers? Strange creatures!
----

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Presence of mind

India -- It was presence of mind that saved cardiologist K.R.K.S. Raju of Yousufguda from falling a prey to an extortion gang. The suspects, who were arrested on Thursday on the charge of kidnapping a real estate agent from Banjara Hills, tried to abduct Dr. Raju too. A few days ago, a member of the gang called up the doctor on his mobile phone claiming to be a police officer.

Dr. Raju was about to go to the hospital then. Saying he was an Assistant Commissioner of Police with the Intelligence wing, the caller requested him to come to his place to treat a patient. "Soon after I hung up the phone explaining that I cannot come, six persons posing as policemen drove in two vehicles to my house," the doctor explained.

As the doctor sat in his car to go to his hospital, one of them approached him saying their ACP had called up and gave a mobile phone. The caller said he was ACP Krishna Prasad and requested him to come in the car sent with the 'constables.'

"This is a security precaution doctor," the caller said.

But Dr. Raju grew suspicious since none of them wore police uniform. What strengthened his suspicion was the Tata Indica car in which the six persons came. "Police don't use Indica cars. I also found colour sprinkled over its number plate making it difficult to recognise the number," he said. Then, he made it clear that he cannot go with them and the gang members left.

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No means...

Yes? Maybe? What? Say again? Thanks? Hurry? Give it to me baby? Absolutely? Why not? Again?
Or maybe it simply means no?
Sometimes it is quite legitimate to ask somebody: Which part of 'no' is it you don't understand?

Story:
They'll need an interpreter when a sexual assault suspect comes to court today. Police say the man doesn't speak much English. Which may explain why, they say, he wouldn't take no for an answer from his neighbor on the La Crosse northside.

She says he wanted sex from her and offered her money more than once. She kept refusing but he finally pushed his way into her apartment and got aggressive.

Cops say the woman escaped and got help. The suspect professed his innocence in broken English. They're not certain he's in the country legally.

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On the phone

Need more indications as to why we can become easy victims while on the phone?

Story:
Iowa City, Iowa -- Police here are investigating three separate attempted sexual assaults that occurred in the same general area over the weekend.

All three victims were walking alone when attacked, and in two of the three assaults the victims were talking on a cellphone at the time of the incident. None of the victims required medical treatment.

Sgt. Troy Kelsay said investigators are considering the possibility that the same person attempted all three assaults. Kelsay said the three crimes happened nearby one another in a short time period and many details of the attempts are similar.

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Ouch!

Northern Ireland -- Belfast Crown Court heard how a 25-year-old would-be car thief suffered a fractured jaw after a woman hit him with a hammer and jumped on his groin 12 times.

The accused threw a rock at her when she confronted him outside her north Belfast home.

Handing down the jail term, the judge said the woman had been "defending her property".

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A tragic truth

Here are some chocking figures about violence and teen pregnancy.

Story:
Only six months ago, the relationship between sexual violence and teen pregnancy was revealed in a report titled "If Truth Be Told" by United Way of Greater Milwaukee and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Advisory Committee.

The report's statistics are almost incomprehensible. More than half of teen mothers are sexually molested prior to their first pregnancy.

Between 30% and 44% of teen mothers have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and 23% of assault victims become pregnant by their assailants.

In our state, 71% of babies born to teen girls are fathered not by teen boys but by men over the age of 20.

Nationally, 42% of girls younger than 15 reported that their first intercourse was non-consensual. As a parent, that is terrifying.

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Bad date

An attempted kidnapping in Chisago County on August 30 illustrates that there is no such thing as a "safe" Internet.

Safe is likely how an Isanti woman felt when she agreed to set up a date with a 32-year-old man, of Forest Lake. After all, they met at a Web site called Match.com, which bills itself as a highly reputable dating service.

The victim told investigators that she and the man communicated regularly online for two and a half months before she agreed to meet with him at a Forest Lake bar.

Yet, even after using a renowned service and spending months getting to know the man, the illusion of safety was soon shattered the night they met.

The victim first became concerned after a dinner in Forest Lake led to the Stacy Municipal bar. She believed that the man had too much alcohol to be driving, and attempted to call a friend from the bar restroom ...

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The typical victim

Here's more about the highly interesting study by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (USA):

Story:
The assailant put a towel over her face. She screamed for help. "Shut up! Shut up!" he ordered. "I have a knife. I'll stab you."

"He was trying to force me to walk with him, but I kept fighting him," says Stephanie, then 14. Two men working nearby heard her yell and ran to help.

Stephanie's case fits the pattern of most attempted abductions, according to a study released today by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The typical victim is a teenage girl on her way to or from school.

The study, released as a new school year gets underway, examined 403 attempted kidnappings by strangers or slight acquaintances that were reported by police or news media in 45 states from February 2005 to July 2006. It was conducted to learn how such attempts are foiled. The study did not look at successful abductions.

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Crisis mode

Does it help to have experience in dealing with crises? I think this story speaks for itself.

Source:
Portland, Oregon -- An emergency room nurse who arrived home Wednesday night to find a strange man inside her house strangled him to death with her hands after a violent struggle.

Neighbors say the 51-year-old woman, had just gotten off work at a medical center and was still in her scrubs when she returned home shortly after 6 p.m.

Police say there was no obvious signs of forced entry in the front of the house. So the woman was surprised to find an intruder inside. The stranger was armed with a hammer. But the veteran emergency nurse went into crisis mode and escaped with only a few bruises and scrapes.

After the struggle, she ran to a neighboring house for help. By the time police arrived, a 59-year-old a convicted felon with a long record, lay dead in her home.

"You didn't need to calm her," the neighbor said. "She's an emergency room nurse. She's used to dealing with crisis. She was very clear thinking and took care of the problem."

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Too much trouble

USA -- An ongoing study being conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children suggests she did exactly the right thing, and she fought back.

The report found that 60% of the kids who evaded attempted abductions, resisted.

Ernie Allen of the national center for missing and exploited children said, "They screamed, they yelled, they fought back, they brought attention to themselves. In case after case abductors decided this kid's too much trouble."

Researchers also found that while not foolproof, it's a good idea for kids to stay on major roads and other public areas.

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Online stalker program

This seems like a really great idea!

Story:
A new computer educational program, warning children of the dangers of online sexual predators and bullying, launched September 6 in Australia.

Schools around the country today took part in the game, called Cybersmart Detectives, in which children role play to highlight the risks lurking in internet chat rooms.

Authorities use the program to warn that parents should monitor their child's use of the internet, that children should never give out personal information when they're chatting online, and if children want to meet face-to-face with someone they've chatted with they should always take a parent with them.

During Cybersmart Detectives, children work online using a chat-based program and play the role of the deputy principal concerned about the welfare of a new student being bullied in a chat room.

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Rolled him out

UK --The 86-year-old woman was watching television at her home in Yelvertoft, last Thursday when she was alerted by her dog, which began growling and barking.

She said: "My living room door opened and a fellow popped his head round the door. I think he was frightened of the dog - she has a ferocious bark. I said, 'where's your ID - I'm going to ring the police'.

The man claimed he was from the Water Board but, as she grappled with him, he grabbed her handbag.

As the dog barked, the woman grabbed a paint roller and hit him.

She said: "He tried to wrestle the roller off me but I pushed him back to the door and said, 'get out'. Then I gave him another tap on the shoulder. If I hadn't had the roller, I would have kicked him where it hurts."

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Being followed

Hmmm...
"She was very aware this person was following her."
And still she just parks outside her house and gets out without being certain about the follower?
And we wonder why people are being victims, and calling crimes for random?
Luckily, this woman escaped unharmed though.

Story:
The victim, who was described as physically slight and "bookish," was returning home from a wedding early Sunday and had just pulled off of the Blue Route when the she noticed a car following close behind.

This car is right up on her to the point she thought it was a police car, according to police. She makes a right, and he's right behind her. She was very aware this person was following her.

When the victim pulled into her driveway she thought the car had driven past her house. But what she didn't know was that the driver of the black Solara parked behind some tall bushes and turned off the car’s lights and ignition, police said.

As the victim gathered some items from the back of her car, the suspect, wearing a mask, walked up from behind. He told her not to scream and to go with him.

At one point, he hit her over the head with what the victim believed to be a silver revolver with a black handle, police said. The woman was forced into the trunk of the car, which the man then drove off. The victim was able to escape from the trunk and call for help.

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The stomp

The stomp: A highly effective self-defense maneuver :-)

Story:
Indiana -- A girl walking to school in Fort Wayne Tuesday, foiled an attempt to molest her by stomping on a man’s foot.

The girl was on her way to school around 8:30 a.m., when she was approached by the father of a former friend of hers. The man asked if he could talk to her.

The girl said she’d only talk outside, but the man pulled her into his apartment, locked the door and asked if he could have sex with her. She stomped on his foot and ran out of the apartment, the report said.

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Amber watch

The Amber Watch is gaining favor among child safety advocates. The watch was designed to help kids escape immediate danger, regardless of whether that's an attempted abduction, animal attack or simply being lost in a crowd.

The alarm on these kid-styled accessories is easily activated by pushing two small buttons on its side, and deactivated in the same way. But a skeptic's caution: The watch should come with an even-headed, parent-to-kid face-to-face so that this portable ear-buster is used as it's intended and not turned into a playground novelty.

The Amber Watch sells for $29.99 at Target. $1 from each one sold is donated to the AmberWatch Foundation.

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It didn't look right

This news article is a great read! I think we have lots to learn from experienced police officers, and the way their intuition works.
Bottom line: If something 'doesn't look right', 'doesn't sound right', or 'looks suspicious', there's a high probability that something is going on.

Story:
When Warren Jeffs, one of the members of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List was captured this last week, most of the story was focused on his religious sect, an unauthorized spin-off of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

What got less notice was that Jeffs was located, identified, and captured not by the estimable Federal Bureau of Investigation, but rather by a Mark I model of the World's Most Effective Crime Suppression Device: a uniformed patrol officer.

Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Eddie Dutchover stopped Jeffs' Cadillac Escalade for having a paper license plate that didn't look right. Jeffs was sitting in the back seat of the SUV, eating a salad.

Dutchover's cop radar went off when Jeffs wouldn't make eye contact with him. When the trooper was told that the folks in the Cadillac had just spent a single night in Vegas, it occurred to him that they were carrying a lot of luggage for an overnighter. Dutchover started asking questions and collecting IDs. The rest is history.

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Smile!

I readily admit it, I consider mobile phones amongst the worst things ever invented. They can be made real torture instruments, since so many people obviously don't know how - or why - to turn them off...
You also have the potential danger of being totally lost when you're engaged in a conversation. This makes you a prime target for any potential criminal out there.
But hey, let's be fair here - they can also be used to prevent and fight crimes!

Story:
A robbery in progress? Say cheese. Brandishing a firearm? Take a snapshot. Fleeing the scene of a crime? Capture a photo of the license plate and put it online or give it to police. Smile, criminals: You're on candid camera phone.

One of the first instances of camera-phone justice was in August 2003, when a 15-year-old boy from Clinton, N.J., took photos of a would-be kidnapper after being approached by the man and told to get into his car.

These photos — which included the make of the assailant's vehicle and license plate — led to the arrest of a 59-year-old bartender.

In Queens, N.Y., two Catholic schoolgirls made the cover of the New York Daily News in May 2005 when they snapped a picture of a subway flasher, which led to his arrest.

In April of the same year, photos stored in cell phone belonging to a man from Utah, led to his arrest in connection with child pornography and the sexual assault of at least two children.

In Manteca, California, mothers wielding camera phones have helped police control vandalism in parks.

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'Chewdo'

An 82-year-old Montana woman thwarted an intruder's rape attempt by biting the man's tongue, police said.

The woman then helped police nab the suspect, a 31-year-old former neighbor, by describing the assailant's body odor.

According to court records, the woman called police at about 12:15 a.m. August 22 from her home to report an intruder.

When an officer arrived, the woman said she had been asleep in her bedroom when she was awakened by someone who put his tongue in her mouth. The woman, who lives alone, said she bit down and the intruder fled.

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More 'bites and pieces'

A 28-year-old woman successfully stopped a man's rape attempt by biting part of his tongue off.

The man was arrested in Lin'an, Zhejiang Province, when he went to a local hospital on Tuesday.

The culprit admitted that he broke into the woman's home to rob her of money, then tried to rape her but failed. Half a month ago, he committed the same crime in another young woman's home.

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Wal-Mart(ial) arts

Here's another report from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (may seem like rather high-risk places...).
There are two contrasting sides to this incident.
First: The intended victim managed to keep her head cool, tricking her attacker to settle for her purse.
On the other side it is so typical (for women) to have everything but the kitchen sink in their purse. Not a big deal until someone gets hold of said purse.
The robber here now has (potentially) access to three homes, as well as credit information about the woman!

Story:
Tennessee -- A woman escaped an attempted kidnapping by a knife-wielding man Tuesday night when she offered her purse to the unknown suspect, Murfreesboro Police reported.

The 22-year-old woman was loading groceries into her car in a Wal-Mart parking lot at about 10:28 p.m. when the robber stuck a knife to her rib cage.

"He said, 'Don't scream. Get in the truck,'" the woman said. "He was trying to get me to get into the truck.

He wasn't after my purse. I was trying my best not to let him see that he scared the p... out of me. I tried to stay calm."

The victim told the robber that she had a purse with a lot of money in it, and the man took it and ran.

The purse held $26 in cash; a Bank of America ATM card; two Bank of America blank starter checks; a Tennessee Credit Union credit card; a driver's license; and keys to the victim's home and car, her mother's home and her boyfriend's apartment.

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'Wrenched'

At a Wal-Mart parking lot in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a 19-year-old woman reported to police a man tried to rape her.

The woman stated that when she got out of her car about 1:20 a.m., a male with black clothes, black ski mask, black gloves and black shoes grabbed her waist with one hand and her mouth with the other and forced her back into the car.

The woman told police that the man pulled a knife and attempted to cut off her shirt and rip her panties, and that he then blew some kind of smoke into her mouth.

While he was trying to rip off her clothes, she stated, she managed to grab a crescent wrench from underneath the car seat and hit him in the head repeatedly with it until he gave up and ran off.

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"Don't hit me anymore!"

I have probably talked about this on a couple of occasions, simply because I find it kind of odd.
Women protecting their children can give any man a run for his money.
And yet, when it comes to protect "only" themselves, many find it hard to show the same sort of aggression and "killer instinct".

Anyhow, this story is a great example of the first point above.

Story:
Taiwanese mum Guo Ping Xi, 34, fought the intruder, though he was armed, as she wanted to protect her daughter who was sleeping. Yes, he was armed with a gun and a knife. But that didn't stop Madam Guo from fighting him.

When the 34-year-old intruder allegedly put the knife on her neck, instead of caving in, she used all her might to resist him, reported Apple Daily Taiwan.

She punched him and kicked him till he was pushed into a corner.

Soon after, she had the intruder reduced to a bloodied heap on the floor loudly begging: 'Please don't hit me anymore.'

Her husband called the police and Yang was arrested.

Despite being of average build - Madam Guo is just 1.60m tall and weighs 50kg - she found the strength to take on the much larger man. The suspect weighs 75kg and is 1.65m tall.

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