California woman flung from golf cart, dies after falling on wine glasses
Dozens of thirsty police officers responded to an “emergency” call to visit a lemonade stand run by a 3-year-old aspiring cop in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Star reports that Hannah Pasley set up her lemonade stand last Friday and Saturday to raise money to buy her own police uniform. After buying the uniform Saturday morning, Hannah returned to her stand, wearing police coat and hat, that afternoon. When the flow of customers thinned, Hannah’s aunt, Ashly Rooks, and her friend Sierra Moore took to Facebook to encourage officers to visit. Rooks says the street was soon packed with squad cars. Moore says “50 plus” officers responded, and a police helicopter buzzed overhead. They gave Hannah a Kansas City Police Department patch and a Clay County Junior Deputy badge. [Source: The Kansas City Star]
Man dons Home Depot apron to steal air conditioners
Police say a man donned an orange Home Depot apron and posed as an employee to steal air conditioners in New Hampshire. But a manager noticed the name on the garment didn’t match that of any worker at the store. Police arrested 53-year-old Bernardo Calana, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Calana loaded two air conditioners into his pickup truck in Plaistow and went back inside. A manager noticed the apron with the name “Shannon” with flowers drawn on it and called police. Calana later told police he didn’t know anything about the air conditioners, but a Home Depot apron was found in his back pocket. Calana was released on bail. The voice mailbox for a listed phone number for him was full. [Source: Napa Valley Register]
Florida man flashing money on Facebook Live arrested on drug charge
A Florida man joyfully flashing money live on the internet got a sudden surprise when police officers barged in and arrested him for allegedly selling drugs. A man identified by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as 22-year-old Breon Hollings went on Facebook Live to show friends a handful of money, saying, “It don’t stop, man, it don’t stop.” He then retrieves more money from another room and starts shuffling it when he hears Jacksonville officers warning over a loudspeaker they are about to raid the house. A stunned Hollings runs out of the room. Seconds later, officers barge in. Hollings was arrested off camera. Hollings faces numerous drug charges and was being held on $425,000 bail Saturday. It could not be determined if he has an attorney. [Source: DunyaNews]
Meet the world’s first robot policeman
The “world’s first operational Robocop” has been unveiled in Dubai as part of the emirate’s planned robot police force. Robocop started work on Sunday and is already making a name for itself. At 5ft 5in tall and weighing 100kg, it can speak six languages and is designed to read facial expressions. It had an easy start to working life, being unveiled at the three-day long Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference. But when the Expo draws to a close, it will be released into the wider world and tackle real life issues. The machine has a built-in tablet so people can use it pay fines or report crimes, and can also transmit and receive messages from police headquarters.
Brigadier-General Khalid Nasser Al Razzouqi, Director-General of Smart Services with the Dubai Police said: The launch of the world’s first operational Robocop is a significant milestone for the Emirate and a step towards realizing Dubai’s vision to be a global leader in smart cities technology adoption. With an aim to assist and help people in the malls or on the streets, the Robocop is the latest smart addition to the force and has been designed to help us fight crime, keep the city safe and improve happiness levels,” he added. “He can chat and interact, respond to public queries, shake hands and offer a military salute.” [Source: Mirror UK]
Californian accused in theft of $1M worth of beehives
The bee industry is buzzing over the arrest of a man accused of stealing thousands of hives worth nearly $1 million from California’s almond orchards in one of the biggest such thefts on record. The case has thrown a spotlight on a business many city slickers probably never knew existed: Beekeepers in the US move their colonies around the country by truck and rent them out to farmers to pollinate their flowering crops. In California, which relies on bees brought in from such places as Missouri, Montana and North Dakota to produce more almonds than any other place in the world, hives began to vanish overnight across several counties three years ago. The break in the case came in late April, when a tip led authorities to a ramshackle “chop shop” of stolen beehives on a corner lot outside Fresno. They arrested 51-year-old Pavel Tveretinov, a beekeeper-turned-criminal from suburban Sacramento, on suspicion of possessing stolen property, investigators said “Bees are big money,” Sgt. Arley Terrence of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office agriculture crimes unit said Tuesday. “There’s a lot of motive to steal.”
The unexplained mass die-offs of bees in recent years and booming demand for almonds have helped drive up the value of hives. Almonds have increased in popularity amid a marketing push urging health-conscious Americans to eat them in energy bars, crunch on them raw, sprinkle slivers on their salads or pour almond milk on their cereal. Almond growers rent hives for a few weeks when their trees blossom, allowing the bees to pollinate the flowers as they fly from tree to tree. The blossoms then turn into nuts. Investigators say Tveretinov, the prime suspect in the thefts, went to work at night, removing the hives when the bees are dormant. In total, Tveretinov is alleged to be responsible for stealing 2,500 hives and equipment worth $875,000, investigators say. [Source: The Augusta Chronicle]
