Lake Worth, Florida, homeowner Phil Fraumeni emerged from his house on July 19 to find a white Tesla not only parked on his lawn, but tethered to an outlet on his house, charging the car's battery. Fraumeni told WPBF he waited a couple of hours, then called police. The car was not stolen, and police were able to contact the owner, who showed up around noon and told Fraumeni he had been visiting friends in the neighborhood when the battery died around midnight. Fraumeni declined to press charges (pun intended) and did not ask for reimbursement for the 12 hours of electricity the car used. [WPBF, 7/23/2019]

Recent Alarming Headline

Alex Bonilla, 49, took revenge to an extreme on the man he told police he had caught cheating with his wife in May, according to WCJB. On July 14, Gilchrist County (Florida) Sheriff's deputies said, Bonilla entered a house in the town of Bell, firing a gunshot and forcing a man inside into a bedroom, where he tied the man up and, using scissors, cut off his penis, which he ran away with. Later that day, deputies arrested Bonilla at his place of employment; his bond was set at $1.25 million. The family of the victim declined to comment, but said through the sheriff's office the victim was doing well medically. [WCJB, 7/17/2019]

T(winning)

Keep up with us here: On Aug. 1, identical twin brothers Andy and Chad Baker of Nashville, Tennessee, were on their way to the annual Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, in their identical blue Tesla Model 3s, when an Ohio state trooper pulled them both over for having identical license plates, reading "SUBJ TO." The brothers patiently explained to the officer that the plates are, in fact, different: In one, "TO" is spelled with a zero, and in the other, it's spelled with a capital O. "Nobody likes getting pulled over by police, we were both nervous, but it's a great story and we will tell it all weekend," Andy told Fox8. [Fox8, 8/1/2019]

Can't Stand the Heat

-- It's been a hot summer in Europe. Among those suffering was an unnamed 66-year-old military veteran in the small southeastern French town of Les Arcs-sur-Argens, who had been complaining for several weeks to his landlady, Maryse Malin, 71, about the lack of air conditioning in his villa. That may have been why, the Local reported, he shot the "sweet, kind and caring lady" three times, killing her. Malin had agreed to install air conditioning but told the tenant it couldn't be done until October. [The Local, 8/1/2019]

-- Two men in Antwerp, Belgium, felt the heat on July 24 when they accidentally got locked in a shipping container full of cocaine in the huge port there, reported AFP. That day, temperatures reached a record high of 104 degrees Fahrenheit, stifling the 24- and 25-year-old, who had entered the container "to remove drugs," according to prosecutors. As the mercury rose, they desperately called a police emergency number and when police finally found them two hours later, they gratefully gave themselves up. Port workers were videoed pouring water over the pair to try to lower their body temperatures. [AFP, 7/25/2019]

Going to Extremes

Kim Gordon, 55, vanished on Feb. 25, according to his 17-year-old son, after going for a nighttime swim at Monastery Beach in Monterey, California, an area with a deadly reputation sometimes called "Mortuary Beach." The Associated Press reported that police searched for three days before learning the Scotsman from Edinburgh, also known as Kim Vincent Avis, faced 24 charges of rape in Scotland, which made them suspicious about the story. "When that came up, we start to wonder if this is a hoax," said Monterey County sheriff's Capt. John Thornburg. Finally, on July 26, the U.S. Marshals Service announced it had caught up with Gordon in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he is now being held; the son had been returned to Scotland and will not be charged with filing a false report. [Associated Press, 7/27/2019]

Wait, What?

In a product expansion move that inspires one to shout, "Stay in your lane!" Oscar Meyer announced on Aug. 1 that it is entering the dessert category with the Ice Dog Sandwich -- an ice cream sandwich with cookie "buns" surrounding bits of candied hot dog meat and spicy mustard ice cream. United Press International reported that the company partnered with a New York ice cream company to create the confectionary treat. BONUS: French's announced the day before the creation of its own mustard-flavored ice cream together with Coolhaus. [UPI, 8/1/2019]

Least Competent Criminals

-- Police in Sydney, Australia, had a drug bust land in their laps on July 22, when an unnamed man slammed a van loaded with 600 pounds of methamphetamines into a patrol car parked outside a suburban police station. The car was empty at the time of the collision, Reuters reported. The van sped away from the scene, but police caught up with the 28-year-old driver an hour later and charged him with drug supply and negligent driving. The drugs had an estimated street value of about $140 million. [Reuters, 7/22/2019]

-- Michael Harrell, 54, strolled into a U.S. Bank in Cleveland on July 29 with a note demanding cash from a teller: "This is a robbery. Don't get nobody hurt." Unfortunately, according to WJW, he wrote the note on a document he had apparently received from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which included his full name and address. The teller, who called Harrell by his first name after seeing it on the letter, gave him $206 and summoned police, who later arrested him. [WJW, 8/1/2019]

Sticking It to the (Recycling) Man

A man in southern Spain who is a serial mocker of recycling efforts was fined 45,000 euros ($50,000) and ordered to retrieve a refrigerator he tossed down a hillside in July. Spain's Guardia Civil identified the man from a Twitter video he posted of the refrigerator incident with the truck he used, and its license plate, clearly visible behind him, The Local reported. He could also be seen in a different video throwing a washing machine into the ravine in the same area. The truck was registered to a house-clearing company in Almeria, from which the man was promptly fired. In a tit for tat, officers later posted video of the man struggling to bring the refrigerator back up the hill. [The Local, 8/6/2019]

Rude Awakening

Alice Coleman, 61, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hopped out of bed early on Aug. 5 to check on a fire alarm that was blaring outside her apartment. When she opened her door, 34-year-old Fitzroy Morton confronted her, brandishing a "big butcher knife," Coleman told WSVN. Morton told her, "No, mama. Everything gon' be all right," but Coleman set him straight: "Everything's not going to be all right. I'm not your mama. I don't know who you are. Get out of my house." Then she bit him, "... and I didn't even have my teeth in my mouth like now," she explained. Coleman ran out of the apartment, where Morton locked himself in, and called police from a neighbor's apartment. Morton was charged with three felonies, and Coleman is vowing to be more cautious: "I'll open my door with my Taser because I have one." [WSVN, 8/6/2019]

Force of Nature

As a storm rolled through Port Charlotte, Florida, on Aug. 4, Marylou Ward and her husband got an explosive surprise. Ward said she heard a "boom" that was the loudest noise she'd ever heard. "We smelled smoke and I looked outside," she told WINK News. Smoke was coming from her septic tank, but it was the indoor effect that really shocked them: Her master bedroom toilet was in hundreds of pieces. A plumber explained that a nearby lightning strike ignited methane gas that had built up in the pipes and septic tank, destroying not only the tank and the toilet, but the indoor plumbing as well. Fortunately, no one was hurt: "I'm just glad none of us were on the toilet," Ward said. [WINK News, 8/5/2019]

If you're trying to smuggle a half-kilo of cocaine through airport security, you might want to try harder than an unnamed middle-aged man from Colombia, who was detained in late June at Barcelona-El Prat airport in Spain, according to Spanish police. The man arrived at the airport on a flight from Bogota and seemed nervous -- and no wonder, what with a comically "oversized toupee" under his hat, Reuters reported. Spanish police searched him and found a bundle of cocaine, worth about $34,000, taped to his head. [Reuters via The Telegraph, 7/16/2019]

Precocious

Four Australian kids took running away from home to a new level on July 13 when they wrote a goodbye note and absconded with cash, fishing gear and an SUV belonging to one of their parents. The three boys and one girl, aged 10 to 14, left Rockhampton in Queensland and headed south to Grafton, a trip of more than 600 miles. Along the way, they twice bought gas without paying and survived a short police chase in New South Wales, which was terminated by the highway patrol "due to age of the driver and road conditions," Acting Police Inspector Darren Williams told Fox News. Around 10:30 p.m. on July 14, police finally caught up with the kids, who locked the doors and refused to exit the car. An officer broke a window with a baton to gain entry. The young thieves will be charged, but they couldn't be questioned until their parents showed up. [Fox News, 7/14/2019]

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

-- A Delta Airlines flight from Puerto Rico to New York was forced to return to San Juan on July 3 after Carlos Ramirez, 30, "became unruly," Reuters reported. "I am God!" Ramirez shouted, according to Puerto Rican police. "San Juan is going to disappear tomorrow. I came to save the world, and I am going to end terrorism." Flight attendants and passengers restrained the man until the plane could land, then Puerto Rico police took him into custody. The cockpit remained secure during the fracas. [Reuters, 7/3/2019]

-- In southwest London, as an unidentified man sunbathed in his backyard on June 30, he was startled by the body of another man that apparently fell from an airplane, landing just three feet away in his garden. Police believe the body was that of a stowaway on a Kenya Airways flight, who fell out as the plane lowered its wheels on the approach to Heathrow Airport, some 10 miles away. The resident "didn't even realize what it was to begin with. He was asleep and then there was a huge impact," a neighbor told Reuters. A Kenya Airways spokesperson said the 4,250-mile flight from Nairobi takes about nine hours, and upon arrival at Heathrow, workers found a bag, water and food in the plane's landing gear compartment. The stowaway has not been identified. [Reuters, 7/2/2019]

Crime Report

-- Police in Seguin, Texas, arrested Delissa Navonne Crayton, 47, on July 10 in her home after finding her mother's skeletal remains lying on the floor in one of the home's bedrooms, CNN reported. Investigators believe that Jacqueline Louise Crayton died in 2016 a few days after falling in her room and hitting her head. She would have been about 71 years old at the time of the fall, and officials charge her daughter did not "provide adequate assistance," resulting in the woman's death. The younger Crayton and her daughter, who at the time was under 15 years old, lived in other rooms of the house for about three years while the mother's body deteriorated. Crayton was charged with "injury to a child under 15 through recklessly, by omission, causing a serious mental deficiency, impairment or injury." Seguin police and Texas Rangers expect other charges to be filed. [CNN, 7/15/2019]

-- When Flagler County (Florida) Sheriff's officers pulled over Derick McKay, 36, for speeding on July 11, they noticed he seemed ... uncomfortable, and although the deputies smelled marijuana, he denied having anything illegal. But when McKay got to the police station (having been arrested for driving on a suspended license), he admitted that he did have some narcotics hidden between his buttocks. Indeed, Fox 43 reported, McKay produced more than a dozen small baggies, including: a baggie of crack, eight baggies of heroin, two baggies of Molly, a baggie of marijuana, 12 Lortab pills and 12 Oxycodone pills. [Fox 43, 7/15/2019]

Creepy Creepers Creeping People Out

Women -- and men -- in Claverham, Somerset, England, are watching their backs as they walk at night, thanks to a man wearing a rubbery "gimp suit" who has been approaching and chasing people, according to the BBC. On July 11, an unnamed woman in her 20s was "walking along with my torch and looked up to see someone charging at me in a full black rubbery suit," she told the news service. "He kept coming toward me and was touching his groin, grunting and breathing heavy." She pushed and screamed at the man, who turned and ran in the other direction. Avon and Somerset police have increased patrols in the area in order to identify the man responsible. [BBC, 7/14/2019]

Techno-Weird

The New York Post reported on July 14 that more than 4,000 Swedes have willingly had microchips implanted in their hands to replace credit cards and cash. The chips also help people monitor their health and can be programmed to allow access into buildings. Jowan Osterlund, a former body piercer who pioneered the chips, says the technology is safe. But British scientist Ben Libberton, based in Sweden, said he worries that people aren't considering the potential dangers, including the unwitting dissemination of data about a person. "Do I get a letter from my insurance company saying premiums are going up before I know I’m ill?" he wondered. [New York Post, 7/14/2019]

Bright Idea

Rapper, sports agent and self-proclaimed "Mr. Alabama" Kelvin James Dark, 37, of Talladega, Alabama, was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 10 after allegedly throwing multiple kilograms of suspected methamphetamine off a high-rise balcony onto a street below. In a press release titled "It's Raining Meth," the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said its agents were searching the property as part of a smuggling investigation when the drugs went overboard. Agents were able to recover the drugs, valued at an estimated $250,000, and also found two semi-automatic rifles, a handgun, marijuana valued at $60,000 and a "substantial" amount of cash, AL.com reported. Dark and 33-year-old Tiffany Peterson of Atlanta were arrested for trafficking meth and marijuana, among other charges. [AL.com, 7/14/2019]

Really, If You're Going to Get Drunk, Just Stay Home

Roger Bridenolph, 49, of Springdale, Arkansas, was arrested on July 15 after a puzzling series of events. First, Bridenolph verbally assaulted a cashier at a Dollar Tree store, then stole a box of Ore-Ida Bagel Bites, pushing a manager out of the way to get out of the store, according to an arrest report. When the manager followed him, KFSM reported, Bridenolph hit him in the head with the box of frozen snacks. Taking his show on the road, Bridenolph headed next door to a Wendy's restaurant, where he slapped a woman. When police arrived, they struggled to handcuff Bridenolph, but ultimately arrested him for robbery, second-degree assault, resisting arrest, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. [KFSM, 7/15/2019]

Ewwwww

This summer's "who's pooping in the pool?" mystery is taking place in the Buckingham Woods neighborhood pool in Macomb Township near Detroit. The serial offender has caused the pool to close several times, and the neighborhood association is taking action -- and taking names. "We are reviewing attendance logs and recorded video," a July 12 statement read, according to the Detroit Free Press. And the Macomb County Health Department is working with the pool to keep the water free of pathogens such as E. coli. Further, the association has hired a pool attendant to be on-site through the end of summer. (UPDATE: On July 18, the association announced the offending swimmer had been identified and banned, saying it is now "looking at the various options for restitution.") [Detroit Free Press, 7/16/2019]

Sometimes a routine traffic stop (in this case, for an expired license plate) is the most interesting incident in a cop's day. So it was on July 10 for Guthrie, Oklahoma, police officers. Around 11 a.m., they stopped a car driven by Stephen Jennings, 40, who had a friend, Rachael Rivera, 30, in the front seat, and a timber rattlesnake in a terrarium on the back seat. Jennings told police he had a gun in the car at about the same time they identified the car as stolen, reported KFOR. Upon further search, officers found an open bottle of whiskey (next to the gun) and a container of "yellowish powder" labeled "uranium." "The uranium is the wild card in that situation," Guthrie Police Sgt. Anthony Gibbs explained. Jennings told police he was trying to create a "super snake" with the radioactive uranium. Charges for Jennings included possession of a stolen vehicle and transporting an open bottle of liquor. Because it was rattlesnake season, his valid hunting and fishing license absolved him of any charges related to the snake. Police are still trying to figure out what charges might be brought regarding the uranium. [KFOR, 7/11/2019]

Right Under Their Noses

Capitol Police in Montpelier, Vermont, discovered dozens of cannabis plants growing in the flower beds along a walkway at the Statehouse on July 8. Police Chief Matthew Romei told NBC5 that it was unclear whether the more than 30 plants were marijuana or hemp, and they don't know who planted them. But since there is no criminal case, officials don't plan to have the plants tested. "It's legal to cultivate, but there are limits on where you can do it, and the Statehouse flower beds certainly aren't one of those permissible sites," Romei said. "If there is a typical Vermont story, this is probably it." [NBC5, 7/11/2019]

Secondhand High

Dr. Scott Dolginow, owner of Valley Emergency Pet Care in Basalt, Colorado, has noticed a new trend among his dog patients. He told The Aspen Times on July 11 that he's seeing three to 10 dogs a week in his veterinary office with marijuana toxicity. No, they're not toking alongside their owners around the fire pit. Dolginow's theory is the dogs are eating human feces while on trails or camping with their owners and getting a secondhand buzz. Pet owner Rebecca Cole said her dog, Marty, started staggering, vomiting and urinating on the floor after hiking with her on a trail last spring. Cole took Marty to the vet, where "they said he was high. I couldn't believe it because I don't have anything in my house." Dolginow said, "Most dogs will eat human feces given the opportunity." [Aspen Times, 7/11/2019]

Awesome!

-- When not just any old Motel 6 will do, check into The Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu, near Tokyo's airport, and ask for the "Superior Cockpit Room." Along with two beds, a bathroom and a table, the room features a full Boeing 737-800 flight simulator that offers guests the experience of piloting a full-size jet. According to United Press International, the room rents for $234 per night, but for a 90-minute simulator session with an expert, guests will have to cough up another $277. (The simulator can't be used without supervision.) The room became available for booking on July 18. [UPI, 7/11/2019]

-- Gen. Charles Etienne Gudin, one of Napoleon Bonaparte's "favorite generals," was killed by a cannonball on Aug. 22, 1812, during the failed French invasion of Russia. Posthumously, he got the star treatment -- a street named after him in Paris, his name carved on the Arc de Triomphe, and his heart removed and brought home to be placed in a Paris cemetery chapel. But on July 6, Reuters reported, a team of archaeologists found what they believe are his remains buried (ironically) beneath the foundation of a dance floor in Smolensk, Russia. Their first clue? Gudin had lost one of his legs below the knee in battle, and indeed the skeleton was missing its left leg. Scientists will compare the skeleton's DNA with living descendants of Gudin's to confirm their suspicions. [Reuters, 7/9/2019]

That's Not the Way It Works, Karen

In Turkey's new Istanbul Airport, a first-time flyer had to be rescued on July 10 after she assumed the conveyor belt carrying luggage to the baggage sorting room was her path to the plane. The unnamed woman, juggling a carry-on and a shopping bag, stepped carefully up to the moving belt at the airport check-in and tried to climb on, but lost her balance and took a tumble. The Sun reported that airport personnel were quick to stop the conveyor belt and help her off. [The Sun, 7/11/2019]

Questionable Judgment

A. Janus Yeager, 49, of Dixon, Illinois, was arrested on July 9 as she motored toward home with an inflated kiddie pool on the roof of her SUV. CBS2 Chicago reported that Dixon police officers pulled Yeager over after being alerted that there were two children in the pool. Yeager told police she took the pool to a friend's house to inflate it, then had her daughters ride inside it "to hold it down on their drive home." Yeager was charged with two counts of endangering the health or life of a child and two counts of reckless conduct. [CBS Chicago, 7/10/2019]

Bright Idea

People in the United Arab Emirates depend heavily on expensive desalination for drinking water. But an Emirati businessman has a novel idea for providing fresh water to the Arabian gulf. Abdulla Alshehi wants to borrow an iceberg from Antarctica, EuroNews reported in May. For six years, Alshehi has been working on a plan to tow an iceberg, as much as 1.25 miles long and a third of a mile wide, the entire 5,500 miles to the UAE coast. He estimates the journey will take 10 months and the iceberg may lose about 30% of its mass, but Alshehi believes its presence could provide drinking water to about 1 million people for about five years. And that's not all. "It's expected that the presence of these icebergs may cause a weather pattern change (and) attract more rain to the region," he said. A trial run this year will move a smaller iceberg, at a cost of $60 million to $80 million. Alshehi believes the cost of the larger project will be between $100 million and $150 million. [EuroNews, 5/7/2019]

Mr. Guo in the Kitchen With a Ladle

Nearly a year after chef Xiu Bin Wang, 33, was found dead in his room above China Chef carryout restaurant in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, England, police are still trying to figure out how he died, Metro News reported. He apparently suffered a "forceful blow" to the head, and officials first fingered Zhu Long Guo, a colleague at the restaurant who admitted to striking Wang with a ladle during an altercation. "A ladle was seized, and there was a thorough investigation," Detective Constable Brad Wanless reported at an inquest on July 11. But the coroner could not make a definite determination: "I do not accept that there is a clear causal link between the admitted blow with the ladle and the death of Mr. Wang," senior coroner Grahame Short concluded. [Metro News, 7/12/2019]

Armed and Ordained

When the alarm went off at 12:40 a.m. on July 11 at the Seminole Heights Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida, Pastor Brant Adams, 40, was alerted and grabbed his handgun. He arrived at the scene just minutes later, spying a man rifling through a desk in a food pantry in the church. The intruder noticed Adams and started approaching him, so Adams drew his gun and ordered him to hit the floor, which he did. "I said, 'Dude, what are you doing?'" Adams told the Tampa Bay Times. Adams held the man, Miguel Otero-Rivera, 49, at gunpoint until police arrived, who arrested him and charged him with burglary. When police led Otero-Rivera out, he told the pastor, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." For his part, Adams was just glad no one was hurt. "I never thought I'd pull a gun on someone," he said. "Hope the gentleman gets the help that he needs." [Tampa Bay Times, 7/11/2019]