posted on March 18, 2001 09:39:16 PM
* Police in Radnor, Pennsylvania,interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopy machine.
The message "He's lying" was placed in the copier, and police pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn't telling the truth. Believing the "lie detector" was working, the suspect confessed.
posted on March 18, 2001 09:41:49 PM
Police in Wichita, Kansas, arrested a 22-year-old man at an airport hotel after he tried to pass two counterfeit $16 bills.
posted on March 18, 2001 09:47:10 PM
Hey! You got the 'e' before 'i' right!!
When two service station attendants in Ionia, Michigan refused to hand over the cash to an intoxicated robber, the man threatened to call the police. They still refused, so the robber called the police and was arrested.
posted on March 18, 2001 11:13:39 PM
Seattle police arrested two men staging a bank robbery: one had gone into the bank to make the heist while the other sat out in the getaway car with the engine running. Then, the driver discovered that he was out of cigarettes and there was a small conveinance store just right nearby . . .
The first guy dashed out of the bank returning fire to the bank guards as he ran across the street towards the still running automobile. Of course, the driver had locked the door when he went for a pack of cigaretts. The hold-up guy slid down the side of the locked car and began to sob.
A few minutes later as he was trussed-up, who should come causually walking back to the car? "That's him!" the robber shouted and pointed,"That's the sonofabitch!"
posted on March 19, 2001 07:27:38 AM
A Los Angeles man who later said he was "tired of walking," stole a steamroller and lead police on a 5 mph chase until an officer stepped aboard and brought the vehicle to a stop.
posted on March 19, 2001 07:36:05 AM
A TV show a while back called "World's Stupidest Acts Caught on Tape" (or something like that) had a clip of a car chase shot from a helicopter. The guy trying to outrun the police ran out of gas, and proceeded to get out of his car and push it, with the police following at about 2 mph. The police finally rushed him when he tired of pushing the car.
posted on March 19, 2001 10:40:57 AM
I don't know if this is true, or if it's an urban legend, but I read about some guys who were arrested while trying to cut into a safe with a Lazer Tag gun.
Lisa
posted on March 19, 2001 11:18:52 AM
I'm not sure about the Radnor story but I do know the technique has been tried.
In the late 70's my unit received its first copier. It was about twice the size of a standard washing machine. It wasn't too long before someone came up with the lie detector idea. Colanders are pretty scarce in police stations so they used a length of medical elastic procured from an ER and a piece of wire. The elastic went around the chest and the wire trailed off behind the machine. The few times I saw the method tried the suspects were not fooled. I did hear that some of them fell for it, though. Eventually it turned out to be more of an embarrassment to the cops than an effective interrogation tool and was abandoned.
I would imagine that cops all over the country would have similar recollections.
posted on March 19, 2001 01:16:26 PM
I once had a cop use a night stick to determine if I was telling him the truth about throwing an apple core at his cruiser.
It worked alright for him, but only til he found out I was 15, and not 18 like I told him
He was given a small vacation without pay, and had to come to my home with his cheif (now SHE was one bad #*!@!) and apologise to me, and my mother AND my father, who just about rammed his size 14 up this flatfoots ass...
VERY cool to have my dad screaming at this poor temporarily laidoff pig in front of all of us... Go Pop Go!
edited to add: remember back when everyone DIDN'T sue? I coulda been in the dough if that were today...damn!
.
[ edited by Pocono on Mar 19, 2001 01:18 PM ]
posted on March 19, 2001 03:08:57 PM
Back in the early 1990's here in Portland, Oregon, our local mayor, Bud Clark, was under pressure to hire more minorities for the police department: a police department that enjoyed throwing dead raccoons on the doorsteps of black folk for amusement.
There is a local organization that represents the minorities in town and they were putting the pressure on the mayor to change the requirements to accept new police officers, so that more minorities might have a chance.
And what do you think that they requested for and got? The city removed its psychiatric evalutions from consideration for being a policeperson here.
Of all of the possible things to change, why a psychiatric test? Anybody know why?
posted on March 21, 2001 11:53:35 AM
Straying off topic just slightly . . .
The term "Pig" is an unfortunate choice to use when referring to the police. As with all professions, you will find good people and not-so-good people. Unfortunately for the police, it is they who find themselves facing the "nasties" of society on a daily basis.
