Vegas Sculptor’s Blog

If you’re like me you just can’t get enough of the “stupid criminal” stories. No matter how hard they try these folks just can’t seem to get it right.

For instance if, like Demetrius Robinson in Athens, Georgia, you are going to rob a convenience store you need to wait for the customers to leave. You need something to do so you don’t arouse suspicion. Why not fill out an employment application while you wait. Of course if you weren’t such an idiot you wouldn’t use your real name!

This technique works equally well for bank robbery. In Michigan, a woman filled out an account application, then pulled a gun and demanded money. For some reason she panicked and ran out leaving not only the application, with her real name and address on it, she also left a photo ID and the money.

Sometimes the criminal gets sooo close! Cory L. Brown, a 26-year-old homeless man in New York managed to rob not one, but two banks. He would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for his decision to change clothes so he wouldn’t be recognized. He took off his robbery getup and discarded it. Inside the clothing the police found Mr. Brown’s wallet and personal identification: birth certificate, a welfare benefits card, a pay stub with his name on it, a MetroCard, a Social Security card, a resident-identification card from a homeless shelter, among other forms of identification.

And sometimes the plan doesn’t work at all. In Waterloo, Iowa, Cash Burch, 24 attempted to steal a Ford Explorer. He had trouble starting it however, and it seems that the Explorer has an anti-theft device that locks the doors when the battery runs down. Mr. Burch was locked inside and unable to escape until the police arrived and opened the doors from the outside.

But let me offer a tip for the would be robber. Don’t tell the gas station clerk about your robbery plans ahead of time. It seems that Kasey Allan and David Connell of Michigan told the clerk at the Honor Shell Gas Station that they would be back later to rob her and if she went along with the plan they would give her some of the money. Thinking that she was on their side, the two came back and were arrested by the police the clerk had summoned.

OK. So you’re probably going to get caught and sent to prison. There is always the chance you could escape like Malcolm Kysor, 54. Kysor was serving a life sentence since his 1988 murder conviction in Pennsylvania. He managed his escape hidden in a trash can and made his way all the way to California. Not so stupid after all, eh? Well except for bragging to some people in a park that he had seen himself on America’s Most Wanted television show. Needless to say, someone notified Bakersfield, Calif. police who were able to arrest Mr. Kysor.

So there you have it. Six good reasons why you don’t have to be a genius to make an arrest. I suggest we leave the jail doors unlocked and let the criminals walk in and lock themselves up. That’s the only thing they could do to make it easier!

I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself an environmentalist, but I do think that we need to take a really close look at the damage we have done to the planet.

In some ways things are beginning to change. People are becoming more aware of the impact they are having and starting to change. We are trying to conserve electricity, drive more fuel efficient cars, and recycle. The government has passed laws to protect habitat of endangered species.

But what happens when our attempts at protection of animals endangers the welfare of humans?

Recently the southeastern U.S. has been subjected to a very severe drought. The city of Atlanta, Georgia was at risk of running out of drinking water yet the federal government refused to slow the release of water from area lakes because an endangered fish lived downstream.

Now I read where a similar problem exists in England. In this case only one family is affected and the source of the problem is the great crested newt.

A recent story in the Daily Mail tells the story of John and Margie Histed of Dauntsey, Wiltshire. The Histeds own a £1 million (1.98 million USD) home which flooded when a nearby ditch became clogged. After spending some £250,000 (497,000 USD) in repairs the home again flooded.

The article continues, “But the Histeds’ plans to unblock the defective ditch have been refused - because officials suspect a family of great crested newts has settled in to it.”

“They have ordered a three-month survey to look for the protected species but this cannot even begin until June.”

“Work to remove any amphibians found would then take several more months.”

“This means the Histeds have had to put their renovations on hold, terrified that the ditch could flood again.”

“‘I know it’s the law but it’s very frustrating and bordering on the ridiculous that the fate of newts takes precedence over humans,’ said Mrs Histed, a 68-year-old retired doctor.”

“Mr Histed, 71, a retired computer consultant, said the couple already had a healthy newt population in a pond on their ten acres of grounds.”

“‘It’s not that we’re not sympathetic towards wildlife - in fact, we’re very keen on it and understand the need to protect certain species,’ he added.”

So here we have a situation where a ditch that has flowed freely for years cannot be unclogged because it might harm a species that nobody has determined for sure lives there. Pardon me while I shake my head in disbelief!

Doesn’t it seem to you that if the newt lives in the ditch, it must have lived there before the ditch clogged? If it could survive before, why is there a problem with clearing the ditch now? If there already is a ready habitat for the newts in the nearby pond, why worry about the habitat of the ditch?

Is this just another case of government creating a bigger problem than the one they are trying to fix?