Dumb Asses of the Day, Yup Criminal Masterminds

Why was man in female attire in victim's closet?
Trial - A jury renders a verdict on the defendant, who says it was a mistake Tuesday, April 08,2008

HILLSBORO -- The petite 24-year-old Beaverton woman got out of the shower wrapped in a towel, stopped to watch a couple of minutes of TV and then sat down on her bed.

While putting lotion on her legs, she realized a man was standing in her closet, staring at her with bright blue eyes. He was wearing a lacy negligee with fishnet stockings, a woman's miniskirt, a sheer white blouse and a long brown wig.

For a second, time stood still. The woman stared back. The man hid his face in the crook of his arm.

Then she screamed twice, ran to another room and called police. The man fled without saying a word, hurrying from the ground-floor apartment in the 15200 block of Southwest Teal Boulevard to his nearby van.

She saw him again about a year later, this time in a Washington County courtroom. And he had an explanation for why he had been in her closet.

Prosecutor Gina Williamson Skinner was clear to jurors what the woman was thinking when she first saw the man in her closet.

"She had no idea what was going on, what was going to happen, how much risk she was at," Skinner said. "But what she thought at that moment was that she was going to be raped.

"It is every woman's greatest nightmare."

For nine months, the woman worried that the man might return. Until police told her they'd found their suspect -- they had matched DNA found on a meth pipe the man dropped in her closet to a convicted felon.

8 teens charged with beating girl so they could videotape the attack for YouTube

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Eight teenagers have been arrested on charges alleging they beat another teen in an "animalistic attack" so they could make a videotape to post on YouTube.

Seven of them remained in juvenile detention Tuesday, authorities said. A boy who was charged as an adult had been released on bail.

Victoria Lindsay was attacked on March 30 by six teenage girls when she arrived at a friend's home, authorities said.

One of the girls struck the 16-year-old victim on the head several times and then slammed her head into a wall, knocking her unconscious, according to an arrest report.

Later, according to a clip of the video that was released by the Polk County sheriff's office, the teens can be seen blocking a door and hitting Victoria.

"It's absolutely an animalistic attack," Sheriff Grady Judd said Tuesday on NBC's "Today." "They lured her into the home for express purpose of filming the attack and posting it on the Internet."

Victoria's father, Patrick Lindsay, said the teens intended to post the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube.

Christina Garcia, mother of one of the defendants, said her daughter had turned the tape over to police.

The sheriff's office said that after the attack, three of the teens forced the victim into a vehicle and drove her to another location, where she was told she would be given a worse beating if she contacted police.

All eight suspects were arrested April 2 and charged with battery and false imprisonment. The three teens who took Lindsay to the second location are also charged with felony kidnapping.

Lindsay was treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, police said.

Motion-Sensing Camera Catches Netflix Thief Red-Handed, Shirtless

Brian Krische and his roommate had a lot of their Netflix discs go missing before they received them, and they grew suspicious. So, like any self-respecting and enterprising geeks, they set up a motion-sensing camera pointed at their mailbox. The results? One chubby, shirtless criminal caught red-handed.

Yes, it turns out their "white-trash tenants in the first floor" had a penchant for checking their neighbors' mail while out on their daily shirtless stroll, snagging any red envelopes that happened to be there. Once Krische got the evidence in hand, he called up Netflix, who then called the cops. The shirtless bandits ended up with a $750 fine and a trip to the First Offender Program. That'll teach 'em to steal their neighbors' BioDome DVD