5 Craziest Crimes of the Week

Including an unfortunate case of deja vu for a driver charged with DWI
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2014 6:16 AM CDT
Updated Mar 21, 2014 8:31 AM CDT
5 Craziest Crimes of the Week
Even quarters can add up to grand theft.   (Shutterstock)

A most unusual municipal theft and a mailman with a criminally bad work ethic make this week's list:

  • Jersey Official Steals $460K ... in Quarters: Last year, the public works inspector in Ridgewood, NJ, got caught stealing $500 in quarters from the room where the village dumped its parking-meter coins. To say that's not the half of it doesn't even come close. Turns out, Thomas Rica stole taken $460,000 over two years—in the simplest of ways.
  • Cops: Lazy Mailman Trashed 1K Letters, Packages: If you never got grandma's Christmas card and happen to live on Long Island, this might explain things: A mail carrier threw more than a thousand pieces of mail into garbage bins along his Massapequa and Seaford route. Here's why.

  • Guy Googles Himself, Learns He's 'Most Wanted': A California man who decided to Google himself got a very big surprise—a surprise that landed him in jail last week. Christopher Viatafa, 27, searched for his name online and discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest in connection with an incident at a ... senior center.
  • Guy Gets 2 DWIs ... in One Day, at One McDonald's: Let's just say Zachary J. Boynton seems to have really, really wanted some McDonald's. The 31-year-old New York man was arrested on DWI charges twice in the same morning, at the same Oneonta McDonald's.
  • SeaWorld Burglars Turn Out to Be ... Frat Pledges: Amid the annals of deadly fraternity hazing stories comes one that involves ... marine mammals and Dippin' Dots, all in the wee hours of the morning March 12 at San Antonio's SeaWorld.
Click for more crazy crime stories, including one about a Winn-Dixie worker accused of grand theft with coupons. (More weird crimes stories.)

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