5 Craziest Crimes of the Week

A drug suspect with an almost-genius getaway plan and a woman thrown in the clink for a messy yard are among the weirdest crime stories of the week:

• Why Were These Great-Grandmothers Brawling?: Family gatherings aren't always harmonious, even when a new baby is involved. Or maybe especially when a new baby is involved and someone doesn't like the father. In an Aug. 31 incident in Brighton Township, Pa., the grandmother of a father-to-be apparently overheard the great-grandmother of the mother-to-be say something untoward and untrue (at least in her eyes) about her grandson. What happened next required police intervention.
• Man Fleeing Cops Has Inventive Way of Trying to Hide: A drug suspect fleeing cops in Chicago didn't get very far into what could have been a 14-mile run for it. Police say Bryan Duffy, 29, was acting suspiciously among a group of spectators around Mile 12 of the Chicago Marathon route on Sunday and took off when he saw police, trying to blend in with marathon runners. When he was finally tackled by police officers, they say he was carrying something in an Altoids tin that likely wouldn't have helped him run a marathon.

• Tennessee Woman Jailed for Messy Yard: Kids who won't do yardwork might get detention; a Tennessee woman got jail time instead. After Karen Holloway ignored multiple citations for code violations, including multiple bushes on her property, she was sentenced to five days in jail. A judge reduced that to six hours but refused her request to do community service instead of jail time. She says she has a good reason for letting her landscaping get out of hand.
• 87-Year-Old Who Doesn't Drive Gets $1.5K in Tickets: Joyce S. Silva of California doesn't drive, nor does she own a white Acura. So it's understandable that the 87-year-old woman with arthritis was scratching her head after receiving a total of 18 traffic tickets costing $1,475 for a white Acura. For the past year, she has been battling city officials and transit authorities about the tickets—and the truth of the situation has finally come out.
• Robber Makes One Key Mistake: It was the perfect crime, except for the part where Malcolm Thomas tripped on his way out of the gas station he had just robbed while running with the register tray. A witness saw him fall, and when Arkansas police searched the spot, they found that he dropped something no self-respecting gas-station robber should drop. Columbo wasn't needed to solve the case.

Click to read about more crazy crimes, including one in which an errant address led to a big drug bust. (More weird crimes stories.)