Subject: Crime

• Thousand Oaks Safe For Inanimate Objects

  A story in this morning's Ventura County Star boasts that, "Thousand Oaks has reclaimed its title as the safest city for its size in the country, according to preliminary 2005 crime statistics released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Really? Always suspicious of a city with such a phony name– where are those thousand oak trees?– I wondered how that conclusion had been reached. Fortunately, the Star explained : To tabulate the rankings, The Star compiled the number of

  June 13, 2006

• From the He's-Obviously- Not-a-Friend-of- Cheney File

  Courtesy of the state Dept. of Toxic Substances Control... Orange County Polluter Sentenced to 16 Months in State Prison Westminster - The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) announced today that an Orange County Superior Court sentenced Steven Craig Booth, of Anaheim, to 16 months in state prison for criminal violations relating to his operation of a metalizing business in Stanton. Booth pled guilty to eight felony and six misdemeanor charges, including hazardous waste, d

  December 20, 2005

• Charge of the Register Lite Brigade

  Since Ronald Reagan turned it into a bloodsport, most journalists in this country are routinely assumed to carry a liberal media bias ("Guilty!"). One place you'll often see that bandied about is in the Orange County Register--not directed at its own fleet of word monkeys, oh no, no, no, but journos anywhere and everywhere else. The way the old saw goes is most reporters cannot be trusted to report The Truth because they harbor biases that slant The Truth a certain way. Which is why we were ti

  June 22, 2006

• Hypocrites Unite!

  As everyone surely now knows, The Drudge Report has solved the Mark Foley mystery. As you know, Republicans are all about taking responsibility for one's actions. As they demonstrate here, they are indeed taking responsibility--for having an innocent "prank" about pedophilia (nice sense of humor, guys) fall into the hands of evil Democrats (oxymoron?). We just just picture Bill and Hill and Monica, hunched over the computer, copying, pasting and sending Foley's prank out to the masses. XXXXX DRU

  October 5, 2006

• Court Strikes Blow Against Prosecutors in Gang War

  In an opinion issued today, a California Court of Appeal ruled that Orange County prosecutors overstepped their authority to seek tough penalties against hoodlums who violate court-imposed anti-gang injunctions. In January 2007, Sixto Moreno and Anthony Lopez—two Santa Nita gang members—drank beer in a vehicle parked in a residential driveway after 10 p.m. and in an area of Santa Ana supposedly controlled by a court order that limits gang activity. Police arrested the men for violating the

  March 3, 2008

• Taco Bell Crime of the Week, Part II

  From the indomitable Dave Barry: ...a man armed with a knife held up a Taco Bell and got $2,300. The robber wore a ski mask to disguise his identity. This plan would have worked flawlessly, except that, during the robbery, the robber made one teensy mistake: He pulled one of the Taco Bell workers aside, lifted his mask and said, "It's me, Tim." Yes. It turns out that the robber used to work at this Taco Bell, and he chose that particular moment to say hi to a former co-worker.

  October 15, 2008

• Superman Pajamas

  August 11, 2005

• Taco Bell Crime of the Week, Part IV

  From Orlando... Police were investigating a Taco Bell robbery that happened Wednesday night and quickly realized that they were dealing with a crime spree. Investigators said three to four armed men robbed a Taco Bell on Narcoosee Road and then attacked two workers before they ran off. When officers arrived they learned the Burger King next door had also been robbed by the same group.

  October 31, 2008

• MADD's Not Buying Study That Shows Lower Drinking Age Saves Lives

  Many of you reading this were not even born yet, but way, way, back in the 1990s, the early days when this was your daddy's OC Weekly, Mike Males was moonlighting stories for us while attaining a PhD in social ecology from UC Irvine. For instance, in February of 1999, Males wrote "Here Come the New Barbarians!," making it one of those rare stories from that long ago attainable from our online archive. Indeed, as link followers can see, the piece is so old timey that paragraph breaks had not yet

  January 8, 2009

• MADD Has Become "a Tastless Joke," According to Study Author

  You were told here about a study published in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion that argues California should lower its drinking age for beer and wine to 18 and set up a system of low-alcohol bars. Mike Males, the study's author and senior researcher at the San Francisco-based Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, based that finding on statistical analysis that suggests such a move would reduce violent deaths among 18-20 year-olds by 9 percent. As ind

  January 9, 2009

• Taco Bell Crime of the Week!

  You know times are tough when Taco Bell employees fake their own holdup. From Fargo...An employee of a Fargo Taco Bell that was robbed at gunpoint last week has been charged in Cass County District Court with conspiring to rob the store.Michael Vincent Wanzek, 20, made an initial appearance on the felony charge Tuesday. He is accused of agreeing with one or more persons to engage in the robbery at 1001 1st Ave. N. on Jan. 13. function photoFull (URL) { day = new Date(); id = day.getTime(); eval

  January 22, 2009

• Law-Enforcement Claims Historic Chicano Mural in Orange Sensationalizes Gangs-30 Years Later

  April 9, 2009

• [¡Ask a Mexican!] Pinche Chesters

  February 19, 2009

• Is a Popular Legal Weapon Ending a South County Gang Rivalry, or Catching Bystanders in Its Net?

  January 29, 2009

• Cirilo Flores Rarely Pursued Discipline of Molesting Priests While Serving on Important Church Board

  January 15, 2009

• Just a Random Female

  Robbin Brandley’s confessed killer sits on death row. So why don’t her parents consider the case closed?

  November 22, 2007

• The Mind of a Pedophile

  Two convicted child molesters get another stiff sentence for a crime they thought about committing

  October 18, 2007

• Bad Moves

  September 27, 2007

• First Arrest For Standing In Front of Renowned Chicano Mural in Orange

  Easter Sunday. A kid from the Cypress neighborhood in Orange lounges just outside his apartment building where a huge, sprawling mural by influential Chicano artist Emigdio Vasquez is painted on the exterior walls. Bring in the sirens and the Orange PD. Minutes later, you have an arrest. The crime? The teen was standing in front of artwork that the Orange PD and DA's office claim promotes, glamorizes and inspires gang violence. And because the teen was recently added to a preliminary gang injunc

  April 15, 2009

• Face Off

  A Little Saigon identity-theft ring pounded OC businesses until one cop saw a tear in its veil of secrecy

  August 30, 2007

• Tony's Bizarro World

  July 27, 2006

• Nailed?

  April 26, 2007

• A Day in the Park With Hitler

  July 27, 2006

• Phu Fighter

  Gangster beats girl over sexual equipment quip

  February 1, 2007

• Santa Ana Showdown

  After Oscar Gallegos shot two Long Beach cops, he swore hed never be takenalive. His run for the border ended with a trip to a Santa Ana strip mall.

  January 18, 2007

• No Class

  September 14, 2006

• Baby-faced Hoodlums

  August 3, 2006

• Diary of Mad County

  July 20, 2006

• 'Dirty, Stupid or Both'

  April 27, 2006

• Fuhgeddaboutit

  April 13, 2006

• Springtime Is the Right Time . . .

  April 6, 2006

• King of the County Pedophiles

  December 15, 2005

• The Incredible Shrinking Shooting Case

  June 16, 2005

• Public's Help Sought in Nabbing the 'Hazmat Bandit'

  The Orange County Bank Robbery Task Force is seeking the public's help in identifying an armed bank robber authorities have dubbed the "Hazmat Bandit" due to his attire: a white painter's jumpsuit, a white hat, boots and sunglasses.The unidentified man--described as white, in his fifties, with long blonde hair which may have been a wig, and with a height of approximately 6 feet to 6-feet-2--has pulled off two heists, according to the FBI.He entered the Laguna Niguel Wachovia branch on March 17 a

  April 20, 2009

• Orange's Barrio Cypress Residents Fought the DA's Gang Injunction—and Won (Sort Of)

  May 28, 2009

• UPDATED: Autopsy Report: Adenhart Driver Also DUI

  Shortly after midnight on April 9, Andrew Gallo drove his van through a red light at Lemon Street and Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton and smashed into a car passing through the intersection. Gallo escaped the collision unharmed, got out of his van and ran from the scene. Not so lucky was the other car's driver, Courtney Stewart, a 20-year-old college student from Diamond Bar, and passengers Henry Pearson and Nick Adenhart, the 22-year-old Anaheim Angels pitcher--all of whom died at the scene--a

  June 11, 2009

• Autopsy Report: Angels Pitcher Adenhart's Driver Was DUI

  June 18, 2009

• Crime Time: Spot This Week's Celebrity Victim!

  Hey, juvies, it's our weekly Weekly round-up of Orange County police calls . . .MONDAY, JUNE 29 The pre-vandalized Scott BorasAnyone Fitting the Description of a Major League Baseball Team Owner Spotted Outside Before the Crime? The windows of super-agent Scott Boras' Land Rover were vandalized while he was inside Bandera restaurant in Corona del Mar this evening. The vehicle reportedly sustained damage totalling $2,000--equal to about what Manny Ramirez earns every time he inhales. TUESDAY, JUN

  July 7, 2009

• If Drunk Drivers Who Kill Face Murder Charges, Why Not Charge City Councilman With Attempted Murder?

  Watch CBS Videos Online Sunday night, 60 Minutes replayed "DWI: Was It Murder?" Reporter Bob Simon interviewed a prosecutor who pursues murder charges against drunken drivers whose traffic collisions result in deaths of people in the other vehicles. Nassau County, New York, district attorney Kathleen Rice's first successful prosecution against just such a drunken driver resulted in a second-degree murder conviction and sentence of 18 years to life in prison against a 24-year-old insurance salesm

  August 5, 2009

• Anti-Gang-Injunction Activist Says Orange P.D. Ganged Up On Her Kids

  August 13, 2009

• Crime Time: Nekkid Folks, Robber Baby, Strip-Club Stabbers, Loaded Brownie and a Flaming Bag of Poo

  Courtesy of Orange Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's DepartmentWe call this collage "Robberies, Solved and Unsolved." Top left: a man hands a teller a note demanding cash at Chase Bank in Orange. Top right: Booking photo of Adam J. Bennett, 20, of Santa Ana, who is suspected of robbing $700 from a Mission Viejo Wells Fargo on July 27. Bottom left and right: Surveillance photos from armed robbery that occurred around 9:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Orange Olive Mini Market in Orange. ​It'

  August 18, 2009

• Racist OC Register Fustercluck of the Week: Bullets for Bangers!

  Nothing like a good old gang-related murder in Santa Ana to set off all the Register readers who would like nothing more than to see the city cordoned off by immigration cops and the entire non-English speaking population rolled into Tijuana-bound paddy wagons. The latest example? This story from Wednesday about an 18-year-old Latino gangbanger who shot another man during an armed robbery. "Eduardo Valencia, 18, is expected to appear in court today to face charges that he killed Jaime Anica Olve

  August 7, 2009

• FBI Boasts More Arrests in Largest Gang Case Ever

  The FBI announced it made 11 additional arrests this morning tied to a Hawaiian Gardens gang, upping the number of defendants to 24 in the final phase of the nation's largest-ever gang investigation and prosecution that included the participation of Orange County law enforcement agencies and is credited with taking more than 300 gang-bangers off Southern California streets. Dubbed "Operation Knock Out" and involving agencies in four Southern California counties, the sweep

  July 8, 2009

• Letters From OC Weekly Readers

  August 27, 2009

• Do You Drive One of the 10 Most Stolen Cars in California?

  Feast your eyes on the hottest car in California, Speed Racer: the 1991 Honda Accord. ​Forget your Ferrarris, Lamborghinis, heck, even your grandparents' Buicks. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Hot Wheels 2009 report, which crunched data reported to the National Crime Information Center to determine the vehicle make, model, and model year most reported stolen in 2008, the hottest wheels in the nation are: 1) 1994 Honda Accord2) 1995 Honda Civic3) 1989 Toyota Camry4) 199

  October 1, 2009

• Locals Among Dozens Caught Up in International Criminal Phishing Scheme

  No, not that kind of fish fry. ​Congratulations, Orange County! Some of your residents were among today's arrestees in the largest cyber crime case of its kind. "Operation Phish Phry," the first joint cyber investigation between Egyptian law enforcement authorities and United States officials, netted the most defendants ever charged in a cyber crime case, turning up domestic suspects in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, elsewhere in&nb

  October 7, 2009

• Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Week: ACFU Edition

  Maybe all the hot weather of late has made the haters sluggish, but this was a particularly slow week for racist commentary in the OC Register's reader comments. For a while, it appeared that the bulk of stereotyping was directed at pitbulls, i.e., whether the breed has jaws that, unlike all other dogs, actually lock when they bite. But on Wednesday morning, the Southern California chapter of the ACLU--known among Register readers as the "American Communist Liberation Union"--had the temerity t

  September 25, 2009

• Crime Time: Ho' Attacker, Hammer Head, Bushman Packing Heat, Monkey Off the Market and Ryan Seacrest

  It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--now with more ho' attackers, hammer heads, short robbers, skateboarding nazis, bloody bandagers, bushmen packing heat, baseball bat-wielding robbers, monkeys that are not for sale and Ryan Seacrest.Center photo by Melinda Nagy/Dreamstime.comBE TRUE TO YOUR CRIME-RIDDEN SCHOOL: Ah, a new school year is upon us. And so is schoolyard mayhem. A former security officer at Irvine's Beckman High School (top left) has been charged with two felony

  September 22, 2009

• Crime Time: Rapers! Robbers! Wife Killer! Bad Cops! And a Real Bozo!

  It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--a day late and many dollars short of paying off the creditors who won't stop calling! Top photos courtesy of Huntington Beach Police Department A BOZO NO-NO: Here's the original suspect description Crime Time received for the Oct. 5 robbery of the US Bank inside the Ralphs supermarket at Adams and Brookhurst streets in Huntington Beach: white, in his 30s, weighing 200 pounds with a stocky build and wearing a blue shirt and jea

  October 21, 2009

• Crime Time: Double the Fun Starring [Alleged] Skeevy Teachers, Fake Cop Robbers and Ryan Seacrest's Strange Stalker

  It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--actually the Weekly's TWO weekly round-up as an attempt is made to make up for lost vacation time.Left courtesy of E! Entertainment, right courtesy of Orange Police DepartmentRyan Seacrest (left) gets paid another visit from his No. 1 Army special forces fan, Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr.​SEACREST OUT, UZOMAH BACK IN Remember Chidi Benjamin Uzomah Jr., the 25-year-old Lakewood resident who pleaded guilty last month in Orange County Superior

  November 4, 2009