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Want more? Mike Pingree also writes a separate Looking Glass column for the Boston Herald. Past Columns (The Archives)
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October 1, 2000 NOT EXACTLY A CAT BURGLAR: The only thing the desperado did right was to disable the convenience store's alarm in the dead of night. After that, the caper did not go well. The Framingham, Mass., store's videotape shows the guy breaking in, but then going back out to his truck. The door closed behind him, so he had to break in again. He then struggled with the cash machine, but managed only to wrestle it to a draw. Finally, in exasperation, he went back out to his truck and drove it through the front of the store and rammed the ATM machine, but still didn't break it open. He left, and is currently being sought by police. SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR: A speedboat full of drug runners in the Pacific Ocean waters off Buenaventura, Colombia, suddenly saw the USS De Werth, on routine drug patrol, bearing down on them. Thinking quickly, but not necessarily clearly, they tossed 2,000 pounds of cocaine - worth $32 million - overboard then stripped off their clothes and doused themselves with gasoline to wash off any traces of the drug. That left only their boat - full of cocaine residue - which could be used as evidence against them. So, the seven nude drug guys tried to sink it by ramming the U.S. Navy vessel. The effort failed, and they were arrested. WELCOME HOME: Rick Remmy, an Ohio used-car dealer, flew to New York City to appear on TV's "People's Court,'' where he faced a lawsuit by a woman who claimed he tried to sell her a truck for $300 in cash and $400 worth of sexual favors. He lost. But, he apparently didn't realize that, since he was on five years probation for theft, he is not allowed to leave Ohio. When he got back home, he was jailed for nine months for violating his probation by going to New York. THIS CALL'S FOR YOU, WHAM! The passengers and crew of a Chinese airliner flying from inner Mongolia to Beijing used a mobile phone to thwart a hijacking. They didn't call anyone. They beat the hijacker to death with it. THE DRINKS ARE ON HIM: In 1997, Dublin, Tex., police handcuffed city manager Tom Winder and hauled him off to jail for keeping a bottle of Rebel Yell whiskey in his office. They soon discovered, to their dismay, that there is no ordinance against possessing alcohol at city hall, only in city parks. When he threatened to sue the city for wrongful arrest, he was fired. The suit has now been settled. Winder was awarded a whopping $85,000.
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