That’s Outrageous

NOT QUITE A CRIME

FAKE AND ENTER Ceiling tiles on the floor, papers askew. For the worker who stumbled across the scene at a property management office in Florida, US, the evidence pointed to one thing: burglars. A quick phone call later, the police arrived and searched the premises. After a few minutes, the culprit was spotted, hiding behind a plastic houseplant. But the blackmasked intruder wasn’t the person they were expecting – it was a raccoon. After ‘arresting’ the suspect (via catch pole; its paws were too small for cuffs), animal control released the creature in the woods nearby.

STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE Robbie Richardson faced a dilemma: what do you do when someone you care for commits a crime? Ultimately, Richardson’s love for the law trumped his love for his father, and last year, the six year old contacted Massachusetts authorities. His dad wasn’t a hardened law-breaker, though; he’d simply driven through a red light. Still, that sufficed. The operator who took the youngster’s call asked to speak with Richardson’s father, who apologised profusely – and later explained he had been turning right on a red.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER Edie Simms knew it was only a matter of time before the police showed up. It took decades, but when the police car arrived at her house, with lights on and sirens blaring, she felt relief. That’s because the St. Louis resident, who’d just celebrated her 102nd birthday, had arranged for the arrest. Riding in the back of a police car was on Simms’s bucket list, and local officers were happy to oblige as a gesture of thanks for the woman’s years of community volunteer work. When asked by a TV reporter about her ride, she revealed that she’d received the full experience, “Handcuffs and all!”