Stupid Criminals of the Week

All of this week’s tips come from 5th/77th FA (aka KoB, aka the Gun Bunny). He did all my work for me this week. I’d offer to give him my paycheck for the week, but salaries around these parts run into the negative.

Former Social Security employee gets 4 years for $732K fraud scheme

I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.

A former Social Security claims specialist was sentenced to four years in prison for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent benefits.

Anne Aroste, 42, of Montgomery, pleaded guilty last year to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

…

She worked in the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Aurora field office processing applications for benefits through the agency’s electronic records system, prosecutors said.

From 2013 to 2018, Aroste used earnings records for deceased workers to apply for benefits, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. She used her credentials to approve the applications, routing $732,382 to her own bank accounts and using the money to make mortgage and credit card payments. She also bought a 2015 Mercedes-Benz SUV as well as clothes, groceries, jewelry and cosmetics.

Source; Chicago Sun Times

Pennsylvania man accused of rigging tripwire in home to kill wife: ‘I am very fortunate,’ she says

As asinine as this is, I’ve seen similar cases before.

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after state police say he plotted to kill his wife over the weekend by rigging a tripwire at the top of a flight of stairs to the basement.

William Joseph Dankesreiter Jr., 60, of Derry Township, was being held on a $500,000 bond after his arrest on an attempted murder charge.

Pennsylvania State Police said the intended target was his wife.

“I’m a mess,” Laura Dankesreiter, 59, told Fox News Tuesday. “You don’t plan on your husband of 27 years trying to kill you.”

She said she actually tripped over the wire but didn’t fall.

“I am very fortunate,” she said. “I went backward instead of forward.”

She added, “If I went forward I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

Police said metal eye hooks secured a fishing line about three inches above the carpet right at the door that led to the basement of the couple’s home, according to reports.

“It’s kind of mind boggling someone would do something so deviant to try and hurt someone,” Trooper Steve Limani told WPXI-TV. “I don’t know how long he was thinking this through, but you could definitely see there was line tied across — there was nothing accidental about this.”

Laura called police to the home Safterday after her near fall.

William was arrested when he drove up as she was speaking to troopers.

Source; Fox News

Chicago woman allegedly chased officers, struck police cars after cops stopped someone she knew

Her mother never taught her The Golden Rule.

A Chicago woman was arrested after she allegedly chased and tried to hit several police officers with her car because they were pulling over someone she knew, officials said Thursday.

Dawn Moore, 30, was charged on Wednesday evening with nine felonies after her run-in with police hours earlier, the Chicago Police Department said in a press release. Moore, a Chicago resident, allegedly interrupted a police stop on South State Street shortly before 11 a.m., when she pulled up in her 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon SUV.

According to police, a woman, later identified as Moore, “pulled up and told officers that the man they had pulled over was someone she knew and she demanded the officers to let him go.”

Police told Moore to leave the area “because she was obstructing traffic,” authorities said.

She responded by crashing her SUV into one of the police cars at the scene, allegedly sideswiping the vehicle and then trying to “run over an officer,” police said.

“The female driver then made a U-turn in the middle of the street and struck another police vehicle in which an officer was exiting,” officials said. She then fled the area.

Police said three CPD vehicles were damaged as a result and three officers were taken to an area hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening.

Investigators tracked Moore down within hours and arrested her around 4:30 p.m. She was charged with three counts each of aggravated assault of a peace officer, firefighter or emergency worker; aggravated battery of a peace officer; and criminal damage to property ranging in value between $500 and $10,000, police said.

Moore is due to appear in Central Bond Court on Thursday.

Source; Fox News

Off-duty sheriff’s deputy charged with DWI, suspended without pay

n off-duty Erie County Sheriff’s deputy has been charged with driving while intoxicated and suspended without pay after he was allegedly involved in a single-vehicle crash in the Town of Aurora Friday night.

Deputy Aaron Naegely was off duty but driving a department vehicle – an unmarked black pickup truck – when he went off Jewett Holmwood Road in Aurora, near the border of Orchard Park, about 8 p.m. Friday, said Scott Zylka, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office.

The pickup ended up in the yard of a house. “He must have struck something. The vehicle is severely damaged. There’s no report of him striking an animal or another vehicle,” Zylka said.

No injuries were reported in the crash. There were no passengers in the deputy’s vehicle.

East Aurora village police were the first to respond to the scene, but the sheriff’s office handled the investigation, Zylka said.

“Being it was a Sheriff’s Office vehicle we did the investigation. We performed the arrest,” Zylka said. The sheriff’s Police Services supervisors were dispatched to the scene.

Inside the utility cab of the pickup truck were prescription drugs Naegely had collected from drop-off locations as part of his job, but there’s no indication that Naegely took any of them, Zylka said. The medication was in plastic bags and locked in the back of the truck at the time of the crash, Zylka said.

Thank God for small favors I guess.

Sheriff’s investigators believe he had been drinking alcohol prior to the crash, Zylka said.

The sheriff’s website shows that Naegely is involved in the department’s alcohol compliance and substance abuse prevention programs.

Irony, thy name is Naegely.

Source; Buffalo News

Georgia agency head resigns quietly after shoplifting arrest

More government malfeasance.

A Georgia state agency head has resigned quietly after he was arrested on a shoplifting charge.

Authorities say the incident happened on Aug. 11 at around 4:25 p.m at the Ace Hardware store in Gray.

Lt. Brent Skinner with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office says that Charles “Chuck” Williams resigned as director of the Georgia Forestry Commission on Aug. 14. The day before Williams stepped down, Gray Police officers arrested him.

The police report says a security camera at a hardware store recorded Williams switching price tags on two saws and then buying the more expensive one for a cheaper price.

The state Forestry Commission made no mention of Williams when it named the interim director on Sept. 10.

Williams did not immediately return a phone message Tuesday.

If he manages forests like he shoplifts, he can probably get a job in California.

Source; 41 NBC

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Who knows, WTF?, YGBSM!!