crime

All posts tagged crime

Mosman Bomb Threat

Posted by A Blog About Nothing...Much on August 6, 2011
Posted in: General, News Worthy. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Australia witnessed live on TV and the internet via Twitter a very unique crime which unfortunately starred a Sydney teenager earlier this week.

A device, originally thought to be a bomb with a ransom letter, was allegedly placed around the neck of an 18 year old school girl, Madeleine Pulver, by a balaclava clad man.  She was told she could call the police but was limited to what she could say to them.

Eventually, some 10 hours later, with the girl’s parents waiting patiently outside while the world looked on, the drama finished in the early hours of the morning when the device was removed from around her neck and the girl was taken to hospital for a check up.  Luckily she was fine, albeit with a bit of a sore neck, and was released the following morning.

During the 10 hour ordeal the girl was reported to be fine and co-operative and was superbly looked after by members of the NSW Police Service.

All’s well that ends well.

Well not quite.  As at time of writing, the perpetrator was still at large with no solid leads and no arrest imminent, according to police.

Whoever he is, I bet right now he must be getting a little bit of cabin fever.

How are those four walls looking?  I just bet they are closing in on you, inch by inch, day by day.  You can’t hide inside forever.

If you are venturing out, when someone looks at you do you think they know who you are?  Can you trust your accomplices if you have any? Are you sure they aren’t right now dobbing you in to police.

Is there anyone you can trust?

You went to a lot of work to carry out this crime.  Surely you had help.  By the sounds of it the device was very well made and made to look like the real thing.  Who helped you?  Can you trust them to keep your identity a secret?

The area of Sydney you committed this crime in is very affluent with many homes boasting CCTV systems.  How many of these homes captured you entering and leaving the street.  Has your type of car been identified and police are now going through records of ownership?  Or was the car stolen and ditched?  How long until the car is found with crucial DNA evidence contained within.

Yet as the days go by and you are not captured, do you start to get a little careless. Do you start boasting about the crime of the century?  After all a lot of criminals commit crimes to be famous.  Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be known as the bloke who picked on a helpless teenager and had the world watching?

You may think you have committed the crime of the century but when you get a whole nation drawn into it and hoping for the best for this young woman, it also means the police are going to throw plenty of resources into finding you, and you will be found.  You’ll let your guard down and pretty soon you’ll see a SWAT team smash down your front door and take you down.

Maybe that is what you want.  After all this isn’t the movies.  We don’t know whether the ransom note asked for money or not but you must realise you were never going to get it, if that is what you were trying to do.

Nope.  Your days are numbered and while you will soon be going to prison, you’re living in a virtual prison now.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.  That’s the sound of your last minutes as a free man.  They’re coming for you and we’ll have a front row seat when it happens.

Where’s the popcorn?

 

Maddie Pulver

Crime and Time

Posted by A Blog About Nothing...Much on October 9, 2010
Posted in: General. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

From time to time you read about in it in the newspapers, see it on the news reports or hear about it on talk back radio, when governments say they are going to increase the maximum jail sentence for a particular crime from x years to y years.

As an example the government may decide to increase the maximum sentence for an armed robbery from 5 years to 10 years.  They make this decision as one way to reduce crime as the increase in possible jail time, should act as a deterrent for anyone actually committing this particular crime.

Hmmm, interesting.  So let me get this straight.  If I am a crook and I am planning to rob the bank on the other side of town – because I don’t want anyone at my local bank recognising me – then I am going to think twice about robbing said bank, because I don’t want to risk going to prison for 10 years?

But yesterday when the maximum jail term was 5 years I was planning the greatest robbery of all time.  Right!  So essentially what I am saying is that I am prepared to go to jail for 5 years but I draw the line with going to jail for 10 years.  That extra 5 years would severely affect my social life and I may never find out who the mother is on How I Met Your Mother.

Now, not being a criminal, I am just going to go out on a limb here and presume that every single person who has ever committed a major crime has done so fully expecting to get away with the crime. There would not be one crim who has ever expected to get caught.  There wouldn’t be one crim who doesn’t expect to wake up tomorrow and be scot free and start planning their next crime.  Nope, not one, unless they are absolute morons and if that is the case they wouldn’t know the difference between 5 years and 10 years anyway.

So it is irrelevant how long the jail term is for – criminals don’t plan on getting caught so it is irrelevant if it is 5 years or 10 years or 20 years.  If you are prepared to go to jail for 5 years then you’ve got major issues anyway.

That being said of course we need jail terms as I think that most people who have ever thought about committing a crime don’t do so as they don’t want to run the risk of going away for a very long time.  That risk of being caught, is of course, very real.

While I am not saying there shouldn’t be maximum sentences, I think that there should certainly be minimum sentences.  You go to a business and commit an armed robbery, then BAM, 10 years.  If you rape someone, whether you were drunk or not, BAM, 25 years.  If you murder someone, BAM, life or the death penalty.

No parole.  No extenuating circumstances. No early release.  You do the minimum term.

You do the crime, you do the time.

The ‘Crime’ I Didn’t Commit

Posted by A Blog About Nothing...Much on May 24, 2010
Posted in: General, Jack in Real Life. Tagged: , , , , . 2 comments

Have you ever been accused of a crime that you didn’t commit and then did the time?  I have and no, it isn’t a criminal crime that I am referring too so relax.  You aren’t reading a confession about a serious crime I committed when I was younger.

This sordid tale centre’s around one of my ex-best friends.  To protect his identity he will remain anonymous – so let’s call him Bill.

Bill and I had been mates since grade 8 and we were very close.  His parents were great and I often called his mum, Mum.  We would vacation together and spend most weekends together.  Bill left school in Year 10 to go to work while I remained to complete my HSC, and if you are a regular reader, that turned out well didn’t it!  We stayed in touch even though he left school and remained best mates until our early 20’s.

Bill always struggled to get a girlfriend as he was quite a shy guy.  Now I find it impossible to admit any man is good looking.  I think we are truly repulsive beings.  I will however concede that Bill was not ugly.  Happy?  No!  Ok, he wasn’t offensive to look at in the Steve Buscemi class of males but he was no Brad Pitt either (from what I’ve been told, Brad is very good looking – me, well I can’t see it).

So high school came and went and I joined the army.  After I left the army I went and worked for Domino’s and it was during these early years that Bill met a gorgeous young hair dresser and to protect her identity, she will go by the name of Jane.  She was absolutely beautiful and amazing.

I was living in Townsville at the time when I first met Jane, and we formed an instant friendship.  Approx 6 months later I relocated back home to Brisbane and spent a lot of time with Bill and Jane who were now engaged.

Jane didn’t have her licence yet and we both shared Tuesday as a day off from work.  As she didn’t have her licence, I was asked if I could drive her around to do chores while Bill worked.  I had nothing better to do and as Jane and I were great friends, I immediately said yes.

Then a strange thing happened.  During this time with Jane I found myself falling for her.  Afterall, she was an amazing person.  That being said, I have always been loyal to my mates and never tried to steal a girl away from them.  Bro’s before Ho’s is the motto I believed in, so I never acted upon my feelings.  Then one day during our weekly excursion to the shopping centre, Jane confessed that she had feelings for me too.  I was gob smacked and wasn’t sure whether to tell her I had the same feelings too, but I am sure she already knew.  So I fessed up and told her I felt the same.  There was an awkward silence as neither one of us knew what to do about it.  I told her, and she agreed, that my loyalty was to Bill and perhaps we shouldn’t see each other like this anymore.

I was devasted.  All my life, to that point, I had been looking for someone just like Jane and I now had an opportunity to have her.  Bro’s before Ho’s was in the forefront of my mind.  I think around about this time that Bill cottoned on as to what was happening between Jane and I.  He never said anything but there was something up.  Over the months we slowly drifted apart spending less and less time together.  Jane and I didn’t do anymore shopping trips either.

Eventually I met my now wife, Lisa.  Lisa and I married quite quickly after beginning our courtship, because after all, when you’ve found the one, you gotta keep her right!  We set the date for our wedding just 6 weeks after getting engaged.  I tried to contact Bill to let him know the good news and to invite him and Jane to the wedding.  No answer or return calls.  So I called Jane and told her.  I introduced her to Lisa and being a hair dresser – and a damn good one too – she offered to cut and style Lisa’s hair for the big day.  Lisa accepted the offer.

Jane said she wanted to come to the wedding but Bill was being difficult.  About 2 weeks before the big day, I went around to hand deliver the invitation and saw Bill for the first time in months.  He didn’t seem happy to see me and said that he would be busy that day and wouldn’t be coming.  I was very disappointed.  I wanted to explain things about Jane and I – even though there was no Jane and I – but I wasn’t sure by doing so if this would place Jane in a difficult position.  I just hoped Jane would be able to talk some sense into him and he would come.

The big day arrives and so do Bill’s parents but sadly, Bill or Jane do not.  Bill’s mum is apologetic.  It was a great wedding but I was disappointed that one of my best mates didn’t come.  It was also the last time I ever saw Bills mum and dad.

That was 1997.  Thirteen years later I still haven’t seen Bill or spoken to him.  In the first two years after Lisa and I got married I would occasionally see Jane at work as I walked on by and sometimes she would even cut my hair – when I had it!  In 1999 we left Brisbane and lost all contact with Bill and Jane.

Bill thinks that some funny business was happening between Jane and I and therefore he has penalised me ever since.  The crime I have been judged on by Bill, is he assumed Jane and I were seeing each other physically and the sentence I was given? Exile!  I didn’t even touch Jane and other than the one conversation where we admitted each others feelings for each other, we didn’t even talk about our feelings or consider a relationship.

Does the crime deserve the time?  From my point of view, the crime that I did commit was falling for his girl.  That is it.  I never acted upon those feelings.  Now, 13 years later I sometimes wish I had have acted upon them, because I served the same sentence as if I had of.  I have been punished for a crime I didn’t commit.  I’m glad I didn’t though because I can now hold my head high and know that he was he who destroyed our friendship and not me.

Or am I wrong?  Was my falling for his girl a justified reason for him to exile me from his life?  I still don’t know whether Jane ever told him the truth.  Maybe he still thinks that something happened!  I have been tempted to write him a letter but I fear that bringing up old history may cause issues between he and Jane.  I looked them up in the phone book and I see that they are still listed and therefore together which I am so happy about.  He is a great guy who deserves a great girl.  A girl like Jane.

I just miss my mate.

So what do you think?  Is my punishment deserved?  Did he do the right thing by exiling me without explanation?  Do you think I should have commited the crime back then seeing as how I have now done the time?  Do you think I should make contact?  Really looking forward to your responses.
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