Net Crimes & Misdemeanors

Press Contacts: Jayne Hitchcock, President of WHOA whoa@haltabuse.org Dee Andersson WHOA PR whoapr@haltabuse.org WHOA Press Release #2009-8 OLDEST ONLINE SAFETY ORGANIZATION DISCLOSES CURRENT CYBERSTALKING STATISTICS WHOA Shows How Online Trends Have Changed Over Nine Years April, 2009 - Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA) released their 2008 cyberstalking statistics today, as well as cumulative statistics for the past nine years, from 2000-2008. Based in York, Maine, WHOA is the oldest and largest all-volunteer online safety organization that has been continuously helping adult victims of cyberstalking since 1997. WHOA is the only online organization to provide the most up-to-date cyberstalking statistics and cumulative trends. WHOA proprietary statistics represent complaints where victims completed questionnaires in their entirety, but the figures do not represent the total number of cases that are brought to WHOA. All criteria gathered are only from victims who fill out the vol...

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .I want one! Bra deflects bullet aimed at Detroit woman http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090422/od_ uk_nm/oukoe_uk_bra;_ylt=Av1figntK17VNGRF r8BsyAjtiBIF A 57-year-old Detroit woman avoided serious injury when the underwire on her bra deflected a bullet shot at her from next door, police said. The woman, who lives on the West side of Detroit, saw a group of men breaking into a neighbour's house on Tuesday morning. When the men spotted her, one of them fired a shot at her, a police spokesman said. The bullet struck the underwire on the woman's bra and that saved her from a more serious injury, police said. "It did slow the bullet down," said Detroit police spokesman Phillip Cook. "She sustained injuries but they're not life threatening." The woman, who was not identified, was treated at a nearby hospital. The suspects in the shooting drove away. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *...

Worth watching http://www.digitalsafety.com/cyberstalking/

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Wow! Unemployed woman gets lotto winnings after 4 years http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090417/ap_ on_fe_st/odd_lottery_winner;_ylt=ApWAZf3 gsR_vOaU3SRdx1X8sQE4F NEWPORT, Maine – An unemployed woman who won $1 million in a Maine State Lottery game has collected her winnings ­ four years after she bought the scratch ticket in a store that's since burned down. Brenda Ripton told the Central Maine Morning Sentinel that she had received her $700,000 check from the lottery on Thursday. Ripton had just learned two days earlier that she won the million-dollar prize in the Texas Hold 'em game. The government took the rest of her winnings for taxes. Ripton said both she and her husband are out of work. Her winnings came in a second-chance lottery in which non-winners fill out the back of the ticket. It took this long to declare winners because the state had to sell all of its Texas Hold 'em tickets first. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

Hey mom - I'm on TV!! http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=103616&catid=2

I used my new TomTom (with the voice of Samantha, who we've nicknamed SamSam) to go to the Dunbar Free Library in Grantham, NH on Tuesday night and SamSam was right on! Got there at 630 pm with Phoebe in tow and lo and behold, my sister drives into the parking lot. . .ON TIME! She is notoriously late and I told her 630 pm figuring she'd show up at 7 pm. So call me shocked! My mom and niece and nephew were with her and they had their dog, a Sheltie named Clover, who Phoebe loves. The two dogs immediately began wrestling. I went inside to set up my books on the table for the panel, which I was sharing with one of my fave authors, Kate Flora (and I am not brown-nosing saying that - I read her books before I even met her!). I spoke with Katrina, the librarian who had booked us to speak, then Kate came in and we all chatted a bit. People started to show up and this one guy was either a cop or media (turned out he was a retired cop). The kids went in another room to go on the Inter...

Come and hear me speak at the Dunbar Free Library tonight about what it's like to be a true crime writer. FMI: 401 Route 10 South, Grantham, NH; 603.863.2172; dunbarfreelib@comcast.net

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Why? Swedish parishioners unveil Lego statue of Jesus http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090412/ap_ on_fe_st/eu_sweden_lego_jesus_statue;_yl t=AngmKG0E95yGGO58MVnZdEftiBIF Parishioners at a church in Sweden celebrated Easter on Sunday by unveiling a 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) statue of Jesus that they had built out of 30,000 Lego blocks. It took the 40 volunteers about 18 months to put all the tiny plastic blocks together, and their creation shows a standing Jesus facing forward with his arms outstretched. The Protestant church was filled to capacity with about 400 worshippers on Sunday when the statue went on display behind the altar, and some of the children in the congregation couldn't help but touch the white art work. Church spokesman Per Wilder said the statue at the Onsta Gryta church in the central Swedish city of Vasteras is a copy of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen's "Christus" statue on display in Copenhagen. He als...

I haven't written a general blog post in quite a while. So, to catch up on things: The stock market: Sucks. I lost enough money that I could have bought a Mercedes (one of the more expensive models, if you get my drift). That being said, I took some money out, especially after finding out I lost another $4,000 last month. I figure if I'm losing money, I paid off my BMW, two credit cards and some small accounts (like Fingerhut). I was especially dismayed to find I'd lost over $10,000 in my IRA. I'm just glad I didn't have millions to lose like some people did. Phoebe, our rescue Siberian Husky: She's doing extremely well. We go for a run or walk to the beach and back every day. I've lost weight, toned up my arms (from her pulling me like a sled down the road, ha ha) and she loves the beach. I remember when I first took her there, walked towards the waves and she turned and dragged me back to the road. Now she runs toward the water (but not in it yet) and chas...

You know, I really hate being treated like I'm an idiot. More to come about that in a bit. I was scheduled to be on a book panel at the Roslindale Public Library in Roslindale, Massachusetts with Kate Flora and Mary Ann Tirone Smith . I emailed the library early yesterday morning because I got conflicting directions from Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Mapquest. Before you ask, no, I do not have a GPS navigation thingy because I can't afford one and I don't travel that much to need one. The library book site only had directions using the T (the metro in Boston). I didn't hear from anyone all day and I had to leave at 4 pm to fill up my tank, so I printed all three sets of directions out, found that Mapquest and Google were the closest match and went that way. I took the Mass Ave exit down to Washington Street, took a left and found myself in Roxbury, which is not the nicest of areas. Let's just say I locked all the doors in my car. Thank goodness traffic was heavy, but...

Jayne Hitchcock wants you to come hear her talk at the Roslindale Library tonight at 630 pm. Address is 4238 Washington Street, Roslindale, MA. For more info call 617-323-2343 or email cclancy@bpl.org

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Did he serve shots while he drove? Barstool crash serves up drunk driving charge http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090401/od_ nm/us_barstool;_ylt=Apel7LvgSONoNoFqO9cG lj3tiBIF CHICAGO (Reuters) – Falling off a barstool can hurt one's pride, if not more, but an Ohio man got into trouble with the law for crashing his motorized version. Kile Wygle, 28, hurt his head in the March 4 mishap with a motorized barstool and was charged with drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, police said on Tuesday. While being treated by paramedics, Wygle told an officer he consumed "a lot" of beers -- at least 15 -- before crashing the barstool at some 20 mph, a police account showed. Later, Wygle told a local television station he got drunk after, not before, the crash. "I drank quite a bit after I wrecked because my head hurt so bad. I went in and drank a half a bottle of whiskey," the Newark man told the NBC outlet in Columbus. So...