Published: January 31, 2024
PLEASE DON’T TELL MY MOM: Transportation officials searched a woman at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, and discovered that she had hidden marijuana in the adult diaper she was wearing. She explained that she was traveling with her mother and didn’t want her to know that she smoked weed. Police allowed the woman to toss the pot and catch her flight.
MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED IN THE FIRST PLACE: Rather than pull over to answer for a traffic violation on I-79 in Pennsylvania, a woman led police on a high-speed, 45-mile chase through multiple counties, and continued to drive on the rims after her tires were destroyed by stop sticks.
WHEN FIDO SPEAKS, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN: A man fired 14 rounds with an AK-47 from inside his Northampton, Mass., apartment and into the wall of his neighbors’ unit, because he thought that were poisoning his dog, adding that the dog told him to do it.
HE WAS HOPING THAT THE COPS WOULDN’T NOTICE: A 46-year-old man, who was driving erratically and swerving across the center line, led police on a chase through Excelsior Springs, Mo., in a pickup truck while hauling a mobile home.
HAND OVER THE MONEY, AND DON’T CALL ME BOZO! An armed man robbed three convenience stores in Riverside, Calif, over a period of five days while dressed as a clown.
HEY, I GOTTA’ MAKE A LIVING: A man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for dealing drugs in Detroit while he was on pretrial release from a previous drug dealing charge. In addition, he was on a GPS tether for the previous offenses.
OH YEAH!? I DON’T THINK SO! A masked man with a knife knocked on the door of an apartment in Portland, Ore., and threatened to stab the resident when he opened up, but the resident grabbed a knife and stabbed the masked man instead.
DRAT! FOILED BY MOTHER NATURE! A man, who was stealing heated coats from a store in Gravenhurst, Ontario, dropped the merchandise and tried to flee when the cops showed up, but was arrested after he lost a shoe as he tried to run through a snowbank.
JUST HAPPY FOR THE ATTENTION APPARENTLY: A 31-year-old woman, who considered one of Virginia’s most arrested ladies is back behind bars facing nearly two dozen new charges. ranging from identity is theft to drug possession. In all, she has racked up a total of 63 arrests. A newspaper described her as being “jovial,” even while standing in the Albemarle County General District Court shackled by handcuffs and leg irons.
HAPPY TO MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER, OFFICER: Employees of a wrecking company in Akron, Ohio, spotted a man who had broken into one of their cars, and sprang into action while he was still inside, lifting the vehicle with their forklift and leaving him hanging 20 feet in the air until the police arrived. When they apprised the 911 operator of the situation, he said, “Wonderful, that is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Mike Pingree – for RevereBeach.com
Mike Pingree is a native of Lynn, MA and has written the offbeat “Through The Looking Glass” column for 35 years. For many years it appeared locally in the Boston Sunday Herald, and at one point was distributed to 283 newspapers in the United States by Tribune Media Services of Chicago and to 300 college papers by Knight Ridder.
“Through The Looking Glass” also appeared regularly in The Star of Johannesburg, The Belfast Daily Mirror, the Bermuda Sun, Ireland on Sunday, The Barbados Daily Nation, The Sherbrooke Record in Quebec, The Daily Post in Fiji and the Central America Weekly in Costa Rica. At its highest point the column’s total worldwide circulation reached 2 million.
RevereBeach.com is pleased to bring “Through The Looking Glass” back to local readership – offering long-time journalist Pingree’s take on quirky and entertaining news items as a regular feature.
Mr. Pingree has worked as a newspaperman at the Boston Herald, USA Today, the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune and the Thomaston (Conn.) Express. He has also been a working actor for the past 15 years, appearing in short films and on stage in Boston and Newburyport. He has acted as an extra in more than 150 movies and television shows.
