Pepper Spray, Stun Guns, and Tasers… Oh My!

It’s starting to warm up a little bit and finally feel like spring. I did have some frost on my windshield this morning, but it was nothing that the windshield wipers and some washer fluid couldn’t handle.

But it looks like there are still some frigid spots around the country.

A 71-year-old man from South Dakota successfully fended off a 20-year-old man armed with a knife early yesterday morning.

Rapid City Police say the elderly man was scraping ice off his car when Talon LaClaire pulled out a knife and demanded money. It is reported that the senior used his ice scraper to fight off the attacker. After being bested by the old man with a plastic ice scraper, the robber fled to his girlfriend’s house nearby.

Next thing LaClaire knows, he gets into a fight with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, the 71-year-old called the police, who dispatched a K-9 unit to track the man down.

Apparently with nowhere else to flee to, the would-be attacker surrendered to police without additional incident.

LaClaire was charged with attempted first-degree robbery for his altercation with the senior, then an aggravated assault and domestic violence charges after the argument with his girlfriend.

Definitely not his day.

A robbery conviction could net the man up to 25 years in prison, with an additional 15 years for the assault charge, although I’m sure he wouldn’t get the full sentence.

While not quite as lame as the plastic candy cane self-defense, but you suck if a 71-year-old guy kicks your butt with an ice scraper, Sonny. Hopefully it was at least a long handled ice scraper, not a tiny hand-held model.

Be Safe, Be Prepared.

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A Wii?? I didn’t ask for a Wii! I wanted a freakin remote control airplane!

Apparently, a ungrateful 26-year-old guy in NH got rather irate when his girlfriend failed to get him what he asked for this past Christmas. While exchanging presents, he opened what normally would be considered a highly coveted gift, a Nintendo Wii game system.

It wasn’t reported what the 24-year-old girlfriend got in return, but it didn’t seem like she went off the deep end over her present. In hindsight, too bad she didn’t ask for a C2 Taser.

But after a heated argument, she got fed up with the situation and attempted to leave.

With that, the guy grabbed her buy the hair, so she swung around and clocked him. The couple was arrested for assault and were slapped by a no-contact order this past week by a judge. The couple has attempted to make up and asked that the no-contact order be lifted, but the request was at least initially declined. Perhaps they could take out their frustrations with a Wii Boxing match?

So much for “It’s the thought that counts.”

At least the Wii could be used right away. I mean it will be months before the New Hampshire weather is good enough for messing around outside with a silly remote control airplane. It was below 5 degrees out this morning and we have over a foot of fresh snow on the ground, on top of what was already there. Unless the guy was going to build a makeshift snow runway in his backyard and brave the freezing cold, probably without gloves to successful maneuver the aircraft, what good is a remote control airplane anyways?

Sounds like loads of fun to me. Not.

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A 4-year-old boy from Texas was caught on surveillance video playing with toys at a local Family Dollar store at 3 AM this past Monday.

Apparently the youngster woke up and unlocked the door of his house in the middle of the night and preceded to take off down the street to a nearby shopping plaza.

When he arrived at the store, the in-store surveillance picked up on the small child attempting to gain entry to the store’s front door, which was locked. He kept trying and found a second door that was unlocked, so the boy went inside, triggering a silent alarm.

When the police arrived at the scene, he was playing in the aisle and happily showed the toys to the officers.

Unfortunately, Child Protective Services says the boy will have to stay with extended relatives while they review the details of this incident. But on the plus side, it doesn’t look like anyone was hurt. Luckily it was 3 AM in the morning when the boy crossed a street that I’m sure would have been rather busy during the daylight hours.

There was also another sandwich in the face assault charge in Florida, but these stories are quickly becoming dumb and boring. I guess this one was something about an auto insurance dispute and the guy hit the girl with a sandwich, but he said he just threw it at her and missed, blah blah blah. Give me a break with these already.

Back here up north in frigid New England, we are recovering from the recent ice storm this past weekend. Personally, we were without power, heat, internet, etc from Thursday night until Monday afternoon. There are still several hundred thousand still without power, but the utility services are still working around the clock.

They had help from utility crews from all over neighboring states come in to help from NY, Maine, PA, VA and even Canada to help out good old New Hampshire out of the worst power outage and ice storm the area has ever seen.

During the ordeal, I broke out one of the telescopic steel baton LED flashlights. It had some heavy flashlight use over the almost 5 days without power and held up great.

I almost wanted to test it out and keep it running consistently throughout to test the battery life, but decided to conserve the battery just in case. However the kids did kept playing with it, turning it on and off and otherwise “stress testing” it, dropping it a few times, and it held up great.

Needless to say, we are a bit behind on e-mails, the blog and orders, but we are catching up and will be up to date by the end of the week. Thanks for your patience!

Be Safe!

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Doesn’t anyone eat food anymore?

Couple of weeks back a couple was in the news over a dispute in their car that ended up with the girl being hit in the face with a sandwich. It didn’t say what kind of sandwich, but we were speculating it might have been a “club”?

Then, right after Thanksgiving another fiesty couple down south made headlines for another domestic assault dispute, when unhappy with what was for dinner, a guy smashed a hot sweet potato pie in his female companion’s face. This incident was a tad more serious because the pie was hot, and the woman was treated for burns on her face and neck. Apparently the guy had enough with the turkey leftovers…

Now, we just had a cheeseburger assault reported in the news.

A guy in Florida got into an arguement with his girlfriend in the car, fresh off a trip from McDonald’s.

The story says the guy wouldn’t let the woman out of the car, so she whipped his drink out the window and into the street. In retailiation, the man grabbed her by the arm and smooshed a cheeseburger into her face.

The couple then exited the vehicle, and man picked up the McDonald’s sandwich and rubbed what was left of it in her face again. He now faces domestic violence charges. At least McDonald’s burgers are never hot by the time you get them. The coffee, however, is typically hot enough to win a lawsuit.

So the drink was thrown out the window and the cheeseburger was smashed up twice. Since they were not mentioned, one can assume the french fries survived the incident unscathed, ot at least eaten properly. I guess we won’t know for sure.

So what is this new found fascination with food related assault? I guess the recession hasn’t hit the food rationing stage yet and people are still willing to waste some in the heat of the moment.

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Holy Assault, Batman!

Joker star Christian Bale has denied that he assaulted his mother and sister after he was released from police custody last week.

Bale allegedly attacked his 61-year-old mother Jenny, and his 40-year-old sister Sharon at London’s Dorchester Hotel. A spokesperson for Bale said: “Christian Bale attended a London police station today, on a voluntary basis, in order to assist with an allegation that had been made against him to the police by his mother and sister.”

Bale denied the allegation, co-operated throughout the questioning, and gave his side of the story. He left the police station without any charge being made against him.

The arrest came a few hours after Bale attended the European premiere of Heath Ledger’s new Joker movie The Dark Knight in London. Ok, ok, it’s actually Bale’s new Batman movie, but all the hype and press has been Heath Ledger this, Joker that… What about Batman?

What other options does Christian Bale have to attempt to recapture some media attention? I mean it was his starring role and Ledger goes and tragically dies, effectively stealing the spotlight…

So was this a desperate publicity stunt or actual domestic abuse? Bale doesn’t have all his fancy Batman gadgets in real life, too bad his mom or sis didn’t have some gadgets of their own. A stun gun, taser or some pepper spray could have turned the tables on this wannabe superhero. ZAP! BAM! BIFF!

“Joker star Christian Bale Pepper Sprayed by Mom” or “Bale: Don’t Tase Me, Sis!” would have made some hilarious headlines.

Don’t let some joker blow up your mini van in Gotham City, let him have it.

It would be nice to believe that nothing will happen to you, but the reality of it is that an ounce of protection could be worth more than a pound of cure. What is Worth Protection to you? Your belongings? Your family? Your personal well-being?

Yours in safety,
Rob

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