Free Republic

Brightly colored women's thong underwear disguised the identities of two men during the robbery of an Arvada Diamond Shamrock earlier this month. Arvada police believe two Latinos entered the gas station at 6802 Wadsworth Blvd. just before 5 a.m. on May 16, donning the underwear over their faces and demanding cash from the clerk on duty. The suspects fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money and cigarettes.

NEW DELHI - Indian police killed one of the country's most notorious bandits Sunday — a man who ruled the ravines and forests of central India through a mixture of fear and love for three decades, with many hailing him as a modern-day Robin Hood. Shiv Kumar, also known by the alias Dadua, led one of the few remaining bands of outlaws that have roamed central India for centuries, their exploits romanticized in Bollywood movies. Kumar, thought to be in his 60s, was wanted in more than 200 cases of kidnapping, extortion and murder and had a bounty on his...

SAN DIEGO - A man dubbed the "FedEx Bandit" because he used envelopes from the delivery company to stash money during dozens of bank heists was sentenced today to 34 years in state prison. Farzad Farhbaksh, also known as Ernest Lozano, pleaded guilty on May 17 to 32 counts of robbery. "I'm sincerely sorry for what I've done, your honor," the defendant told San Diego Superior Court Judge David Danielsen before he handed down the sentence. "I ask for your mercy." The judge gave Farhbaksh consecutive sentences because the 32 counts represented separate victims and separate crimes. Danielsen also made...

Police in Northern Virginia said today they have identified the woman known as the "cell phone bandit" and are looking for her in connection with four bank robberies conducted while using a cell phone. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said the woman is Candice Rose Martinez, 19, of Chantilly, Va., and said arrest warrants have been issued."

SAN DIEGO – After an exhaustive search, authorities say they've captured a man suspected of being the "FedEx bandit." Farzad Farhbaksh, 40, was caught entering Mexico Monday at a Tijuana border checkpoint, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Farhbaksh was being pursued for six months, Mack said. He is accused of being the bandit who robbed 41 banks in Southern California, using a Fed Ex box to carry away his stolen cash. San Diego police are expected to announce the arrest and the charges they plan to pursue at a news conference later in the day. Immigration...

I recently set out to learn more about Islam. I had no agenda at the time except to broaden my knowledge on the subject. What I have learned sickened me. I had previously been accepting of the notion that Islam was a peaceful religion and that the Muslim terrorists who inflict so much pain and death around the world represented a fringe element outside of mainstream Islam. I was wrong. The Islamic deity, Allah, is a false god. While the term "Allah" does indeed carry the same meaning as "God," Mohammed's Allah is nothing more than a construct of a...

Are these the words of a sane man? The words of a statesman? The words of a man with class?: "The Cardinal (Castillo Velazco) is a pantomine, it makes me sad and fills me with disgust, he is a coupster, the Pope has to know this, the Vatican's Ambassador has to know this, the Apostolic nuncio has to know this, the devil does not respect a priest's robes, he is a bandit, immoral, a coupster...may God forgive him and the devil receive him when the time comes.." All of this because the Cardinal called Chavez' Government "ominous", the CNE a...

An armed robber with a proclivity for the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants struck his sixth bank Wednesday, working at what authorities call a "dramatic" pace and showing dangerous aggression. The suspect robbed the Hastings TCF Bank branch at Cub Foods, 1729 Marquette Blvd., about 7:10 p.m. He displayed a long-barreled handgun, demanded money and threatened to kill the teller, according to the FBI. He stashed an undisclosed amount of money in a SpongeBob gift bag and fled on foot. Authorities believe he is responsible for a string of robberies in the past three months at Cub Foods TCF banks in...

The coming economic crisis. Unemployment. Health care for the poor. The almost 1,500 dead soldiers. The almost 100,000 dead Iraqis. Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher. The Christian Conservative takeover of our nation. The missing 9 billion. The missing weapons of mass destruction. The impending invasion of Iran, and Syria. The total failure to protect us on 9-11.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

The Fishing Hat Bandit's run appears to be done. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said that, based on the investigation to date, evidence has been developed that allegedly ties John Whitrock to multiple bank and credit union robberies in the Twin Cities area. While declining to elaborate, McCabe said, "We are confident that the suspect known as the Fishing Hat Bandit is no longer a threat to the banking community." McCabe wouldn't say how many robberies the FBI suspects Whitrock of committing or whether his girlfriend, with whom he shares a townhouse in Burnsville, had a role in any of...

IN HONOR OF THE TENTH anniversary of the fabled Republican Revolution--for precisely a decade has flown by since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, following forty years of Democratic darkness--let us pause from our noise-making and silly-hat-wearing to ponder the story of Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon. They have lately been much in the news.Abramoff was until recently a registered lobbyist, and Scanlon offers himself as a public affairs specialist, but more precisely they are what Republicans in Washington used to call "Beltway Bandits," profiteers who manipulate the power of big government on behalf of well-heeled people who...

MSNBC (on Sept 29th '04) was just interviewing Runner’s World editor in chief - David Willey, who talked about the candidates' running. MSNBC showed a picture of Bush running, with a personal best of 3 hours 44 minutes in the marathon. The interviewer asked Willey about Kerry’s claims that Kerry had run the Boston marathon, and Willey responded that Kerry did run the Boston marathon, but only as a “bandit” runner, which means no official number. So what else is new about Kerry? Claims that he ran the Boston marathon, which is true enough, but doesn’t share that he was...

TAMPA, Fla. -- The "Beer Belly Bandit" has struck again after a 10-month break, adding to the dozens of bank robberies he has committed in Florida since 2000. The robber, known for his bulging midsection, hit a bank on Tuesday, pulling a gun on two tellers. It was the first robbery he had committed since November, when he held up a bank in Sarasota, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. The amount stolen was not disclosed. "Normally with investigations like this, you get an abundance of leads, especially with a $25,000 reward," said agent Steve Davenport. "We're not getting...

CLAYTON, Mo. - Police in the St. Louis area are calling it the case of the "Clown Bandit." A man created a comedy of errors as he broke into a liquor store earlier this week. The crook was seen on surveillance video stealing booze. But just off camera, he slammed face first into a door. Then he lost his balance, slipped and fell. He also grabbed some cigarettes and a magazine, police said, and bagged his own goods. But he couldn't get out the window where he came in so he threw all of the stolen items out the window....

May 29, 2003 -- A female bandit on two-day bank-robbery spree blamed her one-woman crime wave on 9/11, telling one teller she lost a loved one in the World Trade Center attacks, it was charged in court yesterday. "I lost a loved one on Sept. 11. Please put everything from your top drawer in this bag. I have a gun in my right hand," accused stickup artist Pamela Kaichen, 43, told a teller on the first stop of her spree, authorities said.

'Hair Bandit' Gets 8 Years in Prison By Nancy Wride, Times Staff Writer The so-called "Hair Bandit" pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to eight years in prison for cutting off the locks of nine women and a girl on the streets of Long Beach and East Los Angeles.

(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) Authorities on Tuesday continued to search for a bandit who reportedly made off with at least $2 million in cash after stealing an armored truck from Kennedy Airport. Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said the armored truck was hijacked at 8:05 p.m. Sunday from cargo building 68 on Pilot Road at JFK, where Dunbar Armored Car Company is located. DiFulco said he had no details on the hijacking or how much money the vehicle contained. But newspaper reports said the truck was stolen at gunpoint by a masked bandit. It had just been loaded for delivery...

<p>NEW DELHI, India -- India's most infamous bandit, Veerappan, has threatened to behead his hostage -- a former state minister nabbed on Sunday.</p> <p>In a taped message, Veerappan -- who goes by one name -- said his demands would be presented soon and unless they were met, he would kill H. Nagappa, a former minister of agriculture in the southern state of Karnataka.</p>

Sobing Bandit He's being called the "sobing bandit." A hispanic man in his 20's walked into the Jiggers Karaoke and Sports Bar off Babcock Road. The waitress says he calmly showed a gun, asked for money and then calmly walked out. She says he was crying, telling her how he didn't have any money. He got away with about $200 dollars.