Police in George, WA issued a report on the events leading up to the deaths of Robert Uhlenake (24) and his friend, Ormond D. Young (27) at the Metallica concert last Friday. Uhlenake and Young were found dead at the Gorge Amphitheater after the show. Uhlenake was in pickup that was on top of Young at the bottom of a 20 ft drop. Young was found with severe lacerations, numerous fractures, contusions, and a branch in his anal cavity. He also had been stabbed and his pants were in a tree above him, some 15 ft off the ground; adding to the mystery of the heretofore unexplained scene. According to Commissioner-In-Charge Inoye Appleton, Uhlenake and Young had tried to get tickets for the sold-out concert. When they were unable to get any tickets, the two decided to stay in the lot and drink. Once the show began, and after the two had consumed 18 beers between the two of them, they hit upon the idea of scaling the 7 foot wooden security fence around the perimeter of the site and sneak in.
They apparently moved the truck up to the edge of the fence and decided that Young would go over first and assist Uhlenake later. They had not counted on the fact that while it was a 7 foot fence on the parking lot side, there was a 23 foot drop on the other side. Young, who weighed 255 lbs and was quite inebriated, had jumped up and over the fence and promptly fell about half the 23 foot distance before a large tree branch broke his fall and his left forearm; unfortunately, he also managed to get his shorts caught on the branch.
Since he was now in a lot of pain and with no way to extricate himself and his shorts from the tree, he decided, seeing bushes down below, to cut his shorts off and fall to the ground. Upon cutting the last bit of fabric from himself, he suddenly plummeted to earth, losing grip of the knife. The "soft" bushes were actually holly bushes and landing in them caused a massive number of cuts. He also had the misfortune of landing squarely on a holly bush branch; effectively impaling himself.
The knife, which he had accidentally released 15 ft up, now landed and stabbed him in his left thigh. Apparently, he was in a lot of pain. Enter his friend Robert. Uhlenake had apparently observed the last bit of this and, despite his inebriated state, realized that Young was in trouble. He hit upon the idea of lowering a rope to his friend and pull him up and over the fence. This was complicated by the fact that Uhlenake was outweighed by his friend by a good 100 lbs. Again, despite his state he realized he could use their truck to pull Young out. Unfortunately, because of his state, Uhlenake put the truck in reverse, rather than drive, broke through the fence, landed on Young (killing him), was thrown out of the truck and subsequently died of internal injuries. "So that's how a dead 255 lb man with no pants on, with a truck on top of him and a stick up his ass came to be" said Commissioner Appleton.
In April, 1995, a gunman in Columbia, Tennessee, announced a bank robbery, but the bank had closed the previous August. "He walked in here and said, 'Give me your money,' and I laughed," said Lea Ables, who works for the insurance company that moved into the office. "I didn't think he was serious at first. He then sort of looked funny and asked, 'This isn't a bank anymore?'" He left after robbing two workers of $127.
Carl Rankin, 35, was charged with holding up a store near Trenton, New Jersey, using a cup of hot coffee as a weapon. Police said Rankin threw the coffee at a convenience store clerk, then reached into the cash register.
Two gunmen wearing ski masks burst into the Old Colony Credit Bureau in Plymouth, Massachusetts, ordered the owner and three other workers to lie on the floor, then ransacked the office. They fled with a small amount of cash and some jewelry. Police were baffled why the robbers would target Old Colony, which compiles credit reports and keeps little cash on hand, although some officials speculated that the holdup was a botched bank robbery, with the robbers mistaking the credit bureau for a credit union.
In Arlington, Virginia, a man presented a check for $1,450 to a bank teller, who told him to wait for approval and took the check to Assistant Vice President Melinda Babson. She knew the woman whose check it was but didn't recognize the signature, so she called her. The woman said she had not written the check, which Babson then copied and faxed to her. The whole time, the unsuspecting suspect waited calmly, sipping a cup of coffee, according to Senior Vice President Andrew Flott who noted after police arrived and arrested the man, "He was a knucklehead for not leaving." Even if he had left, the teller had his driver's license, which he had given her for identification with the check.
In the trial of six men charged with attempting Britain's biggest cash robbery, prosecuting lawyer Guy Boney told the court that the gang forced an armored car carrying $18.2 million to be driven to a wooded area, then used high-powered torches to open it. But, Boney noted, the torches also set off "a horrendously expensive bonfire" that turned up to $2.4 million into ashes and caused the men to flee.
John Schieman, 37, was charged with robbery, assault and grand larceny after his intended victim, Robin Van Bortle, 32, beat him with an anti-theft device known as the Club. She told police she was attaching it to her car steering wheel in suburban Rochester, New York, when Schieman tried to force his way into her car, so she "just started to hit him with it."