Dateline: Norway– A Lithuanian held on suspicion of theft at a Norwegian jail slipped out of custody recently by stripping naked, smearing himself with vegetable oil and sliding through the prison bars. “He slipped through the bars on Christmas Eve,” said Sven-Erik Jacobsen, operation leader for the Oest-Finnmark Police District. Another Lithuanian, held as an accomplice in the same cell, tried to use the same slick technique as his partner in crime. Unfortunately, he proved to be just a bit too large to squeeze through the window at the Vadsoe Jail. “It was a good effort,” Jacobsen said. “But all he did was get his head and part of his shoulder through the bars.” According to Norwegian police, the oily escapee, 25-year-old Yuris Sinkevicius, is still at large. Dateline: California– Two young men, allegedly coming to the defense of two women, shot at one another, missing their targets entirely, but striking the two women they sought to help. According to the San Francisco Gate , a 17-year-old boy who remained unidentified as a minor and 18-year-old Absalom Tuimavave, both East Palo Alto residents, were each being held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. The two are thought by police to have each separately come to the defense of Melevea Fifita, 19, and Seu Tuimavave, 21, who were involved in a physical altercation last Friday night. The fight between the women began at around 10:30 p.m. As it escalated, the 17-year-old produced a handgun and defended Fifita. In response, Absalom Tuimavave pulled out a shotgun to defend his sister Seu. Eventually, both men fired at one another, both inadvertently hitting the women they were trying to defend. The 17-year-old boy fatally hit Fifita, while Tuimavave struck his sister in the pelvis. Seu Tuimavave survived the shotgun wound and is expected to recover. Fifita died at the scene. The 17-year-old was booked into the Hillcrest Juvenile Facility and Absalom Tuimavave was booked into the San Mateo County main jail. Dateline: Pennsylvania– It’s safe to say the honeymoon is over. Pennsylvania state police arrested a Maryland man who proposed to his girlfriend at a New Year’s party and, hours later, knocked her unconscious with a steering wheel lock on the side of the road. Police said an argument broke out between Stephen Mujerm, 40, of Lanham, Md., and his new fiancee, Victorine Taboh of Laurel, Md., about 6 a.m., Jan. 1, because Mujerm was driving “recklessly” after leaving a party in Pennsylvania’s northern York County. Shortly after midnight at the party, Mujerm asked Taboh to marry him, police told The York Dispatch . Taboh said “yes” and everything seemed good. On the way back to Maryland, however, the couple got into an argument over Mujerm’s reckless driving. Mujerm stopped his vehicle beside Interstate 83 in Springfield Township, where he exited the car to argue with his new fiancée. As the argument escalated, Taboh began breaking all the windows out of Mujerm’s car with a steering wheel lock. Mujerm punched Taboh and then hit her in the head with the steering wheel lock, knocking her unconscious. Emergency medical workers responded and rushed Taboh to York Hospital. She was treated and released later that day. State police have charged Mujerm with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangering and driving under the influence of alcohol. Dateline: Wisconsin– Police in the city of West Allis received a phone call last Friday morning from the manager of a Checker Auto Parts who had just confronted two shoplifters. The unusual part was that Darrin Malsack, 30, was calling from atop the roof of the getaway car. Malsack told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel two men walked into his store shortly after 11 a.m. and inquired about a portable DVD system. After Malsack brought the system to the counter, one of the men asked some more questions while the other picked up the system and started walking toward the door. “I’ve had customers before who wanted to see how the system would fit in their car,” Malsack told the newspaper. “But I felt a little weird about it this time.” The one man said he was going to his car to get money, but then both men got into the station wagon and closed the doors. Malsack, who followed the men to the car, pounded on the windows as they tried to pull out of the parking lot. The diligent store manager went to the rear of the vehicle and took down the license plate number, at which point the vehicle began backing up toward him. “At that point it was all instant,” said Malsack. “So I jumped on the station wagon. I was on the roof as they left the parking lot.” Malsack said he hung onto the vehicle’s luggage rack as the vehicle sped into traffic. “[The driver] tried swerving to make me fall off and kept yelling at me,” he said. Malsack was afraid to jump off the swiftly moving vehicle, so he reached into his pocket and telephoned police. Eventually, the station wagon came to a halt at a stop sign, at which point Malsack jumped off and began running. Police eventually arrived at the scene, but have been unable to locate the vehicle.
Compiled by Devin D. O'Leary. E-mail your weird news to devin@alibi.com.
