Starting an under-the-radar business selling bogus Viagra and calling it “Erection Connection,” as 48-year-old Charles Anthony Johnson of Dallas did, kind of sounds like a joke. The federal government, however, isn’t laughing. Johnson was charged last August with a dozen counts of conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods and peddle…
The stretch of Harry Hines Boulevard between Walnut Hill and LBJ would seem to be a smoker’s paradise, packing at least three full-service smoke shops into a mile-and-a-half stretch of road. Each offers a wide array of tobacco and tobacco-smoking accessories, from cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes to grinders, water pipes…
The McClelland Gun Shop has been arming East Dallas since the 1970s from its nondescript shop by the railroad tracks on Centerville Road. And it offers just about what you’d expect from a Texas gun shop: a mix of hunting equipment, handguns, and Second Amendment rhetoric. It was where, during…
It’s not entirely clear exactly what Quintessa Scott hoped to achieve yesterday evening by randomly thrusting herself at/grinding on customers trying to enter K S Beauty Supply at 9191 Forest Lane. If her goal was to scare away business, it was a success. Police say her unsolicited advances sent multiple…
Early this morning, Fox 4 posted a report on a Tarrant County couple, Melissa Woodard and Christopher Apala, charged with beating their three puppies to death, then stuffing them in a barrel and setting them on fire. The initial information came from police, with Woodard’s sister, who said she called…
It was still dark when a passerby came upon the body of 15-year-old Nahum Martinez in Wylie on the morning of March 31, 2012. The Wylie East High School student had been shot in the forehead at close range, his body inexpertly hidden across from twin monuments marking the entrance…
At 7:15 Sunday evening, 20-year-old Angel Nava was being led to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center infirmary by his two arresting officers, R. Chavez and M. Spence. The 20-year-old, right eye nearly swollen shut, had just been picked up on a warrant for harassing two Murphy cops. He began to…
The probate court of the Old Criminal Court Building was a little disjointed on Friday. The judge, lawyers and witnesses were all dressed in 60s garb — skinny ties, strings of pearls, a pillbox hat or two — while back in the gallery the standing room-only audience was snapping pictures…
The Mesh Mask Bandit’s run was bound to come to an end. It’s possible, one supposes, to stick up a bank or two, then flee to some sparsely inhabited island, out of reach of the FBI. But when you rob 19 North Texas banks over the course of a few…
Seven months ago, Clayton Eathman decided he wanted an alligator. Or a crocodile. It didn’t really matter so long as it had a green, scaly hide, razor-sharp teeth and looked badass on a leash. So, he did what any backwoods herpetologist would do: He turned to YouTube’s comment section. i…
There are legal ways for stores to deal with hot checks. They can contact the customer and convince him or her to pay up. Failing that, they can go to small claims court. They can file a police report. They can even post offenders’ photos at the cash register as…
As the Texas Legislature’s special session drones on, the state’s lawmakers are grappling with what to do with teenagers — specifically with 17-year-olds convicted of murder. Last Thursday the Senate approved mandatory life sentencing with parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder — with the option of parole coming 40…
We’re not sure exactly what authorities thought was going on in the storefront Asian massage parlors that dot strip centers across North Texas. They seem to have taken the ads promising “Fantastic Good Massage” from “Cute & Pretty Staff” at face value. Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin says his department…
Out of the entire universe full of objects of potential interest to human beings, there’s only one thing Clayton Earthman enjoys enough to like on Facebook. It’s Doomsday Preppers, the National Geographic reality show about otherwise sane Americans steeling themselves for the post-apocalyptic nightmare they’re sure is just around the…
At first glance, the ads proclaiming last week’s grand opening of the JJ Health Center might have appeared to suggest something more than a massage. The massive amounts of cleavage, the pining eyes and lingerie uniforms of the “Friendly Charming Attentants,” the scantily clad masseuse doing what appears to be…
Ever since 25-year-old Clinton Allen was shot and killed by Officer Clark Staller, Allen’s family has been calling for action against the officer and the Dallas Police Department. Collette Flanagan, Allen’s mother, filed an ethics complaint against police Chief David Brown claiming that DPD never informed the FBI about Allen’s…
A 3-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool in far North Dallas yesterday afternoon, according a statement just issued by the Dallas police. DPD’s report says that Genesis Gregory went with his grandfather and uncle to a house in the 6600 block of Ridgeview Circle, where the men were providing…
It’s an urge that all but the most upright among us have fought at one time or another. The unoccupied snack-cake delivery truck idling in front of the store, its unprotected cargo beckoning. Surely no one would miss a box or two, you tell yourself before dismissing the thought, deciding…
Update: Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson agrees. Original post: There were a lot of surprising details that emerged as the feds were filing criminal charges against Arlington police officer Thomas Kantzos. There was the casual way Kantzos tipped off his steroid dealer, scuttling another agency’s investigation, and the detail about…
There was a time, about a century ago, when prostitution was perfectly legal in Dallas at least so long as it took place in Frogtown, the city’s official red-light district. It was a decidedly pragmatic way of dealing with the world’s oldest profession, but it wouldn’t last. The state’s Supreme…
Fernando Garcia was after gas, not sex, when he pulled his Ford pickup into to the Exxon station at Laureland Road and Interstate 35 on Wednedsay afternoon. Nor was he aiming to get laid when he was approached by a youngish, blond woman asking for a ride. The 61-year-old told…
Jan Daniels was at home at 9:40 this morning, but she wasn’t opening the door. She lives in a quiet and generally crime-free neighborhood of winding streets off Preston and Keller Springs in Far North Dallas, but she didn’t recognize the three men at her door. So, the 60-year-old stood…
