The incident occurred Sunday, and since then Police have been tracking down any lead they can find. This one might be the key to finding the driver of the vehicle, believed to be a white ladder truck. It's a partial logo broken off the truck when it hit Grgurich, and Police are hoping someone can identify it. So what do you think? It's nothing we recognize, but it could be a regional or local business logo or something custom. Sleuth away.
[Desmoines Register]

Update: Diggers have joined in on the hunt and have offered up some good ideas, but so far there's nothing conclusive. Commenter keviano overlaid the oddly named "Kurt Russel" font atop the fragment and it makes a pretty good fit, as seen below. Keep at it though, we'd love to see this one solved.

Update 2: Des Moines police have released this image of a truck captured on surveillance tape which has been identified as a suspect vehicle. Obviously it doesn't have a ladder rack on it and it's a pickup with driving lights, a grille guard and what might be either a utility bed or a dually setup on it, but it's tough to tell. This truck's either a GMC or Chevrolet in the 1981 to 1987 and finding it may lead to an arrest.

[Des Moines Register]

Update 3: Police have impounded a pickup truck matching the description of the vehicle in the surveillance video. The truck was found at a towing company in Winterset, Iowa and sheriffs hauled it away after confirming it matched. Although no suspects have yet been taken into custody, finding the vehicle places police one step closer to the perpetrator.[KCCI]

What do you do? Some of us might submit to the inevitable stuffin'-n-cuffin' process, establishing a behavior/judgment-themed cause-and-effect connection, taking stock of the not-so-good direction our lives have taken during the booking process, et cetera, but not the resourceful James C. Storie of Muncie, Indiana! Mr. Storie, a somewhat dim light bulb flashing over his head, figured he'd put his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter behind the wheel- why she and "two other pre-teenagers" were in the van with this upstanding and un-driver's-license-equipped citizen wasn't explained- and let her take the rap. Ha! Let's see The Man match wits with this criminal mastermind! Sadly for the criminal mastermind community, John Law saw through this scheme, and Mr. Storie found himself in the clink being asked a lot of very pointed questions about those outstanding warrants.
We can thank my friend Jessica in Indianapolis for this one; Jessica and her friends play a wonderful game called "Muncie As Fuck," in which they vie to find the stories that most exemplify their view of the city famed for the Muncie M22 'Rock Crusher' 4-speed transmission. The Muncie Sword Slashers mugshots used to represent undeserved Camaro-owner stereotypes were the product of the MAF game. Got your own MAF story with a car-related theme? Send it in!
[Star Press]

Not only do the Choppers- who go by monikers like Snooper, The Torch, and Cruiser- use state-of-the-art (for 1943) communication technology, they listen to some of the cheesiest music ever recorded. Meanwhile, a sexy Renault Dauphine-driving cop's wife is on their trail. Made on a C-movie budget that would have had even Russ Meyer screaming about limitations, The Choppers satisfies all our cinematic needs while accurately depicting the societal downward spiral that led straight to the Manson Family and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Enjoy.


[Isotope Guerrilla Cult Theatre, via BoingBoing]

Police investigating the crime found the jack from a Range Rover under the car and a brief recce turned up a wheel-less Rover nearby. The thieves apparently used the jack, in addition to two others, possibly resulting in the unintentional collapse as the wheels were removed.

The driver, an engineer driving the car for evaluation, fears he left the car unlocked in his driveway over night. It looks like he actually lives in a nice neighborhood. Is this what greater Detroit is like now? [via Camaro5]

Two more cops arrived in an unmarked car, and moments later, Chad Hastings was freed. According to Hastings, the arresting officer muttered, "Get a new steering wheel lock, it looks like a bloody gun," and told him he was a "a lucky boy," since "any other cop would have had you at gunpoint."

I have to say, if there was a gun that looked just like the Club, it would probably be a space death ray gun, so I think I'd have probably done same thing. [Courier Mail via digg]

It may be the Chief in the Seattle-area town was responding to another text message of "R U TEH BRAIN WILSON FRUM BEACH BOYZ?" but he apparently was checking his Blackberry and absentmindedly "lifted his foot" from the brake pedal while stopped at a light. As one might expect, a police cruiser unguided will find something to crash into and that's exactly what happened when the car collided with the stopped vehicle in front of him. At this point, no charges are planned, though Washington state does maintain anti-texting-while-driving laws. Do as we say, not as we do. [Seattle Times]

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Police apprehended comptroller Rachel Fait and general manager Rick Covello in Utah, dealership owner Allen Patch turned himself in to Nebraska cops after the others were captured. The three were in the middle of executing a brazen plan which began last Saturday, when they began quietly loading car haulers with inventory from their own dealership in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and shipping the cars west. The plan was to claim the cars were fully owned by the dealership, which was in the midst of closing down, and selling the cars through auction houses and direct to other dealers. The problem with the plan was that the cars, with an estimated value of $2.5 million, were owned by the financing arms of the respective automakers.

The dealership, and each of the suspects individually, had been slowly getting into financial trouble and the heist was a desperate attempt to cash out before the whole business went under. All three previously law abiding citizens are awaiting arraignment on multiple charges. This is the part where we normally make a joke about the whole situation, but this story is actually just a somber commentary on the state of things when previously successful business associates resort to this kind of nonsense when pushed to the brink. [Salt Lake Trib]

The disappearance of a mix of Fords and Toyotas was discovered on Tuesday morning when employees reported to noticeably empty sales lots. Adding to the confusion were the emptied desks and missing computers of dealership owner Alan Patch, comptroller Rachel Feit, and general manager Rick Covello. The three had vanished with no explanation and all attempts to contact them have been fruitless. Eye-witnesses report the cars were loaded on trucks late in the evening and driven off into the night. Scottsbluff Police are investigating the situation, but the way things are going lately we're assuming the trio made off with the cars for nefarious reasons. Perhaps reenacting the plot of Fargo. [Omaha World-Herald]

The officers became suspicious when they spotted, you know, the spray of sparks emanating from the rear of the car and pulled the man over. His intoxication became readily apparent when he displayed bloodshot eyes and uneven balance, officers managed to get the guy to blow a .20 BAC, and off to the slammer he went. In the pantheon of dumb things drunk drivers do, losing a tire is pretty low, but really funny. [SF Gate]

Elvis ran red lights, hit parked cars, traveled at high rates of speed, didn't wear a seatbelt, and finally came to a stop when he rolled the car on its side. Officers arrested Barrett and during a search turned up crack as well as a crack pipe in his car. Officers issued the man 50 citations in what has to be one of the most ticketed stops ever recorded in Florida. [Yahoo]

The scam works like this: You come back to your parked car and there's a parking ticket under the windshield wiper. Everything looks official so you go home, and, being a law abiding citizen you visit the website on the ticket as directed. In order to make sure it was your car, you have to flip through a gallery of evidence and find your car. In order to do this, you have to download a toolbar and that's how they get you. The toolbar is loaded up with an executable file. When the computer restarts is when the fun begins. Your computer becomes a nightmare of pop-up windows talking about downloadable antivirus software and all hell breaks loose from there.

It is a pretty clever scam, and we have to hand it to this particular hacker for thinking laterally. That doesn't mean we don't want virus-generating hackers to burn for eternity in the deepest, most fiery pits of hell but... at least he or she isn't hacking electronic road signs, right? [BBC]

David B. "Mister Oldskool" Johnson rolled up to the Markham, Illinois, Courthouse in his 1988 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, and every detail was in place, from the purple fedora and full-length fur coat to the "PIMP PLAZA" plaque on the dash. Well, every detail save one really important one: his driver's license. You see, the reason for the courthouse visit was the little matter of 13 charges of driving on a suspended license, and the judge issued a 10-day jail sentence beginning next week… with stern orders not to drive until then. So, Cook County Sheriff's Deputy Frank Czerwinski figured he had the proverbial fish-in-a-barrel bust when Mister Oldskool headed out to his ride, dusted it off with a purple feather duster, and drove off. Straight to jail, and we can only hope the tow truck driver was nice to that Cadillac.

[Chicago Sun-Times, thanks to 57Sweptside for the tip]

Put aside for a moment the unfortunate situation the owner of the Accord has fallen into, and let's think about the situation the officer finds himself in. A crime happened in front of his eyes and the thief got away with virtually no effort, all captured on camera and broadcast for the whole world to see. We're going to bet this guy is in for a brutal ribbing from his friends on the force. There is no way he will ever live this incident down, they've probably even nicknamed him as a result of this. Something like "Officer McCar-Jack" or "Eagle Eyes McGee." Oh, it all happened so fast but will have repercussions for so, so long. [Youtube]

Kwara State Police Command displayed the suspect for media the other day and explained the investigation into the attempted car jacking was still ongoing. The charges arise from a a vigilante group who turned in the goat following their citizens arrest. They claim two men attempted to steal a Mazda and upon failing and being spotted by neighborhood watchmen, attempted to flee. One of the men escaped, but the other, upon being cornered, turned his back to the pursuers and transformed into a goat. The vigilantes quickly grabbed the goat and turned it in to police. A spokesman for police later confided that they were really holding the goat until an owner showed up, but still, the official line is the goat is being held pending completion of investigation, meaning charges against the goat are possible.

We're silently wondering if the goat will soon begin sending us emails, telling the tail of his unlawful jailing and how he needs our help to transfer his fathers fortune to the United States. [Vangaurd via BBC]

At this point, I'd like to break away from the story and make a quick note. In my many years of education, years of work, and thousands of posts for Jalopnik, never have I ever thought I would ever write the sentence "The vigilantes quickly grabbed the goat and turned it in to police." I consider this a high water mark in the news of the weird. That is all.

Miss Relic was out at a St. Vincent De Paul back in September when she managed to smash into an unsuspecting Honda Civic. The trouble was she didn't have a license, as it had been revoked because of medical reasons. Turns out that was only one of 78 times she'd been in court, whether due to traffic incidents or tangling with neighbors. Yeah, that's a bit much.

Seems the court system finally got tired of dealing with Luba and leveled a ban on her driving until the year 2999. On that news, Miss Relic got testy with the Magistrate, who added on another year for her back talk, bringing the final date up to the year 3000. We expect this salty old lady to stick around until then just to spite the system.

[via News.co.au]

The 22-year-old, six-foot-tall, 300 Lb Hawkins had been arrested and tossed in the slammer after assaulting his own mother, but the judge let him loose when a court date was assigned. Obviously Sean couldn't call his mom, but instead of getting a taxi or inconveniencing a friend, he yanked Roberto Valladares from his Toyota 4Runner and took off for home. Police caught up with Hawkins a couple hours later when they spotted him driving around without his headlights on, and now additional charges have been added to his docket. Really, really dumb. [Washington Post]

While we can't be certain this was the exact scenario posed to off duty Maryland State Trooper Bruce Anthony Wrzosek, 22, we can be certain it's a reasonable assumption of the problem he faced as he sat idling in his marked cruiser. Obviously he couldn't just sit there and wait, so instead he turned on his lights and started yelling at and assaulting people in the cars ahead of him. Things got out of hand and Officer Wrzosek threw a 20-year-old man into the back of his cruiser for some reason. At that point a Baltimore city cop showed up and asked Wrzosek to park his cruiser and get out. Instead he took off with his lights and sirens blaring and took the cops on a brief high speed chase.

After blowing a 0.20 BAC in a field sobriety test Wrzosek was arrested and he's been summarily fired from the force. He's also been charged with kidnapping, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and alcohol-related traffic violations. He's currently being held at Baltimore City Jail on $500,000 bail, but we suspect he'll make a run for the border as soon as possible. [Baltimore Sun]

File this one under "What Where You Thinking?" After an argument with his wife, Imran Hussain got belligerently drunk and after attempts to secure a prostitute failed, pleasured himself while driving in his Audi Q7. Everything was fine and dandy until he crashed into the back of a Fiat Punto at speed, killing Gary Proctor, 47, and son James, 16, and seriously injuring wife Catherine, age 44.

First responders reported Hussain fleeing the scene with his erect member exposed and hurling insults towards onlookers. It's doubtful there are words in the English language to properly berate this kind of irresponsible asshatery, but Hussain has been sentenced to eight years in jail, which is breathtakingly brief for such record-breaking levels of douchebaggery. [BBC.co.uk]