For more than 40 years, William James Vahey drugged and abused hundreds of pupils at international schools around the world. A Guardian investigation reveals that, despite numerous opportunities to stop him, nothing was done. On 21 March 2014, a 64-year-old teacher named William James Vahey checked into a cheap hotel in the tiny Minnesota town…
Category: Modern Crime
Modern Crime: Will Cyber-Assassinations Soon Be A Reality?
As we hurtle forward into the digital, connected future, ever more objects are becoming targets for hackers and malicious software. Where once hacks only affected computers, they now bring down everything from cars to power grids and thermostats to secretive nuclear enrichment programs. So how long until a hack doesn’t just cause a nuisance or…
Modern Crime: Inside a Russian Hacker Ring
A man with intense eyes crouches over a laptop in a darkened room, his face and hands hidden by a black ski mask and gloves. The scene is lit only by the computer screen’s eerie glow. Exaggerated portraits of malicious hackers just like this keep popping up in movies and TV, despite the best efforts…
Another Reason To Be Armed: Home Invasion Stopped DEAD In It’s Tracks
The Question raised in this incident: Is It SMART To FIRE THROUGH a BARRIER (such as a Door) When You have Not Identified what is on the other side? 99% of the time I would say NO. The reason being if you live in an urban area/neighborhood, the chance for you to MISS the perp…
Modern Crime: Thieves Steal $16K Worth of iPhones Using Nothing But A Blue Shirt
At Apple Stores, the display computers and phones may be locked down to tables, but the extra devices in the back aren’t. And as it turns out, an enterprising thief needs only a blue shirt and a similarly attired partner to walk off with thousands of dollars in Apple products. That’s exactly what happened in…
Surveillance State: Hackers Have Found a Pulsating New Way to Spy on You on Your Phone and FitBit
Hackers may be pickin’ up good vibrations from your phone. All the better to surveil you with, my dear. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that the vibration motor in your devices can operate like a microphone, according to the researchers’ paper. That means, if…
Modern Crime: Vigilante “Creep Catchers” Are Luring Pedophiles Out and Getting Them Busted
The first time Cameron Allan went creep catching, he thought he was going to get stabbed. The New Brunswick, Canada teenager spent the morning of his 18th birthday posing as an underage girl on the internet with the goal of luring a would-be child-molester to his Saint John home and busting him on camera. Inspired…
Modern Crime: Pirates, Smugglers and Terrorist in the Western Pacific
The search for four kidnapped Malaysian sailors offers a window into a brutal underworld Johnny Lau Jung Hieng was just 20 years old when he was kidnapped. Born in Sarawak, Malaysia, he found work as a sailor on a tugboat as the youngest member of nine-man crew. Young men like Hieng commonly take work at…
Cartel Corner #83: Acapulco Turned Into “Gurrero’s Iraq” By Drug Cartels
The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexico’s Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control. Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called “Guerrero’s Iraq,” has been the most violent city in Mexico,…
Modern Crime: Indonesia Blazes a Legal Trail For America To Follow In How We Punish Sex Offenders
Desperate Times call for Desperate measures folks. Castrate a few and put a few to Death and see if things don’t change. -SF Indonesia just approved a severe new batch of punishments for sex offenders who target children, including chemical castration and death. “This regulation is intended to overcome the crisis caused by sexual violence…