Weed Arrest at Police HQ, Firefighter Arsonist Top Weird Crime News

Each week, Patch combs through the more shocking, surprising and often absurd alleged criminal acts and police-related incidents that unfold around the region. Here’s what went on last week for “OMG PD.”

Bad places to park your car, part 2: Remember that arrest we told you about last week, when a Pennsauken man allegedly parked a stolen car in a police lot? That’s nothing. Four men were arrested after allegedly hot-boxing their 2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue in—no, really—a State Police barracks lot in Passaic County.

"The occupants were obviously not expecting to see a trooper in the parking lot of the State Police barracks," said Lt. Stephen Jones. All four were charged with possession of marijuana and suspected ecstasy pills

Irish eyes don’t smile about this one: It’s one thing to have your package of St. Patrick’s Day decorations stolen off your porch, but twice in two days? That’s no way to get into the holiday spirit.

Can’t outrun the cops, part 2: Collingswood got bragging rights last week, and this week it’s Cherry Hill officers nabbing some alleged criminals well after the event. It took six months, but a pair who allegedly turned a shoplifting into a robbery at Walmart got caught, police announced.

One weird police chase: An unlicensed Cherry Hill man was confused and disoriented when he led officers on a chase through nearly all of Maple Shade, police said. James R. Beer, 52—and yes, that’s his real name—gave cops a tour of Route 73 and Route 38 before being blocked by an NJ Transit bus, when officers pulled him over, police said.

The court version of a yo-yo: Leon C. Glaspie was about to get out of prison after a state appeals court tossed his bank robbery conviction on a technicality—then the state Supreme Court stepped in to put a hold on that while prosecutors appeal. It’s a confusing mess of federal and state law spun around Glaspie, who admitted being part of a heist at The Bank in Deptford while out on a two-hour leave from a federal halfway house to find a job. “Instead, he robbed a bank,” Gloucester County Trial Chief Mary Pyffer said at his conviction.

Firefighters put out fires, they don’t start them: Deptford volunteer firefighter Michael S. Petrilak apparently didn’t get that memo, though. He’ll have five years to ponder it, after getting sentenced to a state prison term for his role in burning down a home on Cattell Road in Deptford so he could have the chance to fight a fire.