Crime Watch

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
rebecca crime watch 88 (photo credit: )
rebecca crime watch 88
(photo credit: )
Cops bag two more airport thieves Two more suspected members of the 'Ben-Gurion Baggage Gang' were brought for remand extensions Monday, a day after they were arrested after searches in their houses turned up items believed to have been stolen from travelers' suitcases. Both of the latest suspects - 28-year-old Lod residents - work in the same department, loading cargo onto airplanes at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Following the publication of information related to the thefts last week, some of the hundreds of citizens who turned to police asking for help recovering their stolen property succeeded in identifying their possessions. Police said that additional arrests will be made in the coming days. People who believe that they may have been robbed by the gang are asked to contact police at: 039715444 Teen rescued from abusive mother A Beersheba mother imprisoned her 16-year-old daughter and prevented her from leaving the house - even from attending school - out of fear that somebody would notice the signs of abuse on the teenager's body. On Sunday, the girl managed to call her school's principal, and told her that her mother had beaten and imprisoned her. With the help of the principal, the girl's homeroom teacher, and the school's guidance counselor, the girl and her 6-year-old and 14-year-old sisters were rescued from their house. An emergency order was issued turning the girls over to an adoptive family. Blogger held for animal abuse Police arrested an 18-and-a-half-year-old Petah Tikva resident Monday morning on suspicion that he tortured animals and desecrated graves, according to pictures posted on the young man's blog. The arrest came after the "Let Animals Live" organization filed an official complaint against the youth's Web site, which displayed graphic photographs of animal torture. Following an investigation by a detective specializing in computer-related crimes, police located the site, which was published by an anonymous source, tracing it back to its publisher. "The blog featured horrifying pictures of abuse of cats and mice, including operations carried out upon a mouse, and the decapitation of a cat," Central District police said Monday. Police suspect that other pictures were photographed in a cemetery, and involved sexual acts and desecration of graves. Upon searching the suspect's house Monday, police discovered tools which were used in the documented abuse, photos that "were religiously offensive" and a personal computer. The suspect denied the torture allegations, and said that the photographs taken in the cemetery were "art." 19 pupils stuffed into van The traffic crimes squad of the Shfar'am Police Station was shocked Monday when they stopped a van ferrying children back and forth to school, only to discover that packed inside the vehicle were almost two times the amount of passengers legally permissible. While the van was licensed to carry 10 passengers, police discovered 19 children crammed inside. The driver, a resident of Tamra, was taken to the local police station where his license was revoked and the van was impounded for 30 days. Police said that they planned to prosecute the driver, who, in his own defense, claimed that he didn't notice how many children he had loaded in to the vehicle.