Creepy People (Part X)

The world is full of really creepy people. This is Part X of a series on creepy people. Admittedly, there are times when all of us do something we later admit was a bit creepy but some people are creeps all their lives and sometimes their creepy acts are really gross. What follows are the actions of some really creepy people---the kind of people your mother told you to stay away from.

September 9, 2002, a high school teacher in Daphne, Alberta, made the news when the mother of a 14-yr-old boy who had peed in his pants during class revealed the teacher's 25-cent charge for restroom breaks. The kid didn't have a quarter, and the teacher allegedly bullied him into trying to hold it in. The quarters were to go to a year-end pizza party.

The French newspaper Le Parisien reported in November 1994 that a black man, who was the victim of racist remarks from an elderly woman in a Vienna, Austria, train station, snatched the woman's train ticket and ate it. Transit authority rules specify that a passenger without a ticket must pay a hefty fine. She had to pay a heafty fine for not presenting her ticket. That was a fitting way to get revenge on a creep for being a racist creep.

In 1995, several news reports on the Kobe, Japan, earthquake mentioned instances in which the Japanese were hindering world efforts to help victims. The New York Times reported that the Japanese government refused offers of U.S. vaccines, doctors, dogs (to sniff out persons alive under rubble) and medicines. An Associated Press dispatch noted Japanese official’s refusal for the homeless to be treated on a nearby U.S. aircraft carrier or to be treated at a Japanese country club because (according to the officials) that would not be fair to others who were not treated in such luxury.

In 1993, news anchors Tsitsi Vera and Noreen Welch were suspended for three months in Harare by the government-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Co. in December for giggling uncontrollably while reporting the story of a woman whose newborn baby fell though the toilet of a train onto the track below.

Sometime in April, 1999, Kwok Ping Yung of New York City, began posting advertisements in the Internet on his web pages offering computer and electronic merchandise for sale at prices considerably lower than the regular retail prices. Prospective customers were to e-mail their orders to his company but send cash payments to Steve Simp (alias for Kwok Ping Yung) The request for cash payments should have tipped off the customers that something was amiss. Since April 1999, only 40 customers responded and of that 40, 39 didn’t get anything for their money. When the FBI raided his home, they found $55,000 under the cushions of the sofa he was sitting on. Needless to say, this creep was charged accordingly.

Alberta MP Jack Ramsay (a former police officer) threatened to shoot a young girl in the back if she fled after he asked her to take down her underwear, court was told today. The girl, 45 years old by the time of his trial was being conducted, was the first to testify on the opening day of Ramsay's trial on a charge of unlawful confinement. She alleged that the incident took place in January 1970 in Pelican Narrows, a remote community in northern Saskatchewan where he was an RCMP corporal in charge of the detachment. She said, “If I tried to run away, he would shoot me in the back.'' The woman testified that she was at home doing laundry when Ramsay came to the door and asked why she wasn't in school. He told her to come with him to the police detachment which was a block away. He then told her to take her panties down and lie on the floor. But then they heard footsteps, so he allowed her to leave. The week before she gave her testimony, Ramsay was sentenced to nine months in jail for attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl in 1969, also while he was stationed in Pelican Narrows. Ramsay told the members of the Legislature that he would stay on to represent the Alberta riding of Crowfoot as an Independent until all his avenues of appeal have been exhausted. He continued to draw his $66,900 salary, $22,000 tax-free allowance and $12,000 expense allowance. He lost his appeal and went to prison.

Chuck Quackenbush, 46, the California state insurance commissioner who had been under investigation on accusations of diverting millions of dollars in earthquake insurance settlements into what amounted to a personal political slush fund, resigned on June 28, 2000 rather than face potential impeachment by the State Legislature. Quackenbush decided to quit after what politicians said were at least two days of negotiations with the Legislature aimed at limiting his potential civil and criminal liability. Quackenbush's resignation followed three months of deepening scandal in Sacramento over accusations of misusing funds from nonprofit foundations for personal political purposes. The largest fund, the California Research and Assistance Fund, was financed by a half-dozen insurance companies accused of mishandling claims after the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake. The insurance department had threatened the companies with nearly $4 billion in potential penalties, but Quackenbush agreed to let them settle the matter by donating some $12 million in tax-deductible contributions to the new fund. The fund was supposed to finance consumer assistance programs and earthquake research, but investigators found that money went instead for television commercials featuring Mr. Quackenbush and to other groups he favored, including $263,000 to a football camp attended by his children. While denying any wrongdoing, Quackenbush said that he may have made mistakes in judgment. He offered his resignation, effective July 10th, in a one-sentence letter to the only other Republican constitutional officer, Secretary of State, Bill Jones. Quackenbush’s lawyer, Donald H. Heller said, "It reached the point with all of the controversy that he could no longer serve effectively as insurance commissioner, and so in the interests of the people of California, he stepped down. I think it needs to be very clear that he has done nothing illegal or criminal." I don’t know who was the worst, Quackenbush or his lawyer.

On June 1, 2001, Vincenzo Lepore, 31, who distributed sex videotapes of his ex-girlfriend at her neighbours' doorsteps, along with a purported letter from her offering sexual favours, was found guilty of criminal harassment. He also attempted to burn down his former girlfriend's family cottage, slashed her van tires and made scores of anonymous phones calls to her office and home. The videotape deposits at ten neighbours' homes in the Toronto area and the fire at the Port Dover cottage all took place on the night and early morning of July 27-28, 1998.

It is not unusual to see real scumbags parking their vehicles in spots reserved for handicapped persons. In 2000, disabled activists booed outside as nine UCLA football players apologized in court for using handicapped permits to get better parking spots around campus. Linebacker, Ali Abdul Azziz said outside of court after nine of fourteen Bruins charged in the case entered pleas of guilty, "We did not realize the seriousness of our actions." Five more current and former members of the team also faced arraignment in August 25 of that year. He said, "Our faces have been posted on television and newspapers and we know we have embarrassed our school, our families and ourselves," Azziz said. "We realize we exercised bad judgment and we're anxious to make amends for what we've done." Seven players who entered pleas yesterday and two who are to be arraigned next month are still with the team and will be suspended for two games next season, the school said. Six of the players are starters. Craig Walendy, was also one of the players facing the charge when he was at the San Francisco 49ers training camps. UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale said. "This behavior is particularly insensitive because it was carried out by student-athletes, for they are among the most able-bodied of all." The players pleaded no contest to illegally possessing state-issued handicapped placards. Each was placed on 24 months probation, must pay fines, penalties and restitution amounting to about $1,500, and complete 200 hours of community service. In exchange for their pleas, the prosecutor dropped a second count of giving false information to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Outside court, the players were booed and harangued by about a dozen disabled activists in wheelchairs. Some held flyers with the Bruins football logo that read "Park them on the bench."

In 2002, Edwin Edgcumbe, 34, of Brantford, Ontario, beat a kitten to death because it had scratched his wrist (no blood was drawn). Edgcumbe, who had been drinking, then grabbed the kitten and threw it against a wall; twice. When the kitten tried to climb to its feet and began walking in circles, Edgcumbe pummeled it to death with his hands. Edgcumbe told his horrified 15-year-old son to clean up the blood and throw the kitten's body in a nearby canal. The boy instead fled and called police. His defence counsel Wayne Vipond said his client should not go to jail because he loves cats and dogs. If that is what this creep does to cats he loves, I shudder to think what he would do to cats he hates. Edgcumbe was on probation at the time for impaired driving and had a previous criminal record for assault. The horrible man was sentenced to 45 days in jail for killing the kitten.

On June 12, 2001, Toronto Police appealed for public help to identify a cat that was killed on videotape, allegedly by a self-described artist and vegan protesting animal cruelty. Two suspects had already been charged and a photo of a third man was seen on the video. The mystery man's name was Matt and he was known to hang around the Bathurst and Queen Streets area, where the video and more than 70 others were seized. He is white, in his 20s, about 5-foot-10 with a slim build, light hair and blue eyes. The tape showed the white-black and grey cat being tortured and skinned before it died. A police raid the previous month turned up the tapes, a headless, skinned cat in the fridge, several other animal skeletons, a dog and some mice and rats. Anthony Ryan Wenneker, 24, and Jessie Champlain Powers, 21, were both charged with animal cruelty.