TAMPA — Joshua Basso said his cell phone ran out of minutes Wednesday, so he called the one number that he knew is always free — 911 — with an unusual request.

He wanted someone to have sex with him.

When 911 operators hung up on him, he called back four times, police said.

Fifteen minutes after his last call, police arrested Basso at his home, at 4202 N Nebraska Ave., on charges of making a false 911 call. He was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail, where he remains without bail.

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Police say a Wisconsin woman stripped when they tried to haul her in for shoplifting… under the mistaken belief that a naked person can't be arrested, according to the Sheboygan Press. Julia E. Laack, 36, is accused of stealing beef jerky and lighters at a convenience store. 

When police later came to her home to arrest her, she stripped, kicked, bit and even spit into the mouth of the female officer who tried to get her clothes back on… as her three children looked on. Here's a tip: When getting arrested, keep your clothes on. The long arm of the law has cold hands.

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If the point of cross-dressing is to make people think you're a member of the opposite sex, it didn't work for Phillip Ortega.

Police say Ortega — who probably wasn't fooling anyone in his woman's swimsuit, pantyhose and makeup — removed all doubt when he exposed his genitals to a woman in Oklahoma City, according to the The Oklahoman.

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If you call the cops to report a theft, you should probably leave out the part about the stolen marijuana. 

Oregon police say Calvin Hoover, 21, made just such a call… and dispatchers had a hard time understanding him because he had to stop to vomit, according to the Statesman Journal. He was arrested and accused of drunk driving.

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Police in Bensalem, Pa., say 43-year-old Susan Finkelstein took out an ad on Craig's List seeking tickets and wrote: "I'm the creative type! Maybe we can help each other!" according to Lehigh Valley Live. Unfortunately for Finkelstein, the person who answered the ad was an undercover cop. Police say she offered sex for the tix, and arrested her on prostitution charges.

A homeless man was arrested in East Naples on Saturday after deputies say he was sitting outside a coin-operated laundry with no pants on, claiming it was because the pants were being cleaned inside.

James T. Lowe, 59, was arrested by Collier County Sheriff’s deputies at 6000 Radio Road and charged with indecent exposure in public, trespassing, having an open container of alcohol in a public area and resisting an officer without violence.

The report indicates that Lowe had been removed from the property and charged with trespassing once before, and had returned, so the deputy made contact with an employee at the Naples Meat Shop. That employee, whose name was crossed out, told deputies Lowe sits outside the shop and harasses customers, asking for money.

Another witness, whose name was also removed from the report, told deputies that she walked out of the Circle K gas station next door and passed Lowe, who lifted up one of his legs as she walked by, exposing his genitalia to her. She said he was not wearing any pants.

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Police say former police chief Michael Meissner posed as a woman to get teenage boys to send him nude photos of themselves. The 39-year-old former police chief of Caney City, Texas, is alleged to have set up a MySpace page, from which he solicited the photos, according to a report in the Star-Telegram. I know one place they really appreciate men who dress as women: Prison.

The girlfriend of a missing North Carolina man has been charged with murder after police found the man’s body stuffed in a freezer in their home. Investigators are trying to locate the couple’s missing son.

Wendy Edmond Green, 41, is being held without bond in the Wake County Jail on charges of first-degree murder in the death of her live-in boyfriend, 52-year-old David Reuben Green Jr.

Investigators had been looking for David Green since early September, when family members reported him missing. On Sept. 7, authorities conducted a search of the couple’s Raleigh home but were unable to locate him, Wake County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens said.

“They continued to investigate, and went back out there [Wednesday] to do another search,” Stephens told AOL News. “[Investigators] were looking around, and they saw a freezer. They opened [it up], and there he was.”

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison told The News & Observer that investigators detected a “powerful smell” during their second search of the home. The power inside the home had been shut off in August.

On Thursday, authorities found found Wendy Green living at a home in nearby Robeson County. She was arrested and taken into custody without incident.

Jury selection began today in the trial of the alleged mastermind of a bizarre Pennsylvania bank robbery that claimed the life of a pizza deliveryman who was wearing a bomb around his neck.

Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, 61, is the final defendant to go to trial in the case, which made headlines around the world seven years ago. She is charged with criminal conspiracy, bank robbery and using a firearm in relation to a violent crime.

The defense and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office started questioning a pool of 46 potential jurors at about 10 a.m. today in federal court in Erie, according to the Erie Times-News. The Associated Press reported that Diehl-Armstrong’s court-appointed lawyer, Douglas Sughrue, said his client would likely testify during the trial.

The strange case began on Aug. 8, 2003, when Brian Wells walked into a PNC Bank branch with a sophisticated homemade shotgun that had been disguised as a cane. Wells, a 46-year-old pizza deliveryman, demanded a quarter of a million dollars in cash but, according to court documents, received only $8,702.

After collecting the money, Wells ran toward his getaway car, but he didn’t make it far. Alerted by a silent alarm, Pennsylvania state troopers had already surrounded Wells’ green Chevrolet Metro. Wells surrendered without incident, but when troopers handcuffed him he said that a group of men had forced him to commit the robbery. Wells also said the men had placed a bomb around his neck.

Phillip Garrido kidnapped and held hostage Jaycee Dugard for 18 years.

PLACERVILLE, Calif.- Jaycee Lee Dugardwas 11 when she was abducted one day in 1991. She was never heard from again- until this week. And what happened to the young girl over the past 18 years – only Satan himself could comprehend. 

Police say that 58-year-old Phillip Garrido abducted Dugard that day and took her to his house where he had a hidden compound in his back yard. Never again would the young girl have a normal life. Garrido used Dugard as his personal sex slave and over the span of almost two decades even fathered two children with her. The children are now 11 and 15 and have never been to school or seen a doctor.

Authorities said his 54-year-old wife, Nancy Garrido, was with him during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe and she also has been arrested.

Jaycee Lee Dugard as she was 18 years ago at age 11.

Mother and boyfriend of 2-year-old girl that was killed by their pet python.

OXFORD, FLA – The mother of a 2-year-old girl who was strangled while she slept was arrested along with her boyfriend. Sumter County officials say Jaren Ashley Hare, 19, and Charles Jason Darnell, 32, were arrested on charges of manslaughter, third-degree murder and child abuse in the death of Shaunnia Hare, who was killed in July at her Oxford home.

Last month Darnell woke up to find his 8.5 foot pet albino Burmese python in a strangling Shaunnia, Hare’s daughter. “Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby,” Darnell said in a 911 call.

Emergency medics could not revive the girl. 

Darnell did not have a permit to have the snake. The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday’s death, at least 12 people have been killed in the United States by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.

Matt Harrison, a Critter Control employee who has worked with pythons for more than eight years, said the animals are extremely strong.

“A 12-foot snake is kind of like having a truck sitting on your chest. They have enough power not only to asphyxiate you, but to break bones as well,” said Harrison.

Melissa Andreini hopes paying her 15-year-old student for sex was worth it.

HELPER, Utah – A special ed teacher has been arrested for having sex with one of her students. (Here we go again!) Melissa Andreini, 28, admitted to cops that she had sex with the 15-year-old boy on several occasions at her home.

Later, Andreini paid the boy around $1,500. It’s unclear whether the money was for the youth’s services or to keep him quiet. But the boy’s mother became suspicious and confronted the teacher who then confessed.

Andreini was charged with 3 counts of 3rd degree felony unlawful sex with a minor. If convicted the ex-teacher could face up to 5 years in prison on each count. Andreini was booked into Carbon County jail, Utah, and then released on $10,000 bond.

Angela Simpson - Snitch Killer

“I’m a little upset that I won’t be able to kill more snitches”

PHEONIX – The last time Terry Neely was seen alive he was driving around in his motorized wheelchair outside his assisted living center in Phoenix, Arizona. Soon thereafter his body was found in a trash can – charred, mutilated and dismembered.

Police put together clues and traced his whereabouts back to the apartment of Angela Simpson, 33. Simpson was already behind bars for armed robbery and when questioned about the matter, Simpson freely admitted to torturing and killing Neely.

In a chilling interview, Simpson admits to luring Neely back to her apartment with promise of sex. And once she got him there, the torture began. She tells how she tortured him with a tire iron, a hammer, pulled his teeth out, hammered a 3-inch nail into his head and then strangled him with a TV cord. Once he was dead, she burned the body, dismembered it and disposed of it in a trash can behind a nearby church.

Some excerpts of the interview:

Why did you kill him?
I don’t want my children to have to grow up in a place with snitches.

He had told on a righteous person years ago – he told me that.

I killed him and cut him up. (She says with a smile.)

What gave you the right to kill him?
What gives him the right to be an informant?

Did you pull out his teeth and put a nail in his head?
Yes (She said matter-of-factly.)

Why did you make him watch (in a mirror)?
I wanted him to see what he deserved.

Do you feel guilty?
Guilty! For ridding the world of a snitch? No, I don’t feel guilty.

No remorse?
I’m a little upset that I will never be able to kill more snitches.

Click here for the interview.

Marcus Schrenker got four years for faking his own death.

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Remember the guy who flew a plane from Indiana to Florida and then parachuted out to let the plane crash and try to fool everyone into thinking he was dead? Well, the genius was given 4 years in a prison by a Florida judge.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, sobbed and gave a rambling speech during a four-hour sentencing hearing. He was in over his head in debt and was trying to create a new life – not even telling his wife about the scheme. 

The judge ordered Schrenker to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution to the company that financed the single-engine Piper Malibu he destroyed and $35,000 to the U.S. Coast Guard for an extensive search and rescue effort. And his troubles apparently won’t end there. Prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ind., have Schrenker up on 11 felony counts of fraudulent sale of securities. 

Schrenker was appealing for a light sentence saying he “choked” under the great pressure he was under as a financial manager. The the judge rejected Schrenker’s request for a shorter sentence, saying he agreed with a prison psychiatrist who diagnosed him as a narcissist who lacked empathy and desired attention from women. Schrenker was known for living the high life with a 10,000-square-foot home in an upscale neighborhood, luxury cars and planes. 

But the U.S. Attorney said Schrenker’s behavior was part of a lifelong pattern of lies and manipulation. He lied separately to his stepmother and father in recent jail phone calls. He also told a girlfriend he was entering a witness protection program and wouldn’t be returning to Indiana. He later sent her a cryptic text message asking her to meet him at a place they had vacationed in the Florida Keys.

His wife has filed for divorce.

Woman punches out 13-year-old wheelchair boy.

DALLAS – It’s a bad enough story when a 23-year-old woman punches out a 13-year-old boy – but a 13-year-old boy in a wheelchair? The boy was a patient at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

He was playing ball with his uncle and Mikka Shardai Cline saw that the ball got caught in a nearby bush. The boy’s uncle and Cline went for the ball at the same time. And when she didn’t get the ball she apparently swung at the boy, twice! The second swing hit the boy’s metal halo that was screwed into the boy’s skull.  

Real tough there Mikka. We hear you’ll soon be stepping up a class to fight primordial dwarfs.

FORT LAUDERDALE – A producer of Paul and the Young Ron radio show has been booked into the Broward County Jail for allegedly fondling a 12-year-old boy over the span of 2 years.

Steven Brancik, or “Branzig” as he’s referred to on the show, was booked on four counts of molestation of a victim less than 12 years old and one count of lewd or lascivious exhibition.

The incidents happened four times over the course of two years. Brancick reportedly fondled the boy either at the boy’s Deerfield Beach home or Brancik’s home in Hollywood.

THUGSHOT HERE

Keith Griffin arrested for child pornography.

JENSEN BEACH – A Martin county Florida man was arrested because of over 1,000 pictures of child pornography were found on his computer. But 48-year-old Keith Griffin says he’s completely innocent and his cat is the real culprit. Griffin says that sometimes when he leaves the computer alone his cat jumps up on his keyboard and downloads all kinds of weird images.

According to a sheriff’s report, detectives conducting online investigations in July discovered that Griffin was downloading pictures of children as young as 8 years old having sex from file-sharing programs.

Griffin is being held in the Martin County Jail on $250,000 bail. The cat was not charged with any crimes and would not comment to reporters.

A Wellington family was arrested for running an organized scheme to defraud. It paid pretty well, too- over $100,000 last year. The father, John J. Black Jr., his wife, Tonya Michelle Black, and their daughters, Tekeashia and Turonda, who all live in the same home in the 7700 block of Rockport Circle in Wellington, were all arrested and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail. 

The “check kiting” scheme defrauded at least ten banks and eight retail stores. It involved opening bank accounts with bad checks, and then writing checks with the new bank account. They reportedly opened over 20 different bank accounts, even using their two youngest daughters who are only 6 and 12-years-old. 

Click here for the Palm Beach Post story.

THUGSHOTS HERE

Tonya Michelle Black

John J. Black Jr.

Turonda Lashay Black

Tekeashia Monique Black

26-year-old Dalia Dippolito has looks that could kill – and a apparently a personality to match. The newlywed from Boynton Beach was arrested this morning for hiring someone to kill her husband. There was one small problem- man she hired was an undercover Boynton Beach police officer.

Police say Dippolito was seeking to hire someone to do the dirty deed and Friday night they were tipped off by a confidential informant. The next day she met with the informant at a nearby gas station to discuss terms. She allegedly paid $1,200 in order for the fake hit man to buy a gun- and later agreed to pay $3,000 when the deed was done. She handed over pictures of her husband and their home.

Boynton Beach police called Dalia while she was working out at LA Fitness this morning. When she rushed home there were tons of cops and crime scene tape all around her home – to make it look like he had really been shot. When the police informed her she started sobbing and saying “No, no!” and even sought comfort in the police officer’s arms. She was then escorted to the police station where she quickly found out the jig was up.

Dalia and her husband Michael Dippolito were married last January – one day after he divorced his previous wife. From all appearances, he’s no angel either. 

She even talked about going to have her hair done the day of the murder for a solid alibi. 

Police say that “Darling Dalia” was insistent and three times stated that she absolutely wanted her husband killed.

Click here to read the Palm Beach Post story along with additional photos and a priceless video of Dalia’s reaction to her husband’s alleged death.

Name:  DIPPOLITO, DALIA A	Race:  White	DOB:  10/18/1982
Address:    1329 VIA DE PEPSI     BOYNTON BEACH, FL 33426	Facility:  Main Detention Center  Cell Location:M-E-02-M-36-T Booking Number:  2009041066
OBTS Number:  N/A	Booking Date:  08/05/2009		Time:  11:22
Arresting Agency:  34 – BOYNTON BEACH	Officer: MORENO
Release Date: N/A	Holds For Other Agencies:No
Warrant Number: NO HIT	Jacket Number: 0394438
Charges:  782.04-2535   HOMICIDE-WILLFUL KILL-MURDER PREMEDITATED   Original Bond: mce_marker.00 Current Bond: $25,000.00  *   SOLICITATION TO COMMIT 1ST DEGREE MURDER   Original Bond: mce_marker.00 Current Bond: mce_marker.00

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office says that the much-publicized murder of Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings was most likely a contracted hit. Sources say the mastermind was 35-year-old Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr. 

An unnamed “source” told CNN that the suspects believed that they were there to rob the well-to-do couple, but Gonzalez had ulterior motives and wanted them dead. 

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan has said Gonzalez once worked for a car dealership Byrd Billings owned, and court documents state that Gonzalez received financial support from the family for a martial-arts studio that he ran.

Eight people have been arrested and seven are facing murder charges.

Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr.