Tortelicious: Senior Ex-Cons Still Got It (well, almost)

April 13th, 2010. By LucyC

Welcome to Totally Tortelicious—a review of some of the more bizarre legal stories making news. Goodness knows there’s no shortage of them.

In Search of a Higher Risk Retirement Portfolio? Try bank robbery…A trio of seniors was apprehended outside a suburban Chicago bank recently, for suspicious behavior. (No, not that kind). The three old boys, dressed all in black when they were arrested, were ‘casing the joint’, as the expression goes, in preparation for a robbery. But it turns out this was not some kind of a gag or attempt to break free from the old folks home. Although I would say it was a temporary lapse in sanity.

Joseph “Jerry” Scalise, 73, of Clarendon Hills, Ill., Arthur Rachel, 71, of Chicago and Robert “Bobby” Pullia, 69, of Plainfield, Ill., were all suspects in an earlier robbery in 2007 and were under investigation by the FBI. In fact they were under surveillance, unbeknownst to them, which is presumably how they were spotted hanging around the First National Bank in La Grange, IL, especially on the days that an armored car would make a visit.

It turns out these fellows have quite the criminal pedigree—well two of them at any rate. Scalise and Rachel were alleged Chicago mob figures, who reportedly were released from prisons in the UK in 1993, after spending 13 years behind bars for the theft of the 45-carat Marlborough Diamond and other gems from a London jewelry store. That payday was worth $2.6 million in total, and the gems were never recovered. And, Scalise was a technical adviser on “Public Enemies,” the movie about John Dillinger filmed in Chicago in 2008. They should have pooled their loot and hired a financial adviser.

No More Hangin’ Around the Beer Cooler and Gettin’ Paid for it…Dozens of workers walked off the job in Copenhagen last week, in protest of new rules that would restrict their drinking alcohol on the job to their lunch breaks, in the canteen. This could be a very sad thing for the whole country, not just the workers, as their employer is the Danish brewer Carlsberg. And, not only did about 1000 workers walk out on Wednesday/Thursday, the truck drivers went out in support as well—so the whole country could be facing a drought. Apparently there were interruptions to beer transports “in and around Copenhagen.”

The strike is in response to a “tightening” of rules on workplace drinking, and the removal of beer coolers from work sites. Okee dokee.

Before the rule went into place, workers could help themselves to beer throughout the day, from coolers placed around the work sites. (I wonder just what kind of insurance Carlsberg has?)

However, in an act of remarkable farsightedness, Carlsberg stipulated that employees could not be drunk at work…”It was up to each and everyone to be responsible.”

You may be relieved to know, certainly I was, that while Carlsberg’s truck drivers are allowed to take beers from the canteen, their trucks have alcohol ignition locks preventing the drivers from driving drunk, which is why they are not subject to the new regulation.

Only in Denmark.

Guess They’ll Have to Yank Her From the Scripps National Spelling Bee…A woman who failed to check the spelling of her tattoo—before it was done—will not only have to live with the spelling mistake for the rest of her life, but also live with the knowledge that she only has herself to blame—and not the tattoo artist—as she had claimed. So said the judge.

Apparently the tattoo artist, one Mary Reid, typed in “you’re so beatiful” into her computer and it should have read “you’re so beautiful’. She showed the stencil of it to the woman who was having the tattoo—a Ms. Ullock of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, who didn’t spot the mistake—so on it went, spelling mistakes and all, for perpetuity.

Ullock claims she didn’t notice the mistake until after the tattoo was done, and she asked Reid to fix it. Reid said she would have to wait for a couple of months. Ullock apparently went directly to another tattoo artist instead who attempted to fix the gaffe.

Anyway, the whole mess ended up in small claims court and the adjudicator concluded that Ullock “has no one to blame but herself.” That she should have fixed the error when she was shown the stencil of the tatoo. Oh, wait—is that tatoo or tattoo?

The case was dismissed.

Tags: Carlsberg Beer, First National Bank, Tattoo, Tortelicious

This was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues, Totally Tortelicious . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.