Crime and Criminal Facts

1. On average, 80 people shoot at the Goodyear blimp each year.

2. In Miami in August, Levon Howard lost a shoot-out with his roommate Edwin Heyliger. Howard broke into Heyliger's room, angry that someone had drunk his Kool-Aid, and in the ensuing argument, both scrambled for guns.

3. In June 1995, in Liberty, Ohio, police officer Bradley L. Sebastian, tired of waiting for his food order at Denny's, stormed into the kitchen, held his gun to the cook's head, and told her he would kill her if she didn't hurry up.

4. Chances that a drug offense by a black U.S. juvenile with no prior jail time will result in imprisonment: 48 in 100,000. Chance that a drug offense by a white juvenile with no prior jail time will do so : 1 in 100,000

5. In 1471, a chicken in Basel, Switzerland, was accused of being 'a devil in disguise' after laying a brightly colored egg. The chicken stood trial, was found guilty and burned at the stake.

6. The LAPD purchased 40 semiautomatic paint-ball rifles in preparation for this the April 2000 Democratic convention.

7. Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 on Good Friday and in 1995 Good Friday was also on April 14. When Booth shot Lincoln, some people thought it was part of the play.

8. A frightened Englishwoman rang the police emergency line, she could hear burglars, she was sure, drilling into her house from a building site next door. However, when the law arrived they found the rapid thumping noise was caused by a faulty sex toy, that was humming along all by itself in a bedside cabinet.

9. One Saturday, police received not one or two or ten but thirty five emergency calls from Razorback Stadium. The local team were "battering the oposition" (final score 58-6), but there was no clear emergency happening. Eventually the calls were traced to a fan with his trendy little cellphone tucked into a back pocket. Every time he stood up to cheer, and sat down he was hitting the 'one button dial' feature.

10. According to one study, people who keep guns at home nearly triple their chances of being murdered, usually by friends or relatives, but fail to protect themselves from intruders. However, Paul Blackman, research coordinator at the National Rifle Association, criticized the study, "These people were highly susceptible to homicide," he said. "We know that because they were killed."