Police: “Brisket Bandit” Has Robbed Texas Restaurants Of Thousands Of Dollars Of Meat


Desperate times often call for desperate measures, but while the current brisket shortage might seem like a reason to go out and do bad things to get your hands on some of that tender meat, robbery is no way to go. Police in San Antonio have alerted local restaurants to keep on the lookout for a person dubbed the “Brisket Bandit,” who’s suspected of stealing thousands of dollars worth of meat.

The San Antonio Police department issued an alert after a recent spate of heists at three different BBQ joints, reports KENS 5 News.


The restaurant owners think it’s the same person sneaking in and hauling out bags full of meat. After one heist, the thief left behind a machete.


“They got it all done in 20 minutes,” said one, while another noted the suspect was “all dressed in black, no flashlight.”


“The brisket bandit is what I’ve coined him,” said another owner, who said a thief took away $2,500 worth of meat in one night.


“The surveillance showed him coming in with a back pack and then walking out with six duffel bags worth of food,” he said.


The recent heists have led others to beef up security, pun intended, as brisket is too expensive at the moment and losing it cuts into restaurants’ profits.


The SAPD hasn’t been able to definitively connects the three cases yet, however, as they’ve had a hard time getting a clear image of the person. Whoever it is, they probably smell delicious.


‘Brisket bandit’ wanted by multiple S.A. barbecue joints [KENS15]




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

New Mexico Man Sues Over $500K Lottery Ticket Dubbed A Misprint By Officials


A New Mexico man who saw his champagne wishes and caviar dreams dashed by lottery authorities who said his winning ticket was actually a misprint is now suing, claiming he’s owed the $500,000 prize that appeared on his scratch card.

The 65-year-old man bought a $20 scratch card and uncovered two $250,000 grand prizes on the ticket, but lottery officials said it was a misprint as the maximum prize per ticket is $250,000.


He’s now filed a lawsuit against the New Mexico Lottery for refusing to pay up, and is asking for $500,625, reports ABC6 News.


“We believe the statute is very clear, that the game is about matching numbers,” said the man’s lawyer. “He matched those numbers, they need to pay, or basically they are cheaters.”


The New Mexico lottery isn’t commenting while the lawsuit is pending, but back when the man first tried to collect on the ticket, a spokeswoman said there had been other defective tickets that had been discovered and removed.


“Absolutely, we feel for him. Printing presses, I don’t care if it is the New York Times’ printing press, a press that prints bumper stickers or whatever else, they are mechanical and parts will become disabled, bent, out of alignment, jammed or otherwise disabled,” she said at the time. “If it had been a winning ticket, we would have gladly paid.”


Man Sues, Lottery Says Winning $500,000 Ticket Is Misprint [ABC 6]




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Owner Says Camp Bow Wow Is Responsible For Dog’s Missing Toe

11toedogWhen I drop my dog off at a boarding facility, I expect her to return home with all of her body parts still attached. One family trusted the local Camp Bow Wow to watch over their dog, and but she was taken to the vet after workers found her with a paw caught in the kennel. Now they disagree with the camp on who should cover the vet bills.


Dogs are left unattended in their kennels at the boarding facility for about half the day, from 7 PM to 6:30 AM. Dogs are normally okay with that kind of downtime, but the workers’ off time was disastrous for Curly, a Rhodesian ridgeback/German shepherd mix. She caught her toe in her kennel (probably between some wires) resulting in what employees called “a lot of blood.” Her owners gave permission to rush her to a vet, where they amputated the injured toe and charged the owners more than $1,800.


The family reports that their eleven-toed dog isn’t the same. The injury happened in the summer of 2014, and Curly still isn’t able to run more than a few miles without limping. “She used to run six to seven miles with my husband,” the owner explained.


The family wants Camp Bow Wow to cover the entire vet bill, and the facility says that they’ve offered to cover half. According to the owner, the offer they’ve made is for $700 and a refund for the dog’s stay.


Call Kurtis Investigates: Dog Returned From Boarding Facility With Toe Ripped Off [CBS Sacramento]




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Is Apple Planning A Street View Upgrade For Its Map App?

Unconfirmed sighting of what may or may not be an Apple mapping van. (YouTube)

Unconfirmed sighting of what may or may not be an Apple mapping van in Brooklyn, NY (YouTube)



Because it’s not the easiest thing to drive around town with cameras strapped all over a car and not arouse some kind of attention, a new rumor has Apple embarking on its own street view mission, similar to the feature on Google Maps.

Although we’re sure there are plenty of technological get-ups popping up around town, this one has people buzzing due to the equipment used: According to the Guardian, a van equipped with 12 cameras and a lidar sensor (which scans the environment using a spinning laser) attached to the roof has been cruising San Francisco.


A local blog called Claycord News & Talk was the first to spot the unmarked vehicle in San Francisco this week. By tracing the license plate, it’s been confirmed that the vehicle has been leased to Apple, which set off the rumor that the company is readying a big update to its map apps for iPhone and iPad that could be something like the street view Google uses.


That blog notes in an update that a similar vehicle has been spotted in Brooklyn and captured on video, which happens to be where 1/6 of the Consumerist staff resides and will thus be on the lookout. It’s unclear whether that vehicle was also leased by Apple.


The next update to iOS is expected this summer, which is when the new feature would likely be included. But that would mean a big chunk of change for Apple and a fleet of cars to capture all the highways and byways needed for such a thing, so don’t hold your breath waiting for that function just yet.


If it does release its own street view capability, that could perhaps go a long way toward winning back users who fled in the wake of Apple’s first attempt at mapping, which was notoriously buggy and often led people places they didn’t want to go.


UPDATE with PICS/VIDEO: The Mystery Van Driving Around Claycord [Claycord News & Talk]

Apple camera car on San Francisco streets leads to ‘street view’ speculation [The Guardian]




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Target Workers Caught On Camera… Helping Teen Job Interviewee Tie His Tie

targettie Most of the time when we hear about a retail employee being photographed doing something other than their jobs, it’s bad news, if not downright creepy. But here’s a pleasant change of pace.


WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham has the story of Target employees who were caught taking a break from shelving affordably priced home goods and groceries to aid a young man in his pursuit of a job.


When reporters talked to employees about the photo that went viral online, they say they were helping out a customer heading to a job interview at a nearby Chick fil-A and looking for that final finishing touch to make himself look more professional.


“I asked him if he needed help and he told me he needed clip on ties,” says one employee who noticed the young man wandering around the store.


But the store doesn’t carry clip-ons, so this employee asked a co-worker to assist the young gentleman.


The teen bought a tie from the Target and then went over to the employee who helped him tie it correctly.


“We took the wrapping off it, and I tied it on my neck, and fit it over head adjusted it and tightened it…fixed all his collar buttons and he was set to go,” says the worker.


Store staffers also gave the teen a boost by prepping him for what to expect at his interview: “We said, ‘Make sure you look him in the eye.’ I’m saying make sure you give him a firm handshake, and she showed him… he tucked his shirt in.”


While all this was going on, a curious Target shopper noticed the heartwarming scene and snapped a photo.


“It was a very quiet simple moment, but it was very profound honestly kindness… from strangers… in a Super Target,” she recalls. “He leaves and all these Target employees are screaming ‘Bye! Good luck! Tell us how it went.'”


“We were just here to help a young man get a job and forward his future,” said the employee who tied the tie.


The Target workers later popped by the Chick fil-A to talk up the teen and see how he did on the interview. The manager said he’d make a decision by the end of the week.




by Chris Morran via Consumerist

JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic Now Stream College Course Lectures 30,000 Feet In The Air


Each day there a thousands of opportunities for you to expand your mind. And that includes while you’re essentially held captive in a seat with little leg room, flying 30,000 feet in the air. No, we’re not talking about the usual flight safety and etiquette lessons shoved down our throats while traveling, we’re talking about JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic’s newly launched initiative to stream college course lectures during flights.

TIME reports that the two airlines have begun providing travelers with complimentary audio and video of select college lectures in addition to the typical inflight entertainment lineups.


While the new entertainment options might teach us a thing or two we didn’t know, don’t expect the courses to go toward a degree of any kind.


The new offerings started back in December for JetBlue, which streams portions of 10 recorded lectures via Coursera, a platform for open online classes.


Courses shown on JetBlue flights include marketing classes from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, a Brown University archeology class, and an introduction to guitar and rhythm from the Berklee School of Music.


The airline is also using a company called Rouxbe to stream video cooking lessons such as “How to brine meats” and “How to read labels on chocolate.”


More recently Virgin Atlantic joined the business of sculpting minds by offering audio and video from Great Courses, a series of lectures from well-known professors.


Available videos include “The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries,” by Cosmos host and director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Both JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic say they plan to rotate in new lectures every month or two.


Travel blogger Gary Leff tells TIME that the new education entertainment offerings will likely be a welcome surprise for passengers.


“People seem to like the serendipity” of unexpected audio and videos on long flights, he says.


Even if you aren’t interested in learning any new subjects on your next flight, the courses might help lull you to sleep, you know, like they do for actual college students from time to time.


These Airlines are Offering In-Flight College Classes [TIME]




by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Couple Allegedly Steals 57 Blocks Of Cheese From Walmart, Because Who Doesn’t Want Cheese


From past experience, we know shoplifters enjoy perusing the meat department at Walmart and occasionally stuffing some items down their pants or sitting on top of them on their motorized scooter. But what’s the next best thing to take from the big box store? If you’re a couple from Tennessee, then the answer is cheese… 57 blocks of it.


WBIR-TV reports that the two 21-year-olds face theft and drug charges after police say they walked out of the retailer with hundreds of dollars worth of stolen items, including the aforementioned cheese.


According to police, security caught the couple walking out with a cart full of items they didn’t pay for.


When police searched the couple’s vehicle, they found $300 worth of cheese stuffed beneath the floorboards and in a diaper bag.


Additionally, officers say they found 10 bottles of Tide, clothing and a candle. In all, $600 worth of stolen goods were found in the car, along with marijuana.


The couple was taken to jail and a family member came to the scene to pick up their child.


Tenn. couple accused of stealing 57 blocks of cheese from Walmart [WBIR-TV]




by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Minnesota Stops Taking Returns Filed With TurboTax, Citing Possible Fraudulent Activity


Some TurboTax customers have already had quite a headache this year, and it looks like a whole bunch of Minnesotan customers are about to join the frustration club after the state announced last night it wouldn’t be taking any more returns filed with Intuit’s software because of possible fraud.

Revenue Department officials announced the news late Thursday after two taxpayers reported that they’d logged into their accounts to file, but were notified that a return had already been filed, reports the Star Tribune.


Because usually you’d remember something like that, state officials are concerned there’s been fraudulent activity, and have blocked new TurboTax returns coming in. They’re also combing through the couple thousand returns that have already been filed using TurboTax.


“If we identify a problem, we will contact the taxpayer,” said Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly.


Intuit opened a dedicated phone number for people concerned about the issue: 1-800-944-8596.


Minnesota is still accepting returns filed with Intuit professional prepare products like Lacerte, Intuit Tax Online and ProSeries.


Meanwhile in Utah, state tax officials chimed in that they’ve found 28 fraudulent filings from third-party vendors, with some taxpayers logging into to TurboTax to file and getting the same message as the Minnesotans — that their returns were already filed. Officials there say 18 states have identified similar issues.


Not being able to use TurboTax to file returns is likely going to cause a headache for many taxpayers, as almost 30 million people across the country use it, amounting to 60% to 65% of the market.


Minnesota stops taking TurboTax returns due to possible fraud [Star Tribune]




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

Here are thirteen of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.















Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Monográfico: aprendizaje basado en problemas. Fundación Telefónica





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