Many of us know young women who have left home for college in another city or State. Many have daughters who I’m discussing right now. There’s so much to put together that has been done already. Finding the school, admissions, choosing a course of study, finding suitable living arrangements and finally they’re gone. The house feels emptier and the pangs of separation start to set in. Many of us begin to worry about the safety and security of those young girls who have left the safety of our homes.

One way to let your daughter or that special young lady know that you really care and are concerned foremost with their safety, is to send them a gift package of inexpensive but extremely potent self defense products. You may be sending them something that will save them from being assaulted or worse.

My recommendation for security measures or gifts will be what we bought our daughter, off to her first semester of college this fall. For starters, we purchased her a canister of Pepper Gel from Mace. This stuff shoots 18 feet in one solid stream and sticks like glue. If an attacker tries to rub it off they only grind the OC pepper further into their skin. Also it has no ambient particles, so there’s no worry about wind or about actually using it in a car or a room.  It only burns what it hits!

Our second choice was a very powerful compact stun gun – the Hot Shot from Stun Master, a leader in stun gun technology. This model packs a 975K volt charge, has an on off switch with an led light to let you know it’s armed and on top of it’s ergonomic design for holding in the palm of your hand is the discharge button. Very small, comfortable and the controls are mounted for minimum fuss. It has a belt clip or is small enough to drop in a jacket pocket. I chose this model since I’ve owned one for 2 years and the batteries lasted over a year and anyone (my sons and friends) who have volunteered to take a hit from it – didn’t want another and their arm was quickly withdrawn.

Finally, we got her a small personal alarm.  Small enough to hang on your keychain but having the power, at 120 db, to draw a lot of attention to a bad situation, and possibly get someone to come for help.  This model also came with a door knob attachment, so if it’s hung around a door knob and turned on, any jiggling of the door or handle will set it off and hopefully scare away intruders, plus it will definitely wake up anyone sleeping and give them a warning.

If you’re stumped on a birthday or Christmas present or would just like to send a gift that says you care. Consider these choices or similar models to protect that special young lady while she’s away at school.

Yes, in a country where the population growth has been growing steadily, there comes further encroachment of mankind into the home ranges of almost every species of animal.  Most notably, the large portions of territory that are required for carnivores to roam. There’s not a day that passes by when we can’t flip a channel and see animals – most particularly mountain lions, bears, wolves and coyotes that have attacked and/or killed young children, women and men who either ran afoul of them or were just stalked and attacked out of hunger, disease like rabies or other unknown reasons.

We have just the items in mind that you should have at hand when you either reside in such an area or if going out hiking in the wild.  Have we become so deluded to think that we can peacefully co-exist with such dangerous animals or are people just plain dumb?

I think the answer is both and add to that the repeated times that irresponsible human beings have either fed such animals or left untidy campsites behind for animals to sift through and find some goodies. In both cases the animals have associated mankind with the “dinner bell” and therfore gravitate toward people as a source of food. If we get next to bears, lion and wolves – that menu could include us or our family members.

It’s my opinion that a canister of Bear Pepper Spray will work wonders in evening your odds of surviving a bear attack for instance.  The same can be said of mountain lion and wolf attacks. A solid blast of Guard Alaska Bear Spray will open a world of opportunity for a person to escape or shut down the attack completely. This stuff is good, it’s been field tested in real episodes and yes, it works! The same would apply to the sensitive noses, eyes, and mouths of other large predators as well.

We believe that a canister of pepper spray, together with a very loud alarm sound like an electronic whistle will stop most dangerous animals and send them on their way.

Canine pepper spray and in the case of extremely aggressive feral dogs, that canine pepper spray may not be enough in every case.  For these stubborn dogs, after hearing the stories from first hand witnesses, what they would have had the best results with, would be a stun baton, like the Telescopic Stun Baton for example. It rides on your belt in it’s custom made case and is ready for action in the blink of an eye. This baton gives you additional 21 1/2 inches of reach and pinpoint accuracy – so you won’t contaminate yourself or your pet but they will deliver 800K volts of electric shock to the target aggressor. They also include a flashing light and a high pitched and loud alarm to confuse the attacking dog as well.

We love pets and animals but we love people more and find no remorse in making these recomendations, since the products are non-lethal and very effective at saving people from injury. If you get the feeling that we might be describing a situation you have or may encounter, we encourage you to spend a few dollars and protect yourself and others from a brutal, life threatening animal attack.

Sentenced to death by lethal injection, death row inmate Richard Cooey is slated for execution 10/14/2008. Cooey will be executed by lethal injection for the brutal rape and killing of two Akron University students in 1986.

Cooey’s lawyers filed a legal brief with the U.S. Court of appeals stating that prison food made him too fat to execute him in a humane manner, citing that his obesity was partially the blame of State food that he ate in prison.

They claimed that his obesity would make it difficult to find a suitable vein to carry out the lethal injection and further, that pills given to him for headaches, could possibly lessen the effects of the anesthetic used during his execution.

Obviously Cooey is grasping at straws now that his date with the executioner draws near. Attorneys for the State of Ohio argued that his claims were invalid since he missed an earlier deadline for the filing of appeals.

When researching this, I ran into some discussion forums and there were some strong lines drawn. Not just about Cooey, but rather, discussions on the moral and ethical system of executions in general. Many people made strong arguments for not taking a human life, regardless of the crime that was committed. The “let him take his medicine” and be executed groups far outweighed the opposition, citing that former death row murderer’s had been released and went right back out and killed again. Suggestions for alternate, humane execution methods for Cooey ran the gamete from a .45 slug in the head, the electric chair (king size model), to the guillotine!

I believe that Cooey will pay for his crimes with his life on October 14th 2008 and that will be that. I suppose we’ll know for sure in about 5 more days, if his pleas catch the attention of a lenient appellate court or not.

On the lighter side of crime information, we’d like to share some crazy crimes committed by some – not so intelligent criminals.  Some were flat out dumb and others just happened to pick the wrong day to perpetrate the wrong crime and paid for it. Who said Providence doesn’t have a sense of humor?

A man was arrested after throwing a brick into the Plexiglas window of a jewelry store.  The brick bounced right back and hit him in the head which KO’ed him until local police arrived!

 A gang of drug smugglers cleverly decided to use a propane truck to cross the border from Mexico into El Paso, Texas. They had emptied the propane and concealed about 3 tons of marijuana inside the tanker truck. As things sometimes turn out, the smugglers didn’t realize, that they had spelled the name of the gas company incorrectly on the truck! BOOM!

When arrested for stealing a car, the judge asked the suspect, “how do you plead?” Instead of pleading guilty or not guilty the man said, “Before we go any further, judge, let me explain why I stole the car.” The judge issued his ruling in record time.

Two service station attendants refused to give any cash to a drunk robber, the man threatened to call the police. The clerks still refused, so the robber called the police and was arrested.

Los Angeles police got a break out of a dumb suspect who couldn’t shut up during a lineup. The detectives asked every man in the lineup to repeat: “Give me all your money or I’ll shoot!” The suspect shouted, “That’s not what I said!” 

Oakland police spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had “holed up” in his home. Finally, after police fired ten tear gas canisters into the home, officers discovered the man, standing beside them, shouting to come out and give himself up.

A 20 year old woman was arrested for robbing a Howard Johnson’s motel. She was armed with an electric chainsaw, which wasn’t even plugged in.

Two Michigan bandits entered a record shop waving revolvers. The first one shouted, “Nobody move!” When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.

When his revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a robbery in Long Beach, California, the robber looked down the barrel and tried it again. This time, it worked.

A man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street. Well, he got much more than he’d hoped for it seems. Police arrived at the scene to find a man sick and curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. Police said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline and plugged his hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake.

For boatloads of crazy crimes, committed by dumb criminals, visit Crazycriminals.com