By ,
Published January 14, 2015
Indiana State Trooper Douglas Humphrey thought he'd pulled over a regular family when he stopped a car for speeding on U.S. Route 41 last June.
Then he discovered the driver, Walter H. Martin Jr., 30, was driving a car rented in someone else's name, had no driver's license and was a suspect in a drug probe, reports the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press.
Humphrey called for backup — and a drug dog, which sniffed out a small amount of marijuana in the car.
Martin's 32-year-old wife, Tawana Fairley, then piped up that she had pot stuffed into her socks. Even better, cops found a loaded revolver stashed away in the car, prompting them to haul Martin and Fairley off to jail.
That left Humphrey and his fellow officers with the couple's children, 8 years and 18 months old respectively, who had also been riding in the car.
The police called county social services to pick up the kids, but as they waited, Humphrey noticed that the toddler's diaper looked like it needed changing.
He took off the child's diaper — and found a plastic bag containing 5 ounces of crack cocaine (search), worth as much as $140,000.
"That belongs to Daddy," Humphrey says the older child told him, "but Mommy put it there."
Fairley has taken a plea deal and agreed to testify against her husband in his trial, which starts next week, according to the Courier & Press.
Martin's lawyer is trying to get the diaper evidence thrown out as the result of a search made without probable cause.
— Thanks to Out There reader Jeremy D.
Guess She's Never Watched 'CSI'
MARION, S.C. (AP) — A Dillon County woman who authorities say faked her own death to avoid a court hearing for a probation violation has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Authorities say 37-year-old Sandra Grice dug up a corpse, put it in her car and set the vehicle on fire to stage her own death.
Marion County deputies found Grice's car burning on the side of state Highway 41 in October 2002. After extinguishing the blaze, firefighters found human remains in the front seat of the car.
Her plan backfired when pathologists determined the remains were from someone who had died at least four years before the fire.
Deputies say Grice took the body from a Dillon County cemetery. She pleaded guilty to arson and desecration of human remains.
— Thanks to Out There reader Katherine S.
When We Said 'No Pets,' We Meant It
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A man who keeps a cougar and three African wild cats as pets must find somewhere else for the animals until his neighbors' lawsuit is settled, a judge ruled.
Gary L. Dutcher must remove the animals, saying their continued presence would pose "an unacceptable risk" to the neighborhood, Allen Superior Judge Stanley Levine said Tuesday in his preliminary injunction.
In January, Dutcher crashed his car while taking home his 150-pound cougar Samson from a veterinary clinic. The cat escaped from the car, and police shot and killed it when it lunged at an emergency worker.
A neighborhood association last week filed a lawsuit claiming Dutcher's three African servals (search) — each weighing about 50 pounds — and a 7-year-old cougar (search) violate association rules and are "inherently extremely dangerous."
Dutcher said during the hearing that he already had removed the cats from his home northeast of Fort Wayne. It was not immediately clear where they were taken.
Life on Mars Too Likely for Bookies
LONDON (AP) — The information coming in from the Mars rovers is exciting for NASA, but it's ending some of the action for bookies in Britain.
The bookmaking firm Ladbrokes (search) announced it has stopped taking bets on the question of whether there was ever life on Mars.
NASA scientists said yesterday that the rover Opportunity found strong evidence to suggest at least part of the Red Planet once had a wet enough environment to sustain life.
A Ladbrokes spokesman says the latest odds in favor of past life on Mars were 16-1. Back in the '70s, when the first bets were placed, the odds were 1,000-1.
He says he expects that scientists will find evidence of past life on Mars within the coming years.
Biker Babes Baring Breasts to Beat Ban
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Liz Book believes exposed breasts are a part of motorcycle culture, so she plans to lead a protest of topless women on the last day of Bike Week (search).
Book hopes to lead 1,000 "top-free" women and men along a half-mile of Main Street at noon Sunday.
"I never want to see another girl handcuffed and crying in the street because she yanked her top," said Book, 42. "Exposed breasts have been a part of the biker lifestyle for more than 50 years."
City officials and police are taking a wait-and-see approach, in part because the city's ordinance allows nudity when it is part of a political protest.
"It all depends on their behavior," said Al Tolley, Daytona Beach police spokesman. "The complexion of any protest can change, and it can turn into a lewd act in a heartbeat."
Kevin Kilian, a vice president of The Chamber-Daytona Beach and Halifax Area, said his group also is opposed to Book's planned protest.
"We as a community make a lot of concessions for our visitors," Kilian said. "It shouldn't be too much to ask that they respect the laws while they're here."
The city's nudity ordinance resulted in fines of $253 each for 59 women who exposed their breasts during last year's Bike Week, which attracts tens of thousands of bikers each year from around the nation, according to police records.
Book herself was arrested in 1998 when she bared her breasts inside the Full Moon Saloon bar.
Drug-Sniffing Dog Finds Wad of Cash Instead
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Keya may have been trained to sniff drugs, but the canine cop has shown her nose can also follow the smell of money.
The yellow Labrador retriever led a South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper to nearly $100,000 in cash duct-taped into a spare tire as the team made a routine traffic stop along Interstate 90 in western South Dakota.
Trooper Matt Oxner and his dog were patrolling a stretch of highway between Ellsworth Air Force Base (search) and the Wyoming border Friday when Oxner spotted a Chevy Suburban traveling 85 mph in a 65 mph zone.
Keya led Oxner to check the back doors, then more specifically to the spare tire. What scent the dog picked up on was not yet known.
"The dog is trained to alert to the odor of drugs," said Sgt. Durk Jamison.
While Patrol Lt. Randy Hartley stayed with the driver and passenger, officers took the tire to the Department of Transportation in Rapid City, where officers found five duct-taped bundles of cash totaling $92,480.
The suspects told officers they had no idea where the money came from and signed it over to the state. Officers released them and seized the cash and vehicle.
Compiled by Foxnews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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