An officer in Staffordshire, central England, labeled the thieves the "world's unluckiest burglars" and likened them to the ill-fated crooks in the movie "Home Alone."
'World's unluckiest burglars' arrested after pocket-dialing police during robbery
Two burglars have been arrested in the UK after accidentally pocket-dialing the police during their crime. The headquarters of Staffordshire Police in central England is seen in 2012.
Alamy
Two hapless burglars have been arrested in the UK after accidentally pocket-dialing the police during their crime.
An officer in Staffordshire, central England, labeled the thieves the "world's unluckiest burglars" and likened them to the ill-fated crooks in the movie "Home Alone."
He said one of the pair mistakenly sat on his phone and rang 999, the UK's emergency number, allowing officers to hear the crime in progress and ultimately listen in on their colleagues arresting the duo.
"I think we have just arrested the world's unluckiest burglars," Chief Inspector John Owen wrote on Twitter.
"Whilst committing a burglary one of the bungling burglars has accidentally sat on his phone & dialled 999," he wrote.
"We (received) a call detailing all of their antics up to the point of hearing our patrols arrive to arrest them."
Adding insult to injury, Owen included a gif of the "Home Alone" character Marv, who proves comically unsuited to a life of crime in the Macaulay Culkin Christmas movie.
A drunk taxi passenger refused to wear a face mask -- so his driver took him to the police station
A man in British Columbia, Canada, is starting the new year with hundreds of dollars in fines after police officials said he touched his taxi driver's face and refused to wear a face mask inside the car.
A man in British Columbia, Canada, is starting the new year with hundreds of dollars in fines after police officials said he touched his taxi driver's face and refused to wear a face mask inside the car.
From Victoria Police Department/Facebook
On New Year's Day, around 1 a.m., the taxi driver in Victoria called 911 to report that a passenger was "belligerently refusing the driver's requests for the passenger to adhere" to the province's Covid-19 Related Measures Act guidelines (CRMA), according to the Victoria Police Department.
When using a taxi or other ride hailing service, those guidelines advise to "as much as possible, avoid physical contact with passengers," maintain social distance and wear a face covering. Violators of any of these rules are subject to a $175 ($230 CAD) fine.
The man was not identified by authorities, and it's unclear if he is a Canadian resident.
After calling 911, the taxi driver took the man to police headquarters, where he refused to comply with officers' demands to leave the car, officials said. Officers removed him from the taxi and placed him into custody.
The man was fined on three accounts for failure to wear a face covering, abusive or belligerent behavior and failure to comply with the direction of an officer, totaling $542 ($690 CAD), the largest number of CRMA fines issued to an individual by VicPD officers, police said.
The passenger was also ticketed for being intoxicated in a public place, and was held at headquarters behind bars until he was sober.
As of Monday, Canada has recorded 610,740 Covid-19 cases and 15,944 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
A pro surfer rescues a woman struggling in rough water on Hawaii's North Shore
A professional surfer is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a woman swept into the powerful waves of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii.
Mikey Wright was enjoying a beer and filming the waves on Oahu's North Shore on December 31 when he realized something was wrong. He asked his wife to hold his phone and beer, jumped over the fence and ran onto the beach, as seen in a video.
Mikey Wright surfs a wave at Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, on December 24, 2020.
Brain Bielmann/AFP/Getty Images
"We just seen this wave come up and sweep this lady off the rocks and started to drag her out to sea," Wright told CNN. "It all happened really fast and we kind of had to jump right into action."
The 24-year-old surfer managed to get to the woman and hold onto her as the waves thrashed against them, talking to her repeatedly.
"I said, 'We're going to be all right,'" Wright said. "'You're going to get in. It's OK.' And I just kept telling her that and kept telling her to just hold on and don't let go."
As they were nearing shore and just starting to stand up, a large surge of water came. Wright jumped while holding the woman to avoid the brunt of the waves and the sharp rocks beneath them.
Others were starting to run down to the water to help, but they weren't able to get close. Among them was Wright's sister, Tyler, herself a pro surfer who won first place in the Maui Pro last month.
When Mikey Wright and the woman got close enough, Tyler and the group helped pull the pair up the beach to safety. The woman has not been identified.
After they were both safely on shore, the woman thanked him repeatedly, said she was OK and didn't have any deep cuts, Wright said. "I think I'm just a little bit shocked," Wright said she told him.
holds onto the unidentified woman in the water to prepare for an oncoming wave as they make their way to shore.
Michael Wright
The woman's son ran down and thanked the surfer in between tears, Wright said.
"It was very emotional and (he) just kept saying, 'Thank you. You saved my mother. I thought she was gone,'" he said. "It was a very special moment."
The North Shore Lifeguard Association lauded Wright and the public for the rescue.
"This lady is so lucky to be alive," the organization wrote on Instagram. "The North Shore surf can sweep up and grab you at anytime."
There was a high surf warning in the area on the day of the incident, according to the National Weather Service. Swells reached up to 15 feet that day.
Wright said the woman had not been trying to get into the water.
"That lady had no intention of swimming. It was a 15-foot swell about where she was," Wright said. "The wave had washed up and dragged her out."
He warned people the ocean can be unpredictable.
"Always be on your toes," he said. "You never know what the ocean can do. And, don't turn your back on it for a second."
Wright was in Hawaii for the 2020 Billabong Pipeline Masters event, held December 8-20.
This isn't the first time Wright has had to save someone from the waves. He grew up in Culburra Beach, Australia, where he and his siblings had seen people dragged out into the ocean.
"It's just something that, growing up in Australia or in a small town on the ocean, you do learn lifesaving skills," he said.
Despite saving the woman, the surfer said the real heroes are the everyday lifeguards.
"It's a very nice compliment, but the real heroes are the ones that do this day in, day out here on the North Shore," he told CNN. "The North Shore Lifeguard Association, they save our lives when we're surfing pipeline. They've helped my brother. They've helped me before."
The lifeguards were busy saving someone else on the beach while Wright was helping the woman, he said.
"They actually had something else going on down the beach that someone needed saving," he said. "For me to be able to help out, it was a good moment."
CNN's Robert Shackelford and Tyler Mauldin contributed to this report.
