Weird World News: Boneheaded bandits starring “Spiderman’ burglar, Mexican go-kart drug smuggler and the glacial ice thief

PHUKET: OUTLAWS are finding more imaginative ways to make a fast buck. This week’s Weird World News is a snapshot of life on the wrong side of the law, and the idiotic ruses bandits around the world are concocting to make money, fast.

Go-kart bandito’s drug-smuggling ruse foiled

A MEXICAN drug runner tried in vain this week to smuggle marijuana into the United States by stuffing his drugs into a modified go-kart and driving through the desert at night.

US border police in Arizona’s Yuma sector seized the off-road go-kart and trailer packed with 217 pounds of marijuana, but the driver escaped on foot into the night.

Officers from Cocopah Tribal Police spotted the single-seater go-kart speeding through the desert about 100 yards away from the border on Tuesday night. They gave chase, and the suspect ditched his go-kart and fled back toward Mexico, The Guardian reported.

The crafty smuggler had spray painted his vehicle desert beige, added off-road tires and an extended trailer.

The go-kart bandito joins a long list of Mexican smugglers using bizarre means to get their drugs into the US. In recent years, microlight aircraft and medieval-style catapults have been the smugglers method of choice.

The go-kart and marijuana, worth an estimated 3,355,000 baht, were confiscated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The go-kart bandito is still at large.

Thief taps glacier for ice cubes

IT’S not just climate change diminishing glaciers in Chile, ice thieves are also part of the problem.

Last Friday, police arrested a man on suspicion of pinching five tones of ice from a huge glacier in Patagonia so he could sell them as “designer ice cubes” to restaurants and bars.

Local media reports said police intercepted a truck carrying illicit ice valued at about 200,000 baht en route to the capital, Santiago.

The truck driver has been charged with theft and authorities are considering further charges of violation of a national monument, The Guardian reported.

Scientists report the Jorge Montt glacier in Bernardo O’Higgins national park is shrinking by half a mile a year. Jorge Montt is the fastest-shrinking glacier in the world, with the help of climate change – and now ice thieves.

Burglar with ‘Spiderman’ moves in the neighborhood

POLICE have released CCTV footage of a burglar with Spiderman-like moves to end the super-villain’s trail of destruction in the UK.

The burglar entered a supermarket in Litherland, near Liverpool on Tuesday night, by cutting a hole in the roof and then lowering sports bags and himself with ropes.

The video shows the burglar ransacking the store and then climbing back out through the roof, hauling his bags up with ropes.

The Spidey-burglar returned several times to the store that night, making off with about 500,000 baht worth of alcohol and cigarettes.

Police are appealing to the public to help catch the Spidey-suspect.

Click here to see the Telegraph’s video report:

Remember to tune in next week for more of the Phuket Gazette‘s Weird World News round-up.

— Fraser Morton