Meth pipes. Attempted identity theft. Apartments fraudulently rented out from under the real owner. Fresh horror stories have emerged about Airbnb, hot on the heels of customer "EJ's" tale of ransacking last week.

The 18-year-old arrested on Scotland's remote Shetland Islands for allegedly wreaking online havoc as the wisecracking spokesman for the hacking group Lulz Security was bailed out today. Jake Davis aka "Topiary" (we think!) emerged with his eyes well-shielded from the international spotlight.

Anti-cop sentiment has been bubbling over lately, but here's a story to remind us that police officers can and do save lives — even the lives of people acting like idiots. A sheriff's deputy in the Florida Keys dove into the ocean late Saturday night to save a man attempting to drown himself after bad-tripping on mushrooms.

Brian Pollard of Kentucky received just a four-day jail sentence for a drunk driving-related crash that killed his passenger, because everyone forgot to tell the judge and prosecutor about the passenger, somehow. Pollard could face additional charges. [Image via AP]

Not to be preachy, or anything, but, if you ever find a "brick of an unknown substance" floating in the ocean, you should "just say no" to snorting it. Especially if you are a 53-year-old on a fishing trip.

The vegan philosopher Morrissey tells us that "meat is murder," and for our vegetarian purposes he's correct. But murder is also murder, which is why you can't shoot your drug dealer even if he brazenly gives you hamburger instead of weed.

With so many of America's criminals going the "violent psychopath" route—an overdone schtick if there ever was one—it's nice to hear about a burglar who sounds as though they derived stylistic inspiration from illustrated children's books. This person's even vegetarian-friendly.

Jerks in the federal government announced on Friday that they'd uprooted 468,960 pot plants and arrested some 100 people as part of a two-week long operation in the Mendocino National Forest, called "Operation Full Court Press" by authorities and "Operation What a Bunch of Assholes" by everyone else.

The feds are now investigating the death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless, schizophrenic man who died earlier this month after being severely beaten by Fullerton, California police officers. If agents determine that Thomas' civil rights were violated, they'll send their info to the Department of Justice, who can file charges.

A 38-year-old cop in Indiana, John Newcomb, was arrested Wednesday night after he side-swiped a parked car with his truck and then plowed into a tree, apparently while he was drunk. A woman who heard the crash and saw the immediate aftermath gave some details of the scene to local news channel WAVE 3. The best part of this otherwise average drunk driving-cop story is the trailer Newcomb was pulling :

A scuffle between three homeless men on a Milwaukee bridge on Tuesday night resulted in one man — 43-year-old Johnny Jordan — falling into the river below and drowning. Another fell into the river but survived. The third man, Tracy Edwards (pictured, upper-right), was arrested and is being held for homicide.

As politicians debate the debt ceiling in Washington D.C., a far more insidious menace haunts neighboring Virginia: A serial butt stabber.

Taunting police on Facebook when they're out searching for you is, admittedly, pretty funny. But if you're going to do it, it's important that you not get caught. Otherwise you end up like recently-apprehended fugitive Victor Burgos: In jail, and looking really dumb.

It's hard to really put one's finger on the precise moment a trend dies. Is it when you get your first photo of your mom planking on the washing machine? Or when adult soapbox derbies are profiled in a piece about the Portlandification of Brooklyn? Or, perhaps, when someone robs a cupcake store in Denver by waving around a syringe filled with HIV-positive blood? Yes, I do believe that last one would do it.

Twitter lit up midday in New York City today over reports of a hostage situation in the Flatiron building after a troop of police showed up outside. It wasn't a hostage situation, however. It was a waving a pistol in your apartment while wearing jorts situation.

A San Franciscan has posted a harrowing tale of a fraudulent Airbnb renter completely violating her apartment, identity, garments, momentos and other valuables. She no longer feels comfortable in her own home or clothes. And she says Airbnb should have done more to protect her.

The guy John Kerry chose to be vice president in 2004 turned out to be a glassy-eyed sociopath and pathological liar. That's bad! But the guy Kerry chose to introduce him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention? Turns out he's a pedophile and fraudulent war hero.

Scotland Yard says it's arrested the leader/unofficial spokesman of the notorious hacking group LulzSec, a hacker who went by the handle Topiary. The noose is about as tight as it can get around LulzSec now.

A 15-year-old kid named Edgar Jiménez Lugo, also known as "El Ponchis," was sentenced to three years in jail yesterday by a Mexican court for beheading four people on behalf of a drug cartel, as well as drug trafficking and kidnapping. A U.S. citizen born in San Diego, Lugo gained notoriety last year after he confessed on video (above) to killing cartel rivals and random people for money and drugs, which he started doing at age 11. Lugo's sentence was the maximum available given his age.

The evil, teaparty-funding Koch Brothers do not appreciate their websites being bombarded by hackers. The FBI is targeting people possibly connected to a February Anonymous attack on Koch Industries websites, including a brutal assault on their powerful bathroom tissue manufacturing arm.