Drugs and alcohol do not usually have a positive influence on teenagers. In fact science has shown that the earlier one begins drinking or using drugs the more damage is done early on and the greater likelihood for addiction problems in the future.

This is especially true for one teenager in Northern Colorado. Jimmy Bazor has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement officials. It should come as no surprise that each time the 19-year-old has been in trouble alcohol and/or drugs have been involved.

Most recently Bazor was arrested for robbing a marijuana dealer at gunpoint. He was arrested two days later on suspicion of felony menacing, aggravated robbery, theft, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and violating his probation – not good.

Again, this obviously is not Bazor’s first arrest. Back in July of 2010 he was arrested for acts of retribution. The retribution in this case was toward a fellow adolescent who had beaten him up at a party. Bazor and friend had gone back to the house where had just lost a fight and vandalized a car and threw rocks at the house. He and his pal both were intoxicated when arrested.

It is such a shame when drugs and alcohol enter the mix. Teens already feel indestructible and they never envision a life of addiction.

We all know nobody is immune to the evils of theft. John Travolta is feeling the pain too. Celebrities have long been the target of rip-off artists and con men. There have been many times when they even have their children abducted with ransom asked. One of the most famous was Patty Hearst.

John Travolta, arguably one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, has had a rough go of it recently.  Nothing can compare to the death of his son.

Now comes the news that John Travolta's vintage Mercedes sports car has been stolen.

The actor parked the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280-SL on a residential street in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon and stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership for just 10 minutes.

When he returned, he found an empty parking spot and no sign of the car.

It's not known if the theft was captured on video or whether the thief had followed Travolta or just came upon the vehicle.

The Grease star had the keys with him at the time of the theft. It just goes to show again that society is a dangerous place and theft abounds. People need to take extra care of their valuables.

Las Vegas, Nevada is known as the “City of Sin.” It has gained that reputation for many reasons. Among others theft is one of those reasons.

Las Vegas ranks among the nation’s top five cities for the theft of seemingly difficult-to-conceal items — heavy equipment such as backhoes and bulldozers.

There were 59 heavy equipment thefts in Las Vegas last year, tying the city for fourth place in the category with Conroe, Texas. The top three cities, in order, were Miami, Houston and Phoenix.

So just how much equipment was stolen last year? Thieves stole 6,474 pieces of non-mower heavy equipment last year nationwide. Loaders led the list of stolen equipment, which also included tractors, backhoes, forklifts and bulldozers.

Overall, Nevada ranked 29th for the number of heavy-equipment thefts in 2010. Texas topped the list with 1,023 thefts — almost double that of the second highest state, California, which recorded 550 thefts.

The remaining top 10 states for heavy-equipment theft were, in order, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Maryland, Ohio and Alabama.

Texas is THE Hotbed

Texas is king. Of the top-10 cities on the list five were located in Texas: Houston, Conroe, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.

Of the heavy equipment stolen in 2010, about 30% was recovered. In Nevada, 23 of the 69 items stolen were recovered. Among cities, Las Vegas tied for fourth with 18 recoveries last year.

Thieves tended to target heavy equipment manufactured by John Deere, followed by Caterpillar and Melroe.

From copper wiring and train tracks to identities and heavy equipment, there is a serious problem with theft in this country. Drugs and alcohol are partially to blame. So too is a lazy mentality whereby people no longer want to earn what they have!

A loving husband and good father – those were both used two describe Kristopher Galon. All around bad person is now a better description.

Galon, a decorated former Maui police officer, was convicted and sentenced to a year and a half in prison for extorting sex from a woman shortly after she was released from jail and stealing about $1,500 from a driver during a traffic stop.

He was given one year for sexual assault and six months for theft. The 38-year-old must also pay restitution to his victims.

Am I wrong or is a police officer is supposed to be out there to defend and protect, and put forward the best foot in the community?

Galon was a decorated officer before the charges forced him to give up his job. He received the Silver Medal of Valor in 2004 for saving an unconscious driver from a vehicle after its engine exploded.

He pleaded guilty to the charges in May.

Bad Guy, Bad Decisions

The plea agreement says Galon sexually assaulted a woman shortly after she was released from jail at the Lahaina police station in 2008. While wearing his police uniform, and on duty, Galon pulled up to the woman in his marked police car and offered her a ride home. He agreed to help her to with the potential criminal charges pending against her, and forced her to engage in a sex act.

Nine months earlier, Galon stopped an illegal immigrant from Honduras for an alleged traffic violation. During a pat-down search, Galon took the driver's wallet, which contained $1,561 in cash. He warned the man not to drive, since he was in the U.S. illegally, and returned the wallet to him with the cash removed, according to the document.

Hopefully Galon will see and experience the error of his ways. Hopefully, he will rehabilitate and again become a productive member of society. Hopefully, he will be able to look his young son in the eye and feel pride in once again being a good father! It's possible he should take as Hawaii Theft Class.

So you think things are tough here in the United States? Let’s face it – things are tough all over. One thing we have here in the USA is a decent judicial system, and albeit maybe a little lenient at times, still it is at least civilized.

Islamic Justice?

I have written about auto theft rings in places like Fresno, California where the thieves are arrested and let go so often by police they are on a first-name basis. I wonder how “Islamic Justice” would affect them. Would it deter them from boosting another vehicle? I bet it would!

An Islamic sharia court in Zamfara State in Africa has sentenced two men to amputation of their right wrists for stealing a bull, with the amputation to be carried out in public if it is given final approval.

The Sharia court in the village of Nassarawan Mailayi in the northern state of ordered that Auwalu Abubaka, 23, and Lawalli Musa, 22, have their right hands chopped off for stealing a bull worth 130,000 naira ($867, 628 euros).

Amputations for less than $1K, crazy?

However, the two men have 30 days to appeal their sentence and the state governor must approve any amputation. Such sentences have only rarely been carried out in Nigeria.

The judge based his decision on the facts that they admitted their guilt and they trespassed into the house … and stole a bull whose worth is well above the minimum value to warrant amputation.

It provides for amputation of the wrist for theft and it would be the second time such a sentence is handed down in Zamfara, the first of Nigeria’s 36 states to reintroduce Sharia Law after the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.

In 2001, a notorious cattle rustler had his right wrist amputated following conviction by a sharia court in the state capital Gusau for stealing a bull after the then state governor approved the sentence.

The amputation drew outrage from local and international rights groups, which led to the overturning of more than a dozen amputation sentences across the 12 predominantly Muslim states.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation, and its 150 million people are roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

Again, while our laws may be too lax, at least they are civil. What are your thoughts on amputation as a punishment?

With identity theft a rampant problem in the United States these days it is quite alarming to find a new form of this thievery beginning to take hold.

A particular kind of identity theft is getting the attention of law enforcement officials: Americans who alter Social Security numbers or change birth dates when applying for credit cards, phone service, car loans and credit transactions.

Identity Manipulation

The trend is called "identity manipulation" and involves switching around a few numbers or dates on credit applications.

Identity manipulation is the deliberate and inappropriate changing of some of your key identity information, such as your name, Social Security number or date of birth.

Those who engage in this practice may change just one or two digits in a Social Security number or birth date.

The result: Those individuals who hold those Social Security numbers may find themselves with bad credit, unable to obtain good terms on a loan or unqualified for government services or benefits. The perpetrators who disguise their birth dates tend to harm the businesses that provide services or products.

South Floridians Beware!

The hot bed for this type of theft is South Florida. Research has shown that the South Florida ZIP codes beginning with 330, 331 and 333 — representing parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties — have higher than expected rates of bad credit applications that could be examples of identity manipulation. The research is based on data from 307 million Americans who applied for credit in the past seven years, which was provided by clients of ID Analytics, such as banks, credit card companies, cellphone companies and other financial institutions.

Unfortunately, South Florida also ranks high in terms of victims. Florida ranks second in the nation for fraud and identity theft complaints.

How rampant are fraud and identity issues?

More than 1.3 million consumer fraud complaints were filed in 2010, resulting in losses of about $1.7 billion. The top categories of complaints include ID theft, debt collection, Internet services and lotteries. The average loss by each victim was nearly $600.

Among Florida's 18.8 million residents, more than 92,000 complaints were filed last year — 492 complaints per 100,000 residents.

The Bottom Line

Identity theft is a threat that looms everywhere these days. Thieves may steal mail from your home, send fake email appearing to be from your bank requesting you provide personal information, and with identity manipulation, someone may simply pick your Social Security number or birth date (or those of a spouse or child) to use on a credit application.

Protect yourself as best you can. Don’t give out any personal information to anyone you are not certain needs it! The world is a scary place these days. Given that people don’t seem to want to earn a living legitimately anymore, you have to ever-so-vigilant your identity is not stolen or manipulated!

Lord knows the Roman Catholic Church has had its share of bad headlines in recent years! The worst of course are the claims of sexual assault on children. There also has been a rash of thefts by church leaders.

The Rev. Francis J. Drabiska formerly the pastor at Word of God parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has been charged with one count of theft. He is accused of taking $143,240.93 over eight years.

The longtime pastor spent freely on designer clothes, men's cologne and New York theater tickets, but his parishioners footed nearly $150,000 worth of the bills.

The 60-year-old Drabiska was arrested and later on a non-monetary bond.

His guilt should not be in question as Drabiska has admitted taking money from the parish.

Drabiska resigned in November and was placed on administrative leave after auditors discovered financial problems. He admitted to investigators that he stole $125,000 to $180,000 in loose cash from Mass collections from 1999 to 2009 and has admitted to stealing for 10 years. Due to statute of limitations laws he was only charged with stealing over eight years.

So what did he lose? Drabiska's status is unchanged because he resigned from the parish. He cannot celebrate Mass publicly, can't wear the collar and is not considered a priest in good standing,

A Sting Operation

So do you think Drabiska felt guilty about his sinful behavior? No Way!

In October 2009, auditors dropped six $10 bills with recorded serial numbers into the collection basket after they became suspicious. Only three of those appeared later in the collection account.

Not only was he stealing from the collection plates, but Drabiska rang up thousands of dollars in purchases on multiple credit cards. On his Macy's card, he bought designer clothes such as Polo, Nautica and Calvin Klein; men's fragrances; and crystal.

His salary was about $1,400 per month as a priest.

Drabiska was born in Ellwood City and ordained as a priest in the diocese in 1976. He became pastor at Word of God in 1994. Before that, he served as pastor and parochial vicar of St. Anselm and as parochial vicar at St. Agatha Parish, Bridgeville, and St. Joseph Parish, Pittsburgh.

You have to wonder whether Hollywood had any influence on the following scumbag who stole from his own mother. Following a similar, but not identical, path to the character Miles in the blockbuster Hollywood film “Sideways” this man decided to find his life by stealing from the woman who gave birth to him.

Christopher Salmon was found guilty of felony counts of forgery and theft related to an insurance account in his mother’s name, but also acquitted on similar counts for charges involving a different insurance account he was alleged to have illegally depleted.

He was also found guilty of identity theft for opening up two credit card accounts in his mother’s name after he gained power of attorney for his mother, Florence Salmon. He was likewise convicted on more theft counts for taking money from his sister that was supposed to be used to build an addition to his eight-bedroom home so his mother could live there, but which he spent elsewhere.

The jury of eight women and four men returned the mixed verdict around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, after deliberating for about 4 ½ hours.

Salmon, 54, who was accompanied at the five-day-long trial by his wife and some of his children, remains free on bail pending sentencing but could face serious time behind bars.

The DA provided plenty of evidence that Salmon used his mother’s banking and insurance accounts as if the money was his own, spending like “a knife through butter” as the accounts were depleted.

Florence Salmon lived in the Sunrise Senior Living facility in Exton from April 2005 until the fall of 2006. Adding insult to injury Salmon had stopped paying Sunrise bills at some point in her stay.

But Salmon, though his attorney, Todd Henry of Philadelphia, had argued that Salmon’s spending was accepted by his mother, who had a habit of giving gifts to her children. In a statement given to police in January 2010 as they were investigating the case, Salmon said any perception that he was a “predator” swindling his mother was untrue.

One set of guilty verdicts came in relation to a $7,000 MetLife insurance account that Salmon took control of in January 2005, when he gained power of attorney. He wrote several checks on the accounts for his own use, signing his mother’s name. On those charges, he was found guilty of forgery, theft by deception, and theft by unlawful taking without permission.

In other words, this guy is scum. He stole from his mother and other family members.

Every once in a while you hear a story that makes your blood boil. Sometimes it seems like the media blows things out of proportion. Other times huge stories slip under the radar. This is one of those stories that you just cannot believe has not made the front page of Time and Newsweek.

Government Bilked Out of $1 Billion A Year

Thieves in Tampa, Florida are using fake IDs have been stealing astonishing amounts of money from the federal government in a scam that was disturbingly easy to run.

If estimates are correct, the local losses each year are larger than the entire city budget. Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said the fraud probably exceeds $1 billion a year. Yes, you read that correctly - $1 Billion per year!!!

It is outrageous that at a time the federal government is debating major budget cuts, Washington is squandering billions in such scams across the nation.

Where the heck is our good buddy IRS in all of this?

I don’t know about you, but I think Congress should hold immediate hearings to get to the bottom of the problem. It's frightening to contemplate the size of the losses nationwide if Tampa is representative of what's happening elsewhere.

Postal inspectors here report intercepting 10,000 fraudulent refunds worth an average of $5,000 per return. That much money flowing in explains how some of the perpetrators could buy $100,000 cars and pay cash.

Paying taxes is hard enough without learning that the tax check may be subsidizing a life of luxury for a crook. It's doubly irking to know that a thief may have already claimed a return in your name, so that when you do file your return, you're the one who sets off IRS alarms.

The problem is connected to tax laws that give money back to low-income families meeting certain qualifications. Back in 1999, the General Accounting Office estimated that the IRS had overpaid family tax credits by nearly $10 billion.

Things appear to have gotten worse.

Stolen Social Security numbers are often used on the phony returns, and the news is full of stories of stolen Social Security numbers. School districts and universities are frequent targets. The University of Wisconsin just reported that a malware program could have stolen 75,000 of its Social Security numbers.

And if you can't steal a number yourself, Social Security numbers are also openly sold on the Internet. Fraudulent forms sometimes use the identities of dead taxpayers, and the crooks sometimes use the numbers of young children who haven't yet reported Social Security income.

More Bilking

In a related development, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that people working illegally in the United States collected $4.2 billion from the IRS last year by claiming child tax credits. The IRS doesn't seem to have a plan to stop that abuse.

In Tampa so far, 49 people have been arrested on charges related to tax irregularities. Get this, so far police are doing all the work, but they can't charge anyone with actual tax fraud because they aren't even authorized to look at a suspect's income tax form.

IRS enforcement should be bolstered. If each city in the country is costing the federal government $1 billion a year in blatant fraud, more IRS agents would quickly earn their keep.

Funny or So Sad You Want to Cry

Another aspect of this case capable of making an honest taxpayer spit breakfast coffee all over the newspaper is that almost all of those caught said they didn't think they were doing anything wrong. It was so easy and the money came so quickly, they seemed to have really thought that no one cared.

What is being done about this problem? You can rest assured I will be contacting all my congressmen both state and nationally and I encourage you to do the same.

Theft has affected virtually every person in society. From the corporate big wigs to the innocent impoverished person who pays higher prices at the register theft affects everyone in society.

Sometimes, there is a little poetic justice. As a devoutly religious man, I would like to think God had played a role in the following story.

With things tough all over and copper prices at near-historic highs, copper theft has become a national epidemic. Copper wiring has been disappearing from under America's city streets. Catalytic converters are being chopped from cars. Thieves are climbing power poles and tearing up homes to get to precious wiring.

The U.S. Department of Energy disclosed recently that 30,000 pounds of the stuff were boosted from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

A lower-profile victim was the Cathedral of Prayer Church of God in Christ in Columbus, Ga. Three weeks ago, an unidentified person or persons heedless of the Eighth Commandment stripped the copper in the church's air-conditioning system. This was totally uncool both because both stealing is wrong and to leave people without air conditioning in Georgia in August.

Like Winning the Lottery

A few days ago, the collection plate was passed around and another unidentified person dropped a solution: a winning ticket from the Georgia Lottery. The church cashed it at the lottery office and took away $80,000. The church will put the money toward repairing the system.

Stealing is a horrible thing that costs each one of us more than we realize. This story had a happy ending. Sometimes the good guys do win. Still, be kind to your fellow man and don’t steal!