The patrons of the Monkey Shak in rural Madison County, Illinois, got a hell of a surprise Saturday night when a car blasted through the front wall of the building and exited through the back of the tavern coming to rest against an outdoor picnic table.

Google Street View

The Monkey Shak in better days.

​As the Highland News Leader reported this week, 29-year-old Nick Duffin was allegedly drunk and driving his Ford Escort at a high rate of speed when he crashed into the bar. Amazingly he, nor anyone inside the bar, were injured.

Firecrackers: Patrick Dewey (left) and Franklin "Daniel" Clark

​The latest incident in a long-standing feud between three Fenton-area men ended yesterday with a bang (literally).

According to police, suspects Patrick Dewey and Franklin "Daniel" Clark of St. Louis County allegedly placed a pipe underneath the truck of a man living in the 700 block of Caliph Drive of Jefferson County yesterday morning. The bomb exploded, damaging a 2000 Dodge van but leaving the owner of the car (who was inside his home at the time of the incident) uninjured

The investigation led police to the Fenton home of Patrick Dewey where St. Louis County police discovered a second pipe bomb.

Captain Ralph Brown with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department tells Daily RFT that the suspects (who room together) were once neighbors with the victim. The three later became enemies over some kind of "domestic issue."
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Laser pointers: Not just for freaking out your cats.

​The Post-Dispatch has an interesting article today about a 21-year-old man arrested Tuesday night for shooting a laser pointer at a St. Louis County Police helicopter.

According to the paper, the man was sitting in a parked vehicle around 9:30 p.m. when he spotted the helicopter flying 700 feet overhead and aimed the laser pointer at the aircraft. The green light so alarmed the pilot that he radioed into his colleagues on the ground who located the vehicle and arrested the man on suspicion of interfering with an aircraft.

"I don't think people realize how dangerous it is that you're temporarily blinding a pilot," the 'copter pilot tells the daily. "It hits you directly in your eyes."

My question(s): How far can those laser pointers shoot? And could they really distract someone 700 feet away?
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Is that what I think it is?

​Or rather, whose dick was that hanging out at the UMSL computer lab?

As KSDK reports, a female student was using the computer lab yesterday afternoon at the school's Millennium Student Center when she felt something rub across her lower back. That something was reportedly an exposed penis.

The woman tells UMSL police that she turned around to witness a man standing behind her with his unit pulled from his unzipped pants. He was breathing heavily.
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Eigles: He likes to watch.

​Last year St. Louis County prosecutors charged Jack Eigles with videotaping women in the bathroom of his Chesterfield-based business Cash-Flow Solutions.

Now, Eigles is accused of a new videotaping charge. Yesterday a woman identified only as "Jane Doe" filed a civil suit against Eigles claiming that he set up a hidden video camera in the bathroom of his home and filmed guests during a company holiday party in December 2007.

Eigles then allegedly posted video of the woman using the toilet on the Internet.
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Behold: A "Stripper Mobile"

​Man, am I kicking myself right now.

Late last Friday I got an invite to tool around downtown in the St. Louis Hustler Club's "Stripper Mobile" -- a converted U-Haul truck outfitted with plexiglass walls and (you guessed it!) strippers.

Sadly, though, I had to pass on the invite as I already had plans.

Little did I know then that I'd be passing up on the chance to be part of the biggest local news story of late afternoon April 22/early morning April 23.

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Yeah, you too officer.

​St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom confirmed that two police officer killed in separate car crashes while on duty recently were not wearing seat belts.

One of those accidents occurred last month when officer David Haynes was killed when he collided with other vehicles while pursuing an alleged burglar.

In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, Isom promised to crack down on seat belt use and enforce safe driving in the department.

Part of that would include annual driving courses for officers and perhaps instruction on a high-speed test course.

State law requires all government employees, except postal carriers, to wear seat belts.

A likely suspect.

​I'm guessing it was the Hamburglar and perhaps Grimus, too. Though police have yet to name the two male suspects arrested for kidnapping a woman from Kansas City on Tuesday and driving her to a McDonald's in Fairview Heights, Illinois.

As the Belleville News-Democrat reports this morning, the woman -- a non-English speaker in her 20s -- was in her apartment in KC on Tuesday talking to her sister on the phone when two men busted through the door.

Her sister heard her sibling gasp before the line went dead. Neighbors then saw two men whisk the woman out of her apartment in a headlock and toss her into a brown minivan.
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photo by Johann Qua Hiansen

The rabbit is now thinking about revenge.

​A spray-paint toting Elmer Fudd defaced a famous sculpture of a wascally wabbit on the Washington University undergraduate campus last weekend.

(Dare you to say that five times fast.)

The art, formally titled Thinker on a Rock but known among students as "The Rabbit," is the work of the late Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan and has been on loan to the University from the Gateway Foundation since 2001.

According to Student Life, the tagging occurred late Friday evening and police have no suspects. The graffiti was done in gold paint and it sounds like removing it from the bronze statue without causing further damage will not be easy.

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As seen on BigBalls' website, this week's "game of the week" features teams named Morning Sex v. Gang Bang All-Stars.

​The 2,500 members of the BigBalls Kickball League that plays each weekend in Tower Grove Park will have to find a new destination to act like drunken grade-schoolers.

As St. Louis Public Radio reports, the south city park has officially banned the league due to its inappropriate behavior.

(See video of a team acting naughty here!)

Says park director John Karel: "When something is consistently showing a pattern of abusive language, public urination, nudity, and disrespect for park rangers we don't have a choice, this thing was getting out of hand."
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