In separate federal indictments, two Texans were charged with theft of government property for taking parts of the Space Shuttle Columbia that plummeted the ground after the 2003 explosion that killed seven crew members. Merrie Hipp, 43, was accused of swiping a circuit board, while Bradley Justin Gaudet, 23, allegedly stole a piece of thermal insulating fabric. The debris, much of which landed in Texas, was vital to the efforts of NASA scientists (pictured) to better understand the cause of the disaster.
Mark Hoousendove, a 42-year-old New York man, was charged with petty larceny and resisting arrest after he allegedly lifted five packages of baldness remedy Rogaine from a local pharmacy.
Posing as a representative for Locks of Love, a charity that uses donated hair to make wigs for sick children who have lost their hair, Melvin Hanks, 54, allegedly stole 93 ponytails from Illinois hair salons for his own profit.
Police were called to a Catholic church in Florida, after 33-year-old Jonathan Ricci, refusing to accept communion from the priest, allegedly grabbed a handful of communion wafers and tried to make off with them. Other churchgoers tried to stop Ricci, resulting in a tussle and Ricci's arrest. Ricci was charged with battery, disrupting a religious assembly, and theft.
In Wisconsin, Christopher Sullivan was charged with five counts of felony burglary after allegedly terrorizing several local women. According to police, Sullivan gained entry to his victims' homes and stole their lingerie and photographs. He later mailed them menacing messages and Polaroids of dismembered Barbie dolls, as well as their own photographs, cut up and superimposed onto pornographic images. Sullivan, who later confessed to police, said he had victimized women who made him "angry or frustrated," such as an upstairs neighbor who had engaged in noisy sex.
Two Florida teens - Joel Rivera, 19, (left,) and Seth McCarty, 18, (right,) admitted to stealing a skull from the Spring Hill Cemetery near Brooksville, Florida. The amateur grave robbers, who stored the skull in a bucket of bleach, were charged with desecration of a grave.
Seemingly hellbent on possessing a particular photograph of President Obama, Ohio woman Marla Anderson (left) walked into a home and struggled with the owner over the Chief of State's likeness, while her accomplice, Tamika Cornwell (right,) waited in a getaway car. Both women were arrested, and the photograph remained with its rightful owner.
In Port St. Lucie, FL., two men were arrested for alleged shoplifting at a Babies "R" Us store, where a store manager recognized John Grassano (left) and Sean Loychik (right) as the same men who had stolen four breast pumps earlier that month. After reviewing surveillance footage, it became apparent that the duo had lifted over $15,000 in breast pumps. By then Grassano and Loychik had been released and police had to track them down again.
Canadian police and authorities at Vancouver's St. Paul's hospital were stumped when 19 vials containing samples of HIV infected blood went missing from a locked freezer in the facility's virology lab. A spokesperson for the hospital reassured the public that the virus's potency diminishes within 72 hours of thawing, and stated that it was not clear why the vials, which were clearly marked as HIV-positive, were stolen
Teen pop sensations The Jonas Brothers reportedly had to increase their security after noticing that pairs of boxer shorts were disappearing from their wardrobes and being replaced with notes that read, "Your undies are safe with us....The Undie Snatchers!"