This Week in Stupid

By Matt Wood in News on Apr 3, 2006 3:39PM

A little light this week, with most of the action happening on Monday. Child neglect and police chases are this week's themes:

On Monday, parents of a Gary three-year-old were charged with child neglect after she lost three fingers when an M-80 firecracker exploded in her hand back in January. The child's mother claims that she found the fireworks in a basement storage area, but some older children told investigators that there were other ones in a kitchen drawer. Caseworkers also doubt that the child was able to light the M-80 on her own.

Also on Monday, a 55-year-old Aurora woman was charged with felony robbery and fleeing police after she stole a purse from an 86-year-old woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot. She fled in her mini-van, and then after being stopped by police, led them on what had to have been one of the slowest foot chases ever before they finally apprehended her.

As covered here at Chicagoist, a three-year-old was found wandering in traffic Monday because her grandmother, who was supposed to have been watching her, was too drunk to notice she had left the house. Oh, and it was 11:30 in the morning too.

Finally on Friday, two suspected burglars who thought police were chasing them crashed into a pet store on the Southwest Side. They had just stolen about 30 cell phones from a Cingular store when they noticed a police car driving behind them, though unaware of the burglary. The Tribune reports that no fish or reptiles inside the store were hurt.