Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Crime Alert 02.17.25 | Drunken NYC Taxi Passenger Beats Driver, Steals Cab

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

A drunken NYC taxi passenger beats his driver over a fare dispute, then steals his cab! Thief tries to make off with $18,000 robot server! For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace, breaking crime news now. Mame Guy gets in a drunken argument with his New York City taxi driver when his payment cards declined. The driver asks him to get out. He does, but when the driver follows him, Guy shoves him to the ground, punches him in the stomach, then wraps his hands around the driver's neck. He eventually lets go and takes off in the cab while the 47-year-old driver tries to catch his breath. A few miles later, Guy crashes the cab into a parked car. He's quickly caught by police. Nancy, Guy ran from the scene of the crash on foot, but only makes it about a block before

he's put in cuffs. Guy has won previous arrests for DUI back in 2023. The taxi driver treated at the scene of his attack but did not require hospitalization. The NYC Taxi and Limo Commission commented on the assault, quote, violence against the city's hard-working drivers is deplorable and we're grateful to the NYPD for quickly bringing the individual who committed this outrageous assault and theft into custody. Mame Guy, 25, now charged with robbery, grand larceny, DUI, and assault. A Florida man walks into a high-tech pho restaurant that uses robot servers 20 minutes before opening and asks if he can use their restroom. Employees agree, but the man quickly doubles back from the restroom and awkwardly tries to carry one of their four feet tall robot waitrons out the door. Employees yell at him to stop, but the man gets the bot loaded into the back of his car. The robot's only

inside the car about 10 seconds before employees wrestle the hot bot back into the restaurant and tackle the thief. The robot worth nearly $18,000, but it's worthless outside the location where it's programmed to work. The unnamed robot robber now facing grand larceny. I hate to think of what he was going to do with the robot waitress. More crime and justice news after this. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A New York jury has convicted three men in a deadly scheme that targeted club goers in Manhattan. Prosecutors say 37-year-old Jaquan Hamilton, 36-year-old Robert DeMaio, and 32-year-old Jacob Barrasso befriended victims at nightclubs and bars, drugged them, and then robbed them, leaving two men dead.

The victims, Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, and John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant, were found dead weeks apart in 2022. Medical examiners determined they had been given a mix of fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs before their bank accounts were drained. Ramirez died in a taxi while Umberger was found in a townhouse. Their family suspected foul play when they discovered unauthorized transactions from the men's accounts. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called the crimes callous and driven by greed, saying he hopes the convictions bring some comfort to the grieving families. Hamilton, DeMaio, and Barroso were found guilty of murder, conspiracy, and robbery. They now face 25 years to life in prison. Investigators believe the scheme was part of a broader pattern of drug

facilitated thefts in New York's nightlife scene. While similar crimes have been linked to different groups, authorities say there is no evidence they were working together. In a significant cybersecurity breach, an Alabama man has confessed to hacking a federal agency's social media account to manipulate cryptocurrency markets. We hear more now from Sydney Sumner of Crime Online. In January 2024, 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. from Athens, Alabama, orchestrated a cyber attack on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's X account, formerly known as Twitter.

Utilizing a technique called SIM swapping, Council impersonated an individual with access to the SEC's account, convincing a cell phone provider to issue him a SIM card linked to that person's number. This allowed him and his co-conspirators to post a fraudulent message falsely announcing the SEC's approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The deceptive post led to an immediate surge in Bitcoin's price, spiking by over $1,000 before the SEC regained control of the account and clarified the misinformation. Following the correction, Bitcoin's value dropped by more than $2,000.

Counsel was arrested in October 2024 and recently pleaded guilty to identity theft charges in a Washington, D.C. federal court. He is scheduled for sentencing in May and faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. This case underscores the vulnerabilities in digital security and the potential for significant financial impact through social media manipulation. Thanks, John. Jerry Wilkins, 21, leaves his Children'sburg, Alabama home 10 a.m. to get a haircut in nearby Lincoln, driving a white 2013 Yukon XL with a personalized University of Alabama license plate, number P. Peter L. Love Y. Yellow S. Sally A. Alpha X X-Ray. Peter's white SUV spotted in Lincoln an hour later, but he did not make it to the barbershop and he's never been heard from since. The 21-year-old left his cell phone and meds at home and he hasn't used a credit card or bank accounts since that day. January 3, 2025, Jerry, 6 feet, 200 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, last wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. He's classified as an endangered missing adult. If you have info on the disappearance of Jerry Wilkins, please contact

Talladega County, Alabama Sheriff's 256-245-5121. For the latest crime and justice news, go to CrimeOnline.com and please join us for our daily podcast, Crime Stories, where we do our best to find missing people, especially children, and solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. This is an iHeart Podcast.