You know, a mugshot is never going to be the most flattering photo. Seriously, even the most attractive celebrity you could think of wouldn't look too hot when lit by the stark, halogen bulbs of a jail cell, grimacing as the officers take down the sordid details of their felony. However, every once in a while, there's a mugshot which circulates which makes people sit up and take notice. This is one of them. I'll give you one guess to where this story originates from ... that's right, it's Florida. Where else but the sunshine state could you expect to find a story this weird?

The situation was this: on Thursday, November 15, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office posted the mugshot of a man named Charles Dion McDowell on their official Facebook page. According to the post, McDowell was arrested for possession of meth and coke, and has also been charged with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver the drug. After making a failed attempt to flee police, he was arrested and jailed.

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The sheriff's department captioned the image: "Charles Dion McDowell was arrested for Fleeing/Eluding Police with Lights & Sirens Active, Possession of Meth with Intent to Sell/Manufacture/Deliver, Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell/Manufacture/Deliver Schedule II, Possession of Controlled Substance without a Prescription, Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Equipment. McDowell is currently a guest at the GoldStar Hotel with a bond of $57,000. [sic]"

However, Facebook users were immediately struck by one detail in particular: McDowell's huge, thick neck. Now, believe me, I've seen some thick necks before, usually on 'roided out dudes at the gym. But seriously, check that out; it's positively elephantine! This guy must need to buy mile-long neckties for job interviews.

Predictably, social media users wasted no time in making jokes about McDowell's neck, and the image of him quickly went viral as a result. For example, one Facebook user wrote: "Who else came to read all the comments about his “neck”!?! (I)t looks like his head is attached to his thigh!!! [sic]" while someone else added: "You people should be ashamed of yourselves, all this neckativity isn’t right at all," and another person wrote: "They gonna put him in jail and throat away the key."

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Thick necks are very common among bodybuilders and athletes, although this appears to be an extreme example. But there are also a number of health causes for this kind of phenomenon. For instance, people who develop Cushing's Syndrome, or hypercortisolism, can often end up with a round face and increased fat around their neck. This condition occurs when the body's tissues are exposed to the hormone cortisol over a long period of time.

However, this disorder is fairly rare; only affecting adults between the ages of 20-50, and are mostly found in people who already suffer from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. It's unknown whether or not McDowell has this condition, and  I'm not going to stick my neck out and speculate...

A Florida man has declared his innocence after police discovered syringes in his rectum during a police strip search. 40-year-old Wesley Scott, of Clearwater, was arrested on Friday in Pinellas County on an outstanding warrant for drug possession.

When first arrested, he reportedly told police that he was aware of the consequences if anything illegal was discovered on his person. Scott told police that he did not have, nor was he concealing, any illegal items. However, a strip search conducted at Pinellas County jail proved this to be untrue. When told to strip, Scott apparently “removed three syringes from his rectum and provided them” to a jailer, The Smoking Gun reports.

After removing the syringes, Scott is said to have told police that he had "found" them and that they didn't belong to him. Unfortunately for Wesley, Pinellas County police did not believe his excuses and proceeded to charge him with introducing contraband into a correctional facility, a felony. Court documents do not reveal whether Scott named the purported owner of the syringes found during the strip search.

Scott isn't the first person to have a somewhat strange explanation for their crimes. In 2009, Keith Griffin was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography after over 1,000 illegal images were found on his computer. Griffin told police that he was innocent and that it was actually his cat that had downloaded the images. He said: "he would leave his computer on and the cat would jump on the keyboard" and the pictures would just appear. Police didn't believe Griffin's excuses, and he was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

In 2015, 26-year-old Richard Relliford was found in possession of 455 grams of marijuana after being pulled over by police at a traffic stop. When questioned by police, Relliford tried to claim that the drugs were actually just salad. Unsurprisingly, police didn't fall for this one either, posting on their Facebook page:

"Look, If we have said it once, we have said a zillion times! No matter how hard you try to convince us this green leafy stuff is salad and you're just coming back from the store going to make a chef salad, Well Sous Chef UP! A SALAD THIS IS NOT!!! Officers encountered Richard Relliford during a traffic stop, a 26 year old St. Marys resident, who had recently obtained this 1 pound bag of marijuana. He went to jail, as this is still illegal in Georgia!!! Stay Safe Out There---Criminals Are A-FOOT [sic]!!"

Wesley Scott is currently being held on a $5000 bond.

A woman in Florida was arrested last week for allegedly squeezing her boyfriend's testicles until they bled, according to a police report.

The alleged victim, who has not been identified, called the police on June 4 to report a domestic assault. He told officers that his live-in girlfriend became "enraged" during an argument, then struck him with a hair brush, choked him, punched him "with her fists and scratched the left side of his face." He also stated she "grabbed him by his balls and squeezed them until they were bleeding,"

Authorities responded to the call in Indian Harbour Beach, a city with a population of about 8,000 located 70 miles southeast of Orlando. The woman, identified as 21-year-old Katie Lee Pitchford, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. An arrest affidavit confirmed the man's face was bloody and had visible bruising, The Miami Herald reported.

In the back of the squad car, Pitchford asked officers " if she could talk to the victim because she wanted to say she was sorry," according to  the Orlando Sun-Sentinel. She was taken to Brevard County jail, where she is being held without bond.

In addition to the battery charge, Pitchford is accused of violating her parole for resisting an officer with violence in November 2017. She is scheduled to appear in court on June 25.

A woman was immediately detained and arrested after airport security noticed something very odd with an X-ray.

Now, I get nervous going through airport security with a tiny 100ml bottle of shampoo. So I could only imagine this particular traveler had butterflies in her stomach when she was passing security...

...only, it wasn't butterflies in her stomach at all. It was something far more dangerous.

This wild incident took place at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, when a 30-year-old woman arrived on a flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Per Sky News, South African police had received a tip-off that someone on the flight from Brazil was carrying drugs — and they weren’t wrong.

Turns out, the woman was a drug mule who had swallowed 68 “bullets” of cocaine. Yes, you read that right—swallowed them. When she went through security, an X-ray of her stomach showed the whole thing, revealing several foreign objects inside her body.

Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, the national police spokesperson, described how things unfolded.

“The team immediately intercepted the drug mule as she was making her way through immigration. She was immediately arrested, taken to a local hospital where a medical X-ray confirmed and detected foreign objects in her stomach." She added, “She has already released more than 60 bullets of suspected cocaine thus far.”

Under police guard, the woman began the process of “releasing” the drugs—yeah, definitely not the most glamorous part of the job.

In total, she expelled 68 bullets, which police weighed in at about 850 grams. That’s a lot to carry around in your stomach.

Though the exact value of the drugs is still being determined, police are confident this arrest is part of a bigger operation.

The woman is the 10th drug mule to be busted at this South African airport in the last two months alone.

She is due to appear in court on September 25 after being charged with drug dealing and drug possession.

And it sounds like the South African police aren’t messing around. General Fannie Masemola, national commissioner of the South African Police Service, praised the operation and warned criminals not to think they can get away with these stunts. “South Africa is not a playground for criminals and transnational organized crime,” he said. “We are squeezing the space for criminals and leaving nothing to chance.”

In case you were wondering, the process of “releasing” those drugs is exactly as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Featured image credit: South African Police Service

When people are past retirement age, they often decide to go on vacation a lot more. Once they no longer have to worry about taking time off work, suddenly old age pensioners have far more incentive to jet off to parts unknown and sunnier climes. Maybe they want to visit the Florida Everglades, or go on a ski trip to the alps, or even play it safe with a cruise down Benidorm. Whatever they decide, you can bet that it's likely to be a hell of a lot more relaxed than the sort of holidays that youngsters go on. There'll be no promiscuous sex, beach parties, and drug taking for the over-60s.

... Or so you might have thought, until now. It turns out that at least two members of the older generarion have managed to land themselves in seriously hot water during a trip abroad, after Portuguese police arrested a British couple in their seventies (neither of whom have been named yet) after they discovered that they were carrying $2.5 million worth of cocaine in their suitcases; the ecquivilent of almost nine kilograms!

The Portuguese police authorities have released a statement concerning the arrest, in which they wrote: "The Policia Judiciaria's National Drugs Trafficking Unit has identified and arrested a foreign couple who were travelling on a cruise line doing a circuit which took in the Caribbean and Europe. They were arrested on suspicion of international drugs trafficking."

They added: "The operation, which took place with the support of the Maritime Police, was the result of the permanent exchange of information and cooperation that exists between the PJ and the British forces of law and order, specifically the National Crime Agency."

"The arrests occurred after the ship had reached Lisbon Port's cruise terminal and after a search of the cabin the suspects were using, where four suitcases with a high amount of cocaine hidden inside was seized. The suspects, who are aged 70 and 72, were questioned as suspects or arguidos before being remanded in prison. The investigation by the PJ and UK authorities is ongoing."

Meanwhile, Vitor Ananais, leader of the sting operation for the Policia Judiciaria, stated: "The man and the woman are English although they don't live in England but in another European country. I can't say which country at the moment because the investigation is ongoing and I don't want to compromise what we are doing."

He added: "The arrests took place on December 4. We knew who were looking for and boarded the cruise ship with a search warrant. The drugs were hidden in false bottoms in the suitcases and were distributed evenly among the four cases in the cabin. There were nine kilos seized in total."

So there you have it: turns out that two OAPs are more than capable of breaking bad, and ending up banged up abroad. I'm not sure they'll be able to afford bail on a state pension.