10 Bizarre Events Involving Prosthetics and the Police

Things are not easy for most denture wearers. The prosthetic journey is fraught with pain and an underlying need. Although they may face additional challenges, prosthetic wearers are just like anyone else. This means that prosthesis wearers sometimes find themselves in tangles with law enforcement. Consider the following bizarre stories involving the police and prosthetics.

Related: The 10 Weirdest Ways People Smuggled Drugs

10 struck by his own leg

In 2013, a disabled man in South Carolina was enjoying his day when an assailant pushed him off his moped and then struck him with his own prosthetic leg, who was later arrested for assault. The man’s leg appears to have come off when he hit the ground. A second person reportedly held the victim down while the suspect assaulted him.

Police were called to the scene, but the victim was in too much pain to speak to them. The victim was then transported to Grand Strand Regional Hospital. As a result of the attack, the victim was left with a laceration over his right eye that required stitches. Fortunately, the victim was able to identify the assailant from a series of photographs. It remains unclear what motivated the suspect to push the man off his moped.^[1]

9 Using a prosthetic arm as a weapon

Road rage can strike at any time for drivers. In 2016, a Missouri man who had lost an arm in a 2009 car accident ended up facing four felony charges after experiencing road rage in a crash that left an occupant of the other vehicle with broken legs and another with lacerations. The event occurred when the prosthesis carrier had a fight with another couple who almost crashed into their vehicle. This prompted the prosthetic user to drive his vehicle into the other man and hold him down, preventing him from moving. The man’s wife then arrived in a separate vehicle and got out of her car to help her husband. As the fight escalated, the prosthetic user removed his arm and used it to assault the woman.

Police later charged the prosthesis user with charges related to first degree assault, second degree assault, leaving the scene of an accident and armed criminal behavior. The man was booked into jail on $150,000 bail.

The problems continued to find the one-armed man. Shortly thereafter, the man was accused of beating a St. Louis police officer with his prosthetic. This led to the police taking the man’s arm and not immediately returning it to him. This dispute arose when police were called to a local car dealership following a dispute between the one-armed man and a worker at the dealership. When the police tried to arrest the man for his previous crime, he removed his arm to defend himself against them. Police reported that he kept the prosthesis because it constituted a weapon.^[2]

8 Drug trafficking in Gluteal Prosthesis

In 2014, a Massachusetts woman faced drug charges after police discovered heroin and oxycodone under a prosthesis that the woman claimed she was wearing because she had a flat butt. The arrest came after police conducted a traffic stop and the pills fell from the woman’s pants as she stood near a police vehicle.

The woman later admitted that a one-ounce bag of marijuana found in her vehicle was hers, while a passenger in the vehicle was also arrested due to outstanding warrants. Police then discovered that the flat-bottomed woman had an extensive criminal record, including charges related to illegal drugs.

While checking in after the arrest, police discovered that the woman’s underwear was difficult to touch. The woman told police that she had a flat butt, so she wore a prosthetic butt and another pair of underwear underneath it. When the police asked the woman to remove the prosthetic from her butt, she was upset. She then surrendered and the police found a bundle in her underwear, which turned out to be two bags of oxycodone pills and $350 worth of heroin.^[3]

7 Drunk driver leaves arm at scene

Prosthetic arms are expensive and serve an invaluable purpose, but a Corpus Christi man left his prosthetic arm behind when he fled the scene of a drunk driving accident in 2015. When police arrived at the scene, they also found the man’s right prosthetic arm . as a passenger that he had suffered minor injuries.

The driver and his passenger were reportedly traveling on State Highway 26 when the vehicle left the freeway, plunged into the street below the highway, and collided with a bridge pillar. The driver then escaped on foot. The intoxicated man was later arrested by police. ^[4]

6 The pregnancy of the computer chip

A thriving underground market for computer chips has exploded in China. This market emerged in 2020 when a pandemic-induced chip shortage hit everything from cars to smartphones. As a result, a smuggled computer chip can net you a huge payday.

In early 2022, customs workers in China arrested a woman who tried to use a pregnancy prosthesis to smuggle semiconductors into the country. Detained at the Zhuhai-Macau border, the woman was found to have more than 200 processors and nine smartphones under her prosthesis. Initially, police were told that something was not as it seemed when the woman reported that she was five or six months pregnant, but that she had a belly big enough for a woman in her third trimester.^[5]

5 Thief removes himself with a prosthetic leg

The prosthetic legs range in value from $5,000 to $70,000. As a result, these items can be expected to fetch a good price on the black market. Then, on an afternoon in 2021, an Oklahoma man armed with a large metal spike stole a prosthetic leg from a person during a robbery. The man also took the victim’s backpack after inquiring about the value of the items.

The man was later arrested on charges of armed robbery. By the time the police caught up with the man, the man had strapped his prosthetic leg to his head. He then removed the prosthetic leg and returned it to the victim, while the thief was jailed.

However, this is not the only time a prosthetic leg has been stolen. In 2022, Georgia police were called to a home on a burglary charge. A man reported that he was working on the back door of his house when he placed his prosthetic leg by the door. The man left the door for a minute, and when he returned, the leg was no longer there. The perpetrator of this prosthetic theft appears to have never been apprehended.^[6]

4 Ankle monitor on a false leg

A man in Washington, DC, was arrested on a firearm charge in 2016 and placed on house arrest pending trial. When the ankle bracelet was attached, the tracking device was placed on the man’s sock rather than on the skin, which is a violation of protocol regarding ankle tracking monitors. The worker who put the bracelet on also did not realize that the man had a prosthetic leg. As a result, the man later removed his leg, replaced it with a second prosthetic leg that he had, and was able to leave the house.

The man then went into an area he was told to stay away from and tragically ended up shooting and killing a woman. The motive of the man behind the murder remains uncertain. At the moment the man went out to commit the murder, he told his mother that he was going to distribute religious pamphlets. Fortunately, a witness identified the man as a suspect. He later was charged with second degree murder.^[7]

3 The prosthetic mask thief

In 2020, a Michigan man stole over $100,000 from people who went to casinos in both Michigan and Kansas. The man used a prosthetic mask to hide his identity, as well as a fake ID and personal information that was stolen online. To avoid suspicion, the man wore a prosthetic mask that made him look like an old man. The man then targeted the victims by obtaining their personal details and used the fake identification to make withdrawals from these victims’ bank accounts at casino kiosks.

Police charged the man with wire fraud, identity theft and fraud involving access devices. Police first began investigating the crime when casino security identified 10 people who had lost nearly $100,000 total in one month in 2019. A suspect was later located on surveillance footage. Casino workers noticed the man, who was dressed as an old man with a prosthetic mask, glasses and a walker, withdrew tens of thousands of dollars from kiosks. When casino workers questioned the man, he went outside to go to the bathroom and came out with a large bulge in his pants, which casino workers believe was the prosthetic mask.^[8]

2 Drug smuggling with a prosthetic leg

In 2021, a Florida man attempted to sneak cocaine and opioids into prison in 2021 through his prosthetic leg. The man was initially arrested when Florida police pulled over the vehicle he was riding in to detain him. After a fight with the police, it was revealed that the man was sitting on a pipe that was used to smoke cocaine. Product of this and the presence of cocaine, the man was placed under arrest.

After being arrested, the police asked the man if his artificial member contained anything illegal. The man claimed that he had nothing on his leg despite being told by police that this could lead to additional charges. An exhaustive search of the man’s leg revealed both Xanax and Fentanyl. The man was left with three felony charges and one misdemeanor.^[9]

1 The bandit with prosthetic hair

Illinois police went to a scene in 2002 to meet a man and his son who lived at the address. It was then that the son told police that he had more than 100 pieces of stolen prosthetic hair (pigtails) in his bedroom, as well as loose hair to make another 60 pigtails. Police then faxed a copy of a warrant to search the residence to the local sheriff’s office. This request was approved.

The Ponytail Bandit was subsequently arrested. According to police, the man stole the ponytails by calling local salons and falsely representing a charity that supports cancer survivors and creates high-quality hair replacements for children who lose their hair due to medical conditions. The man, who was reported to be checking into beauty salons weekly, was jailed on $10,000 bail.

But this is not the only case of fake hair. Two Columbia women were caught at the airport dealing cocaine in their hair extensions. As the women went through the scanners, abnormalities appeared on the screen, and when their hair was inspected, agents found cocaine vials hidden within the hair.^[10]