Time for Thanksgiving – and Crime.

Ah, the week of Thanksgiving. Time for family, friends, food—and crime?

[image error]

It’s true. According to the Journal of Criminal Justice “Crimes of expressive violence were significantly more prevalent on major holidays ….” (2003, vol. 31, pages 351-360).

Sad to say, holiday cheer plus the proximity of family explains this finding because there are “additional opportunities for violent behavior”.

A 2009 murder is one example. On Thanksgiving, a Colorado Springs grandfather shot his son in the head with a revolver because the son refused to leave the house when asked.

Poke around and you’ll find a plethora of bad stuff that’s happened on Thanksgiving. Witness the Bount family of Fort Worth, TX. After a Thanksgiving outing in 1985, teenage daughter Angela found a briefcase on the family’s front porch. She opened the briefcase which exploded killing Angela, her father, and a cousin. The guy convicted a decade later was freed because the prosecution withheld information exonerating him.

A birder enjoying the outdoors on Thanksgiving pulled out her binoculars to watch a heron in a Pennsylvania creek. Focusing, she saw a pair of sneakers attached to a man’s decomposing body. To this day both the identify and cause of death remain unknown.

[image error]

Then there was a family game of Trivial Pursuit that went bad when an unhappy player pulled out a hatchet. Justice reigned when police linked the hatchet to a drug crime.

[image error]

Some Thanksgiving goings on are just plain comical. In 2014 a monkey – described as “three feet tall, brown, and fast” – was seen running around in Tampa Bay. The local zoo said it wasn’t theirs. I’m not sure what happened to said monkey.

[image error]

Lady Gaga was in Peru celebrating the holiday with her family when she discovered 35 “Lady Gob Gobs” in the garage.[image error]

And finally, of course, so many of us participate in crimes against turkeys.