Val Kilmer as 'Iceman' in 'Top Gun.'

​He called himself The Iceman, and he hacked into some of the more sensitive computers in the realm of U.S. space and defense systems -- those at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

So says the U.S. Attorney's Office, which today announced that a federal grand jury has turned up the heat on The Iceman, a.k.a. Robert Butyka, with an indictment charging the Romanian citizen with "unauthorized impairment of a protected computer."

But the allegation is actually more serious than it sounds:

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L.A. County Sheriff's Department

Convicted puppy-snatcher.

​Least hard-core L.A. County criminal ever. (Close second: The escaped inmate caught riding a little girl's stolen pink bicycle down the street, knees akimbo.)

Of all the debauchery that could have put known Bassett Grande gang member Jose Castrejon behind bars, he ended up being nabbed by Sheriff's investigators in April 2010 for -- single tear -- stealing a little girl's puppy.

The 9-year-old had just exited a neighborhood market after buying her brand-new baby pit bull, Mia, a nice pink collar ...

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@DavidBegnaud

A news chopper's shot of the standoff.

​Updated at the bottom: What started the whole thing? First posted at 2:28 p.m.

It's not unusual to hear of a man shot on a weekday afternoon in L.A. But in this area it is.

Wilshire Boulevard was shut down near the Miracle Mile east of La Brea Avenue today after a man was shot on the street at South Orange Drive, according to police.

It happened ...

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Wiki

The 1914 Cyclone in question.

​When you have $1 million worth of vehicle, try to make sure no one's tailing you.

The owner of a million-dollar, one-of-a-kind, 1914 twin-cylinder Cyclone motorcycle thinks that crooks might have followed him home after its showing at the annual, open-to-the-public Beverly Hills Concours D'Elegance car show on Rodeo Drive last Father's Day, according to reports.

They apparently came knocking over the weekend:

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@RubenNews

Springer's booking photo.

​Updated at the bottom with the suspect's ID, more info from the sheriff's department. First posted at 11:36 a.m.

Miramonte Elementary School in South L.A. is turning into a big shop of horrors.

Following this week's arrest of former teacher Mark Berndt, charged with committing lewd acts on 23 of his students, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is confirming that a second teacher has been arrested.

That teacher ...

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LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy embroiled in Miramonte: He needs to tell what Sid Thompson did.

​Parent hysteria at Miramonte School today -- parents are pulling kids out of school over alleged pervert teacher Mark Berndt and the arrest of a second teacher -- could degrade into a McMartin Preschool witch hunt or Wenatchee child sex orgies B.S. Both of those were false, created by lying children, social workers and cops who suggested answers to the children, and freaked-out parents. Together they all ruined the lives of innocent caretakers and teachers.

We're heading there if LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy doesn't clear the air. But instead he was evasive on KNX today. He should explain now why LAUSD Superintendent Sid Thompson in 1994 let Berndt teach AFTER L.A. County Sheriff's detectives urged the D.A. to prosecute Berndt for fondling. Deasy is protecting the legacy of the disastrous Sid Thompson. Instead, Deasy needs to:

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Google Maps

​Two people were shot and wounded after a suspect walked into a Venice barber shop and opened fire this morning, police said.

It happened about 9:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Lincoln Boulevard, LAPD Officer Richard French told the Weekly.

One victim was shot in the foot and ...

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Facebook

Bree'Anna Guzman.

​Rumors of serial killers on the loose are nothing new to the LAPD. But they seem to have taken on a new life thanks to the rapid-fire chatter of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

In Wilmington this month the stabbing death of 28-year-old mother Cristian Alvarez, whose body was apparently dumped near Alamedia and Anaheim streets, set off a flurry of Facebook rumors about a South Bay Slasher, rumors quickly debunked by detectives.

But sometimes the streets are on to something:

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Glendale Police Department via the News-Press

Umar Kahn, alleged nude meth masturbator extraordinaire

​Don't do meth, kids.

If "Breaking Bad" doesn't have you convinced, just look to the Glendale Police Department, whose Thursday-morning arrest of 34-year-old Umar Kahn is the best anti-drug PSA ever to grace the news wire.

Cops tell City News Service that they pulled Kahn over for running a stop sign on Royal Boulevard. But when they approached his window, they found they had bigger problems:

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Google Maps

​Updated at the bottom: The suspect and victims have been identified. The suspect's booking photo has been added. First posted at 6 a.m.

A nude man fatally stabbed a mother and her daughter and injured a man in a home in unincorporated Torrance last night, according to authorities and reports.

Authorities responded to the residence about 8:17 p.m. last night, according to Capt. Mike Parker.

But the suspect, nude, engaged in a standoff until he was arrested around 10 p.m., according to CBS Los Angeles.

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clubmayan.com

​The LAPD is trying to track down the shooter who killed a man and wounded three others outside the Mayan club downtown over the weekend.

Cops seem to be frustrated: They say the surviving victims aren't talking. That's to be expected though: The beef that sparked the attack was reported to involve gang rivals from the huge and hateful 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha organizations.

It all happened ...

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Burns!

Generic detective pic.

​See the L.A. police union chief's reaction, added at the bottom.

An LAPD detective with 25 years on the force was arrested after he allegedly took money from a drug suspect, the department just announced.

Ramon Alvarez was collared on suspicion of grand theft today and placed on administrative leave while the LAPD continues to investigate.

Looks like a partner turned him in.

Here's what the department says happened:

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Facebook

The search for Bree'Anna Guzman has come to a tragic end.

​The dead body that police pulled from bushes alongside the Glendale Freeway yesterday morning has been identified by femily members as 22-year-old Bree'Anna Guzman.

The L.A. County Coroner's Office told the Weekly last night that the body could not yet be identified, and was still being called a "Jane Doe." However, Guzman's mom, who visited the crime scene, tells NBC4 that the body belonged to her daughter.

Guzman, a young mother of two, went missing exactly one month ago. She left her Lincoln Heights home to go fetch some cough syrup at the corner store...

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Facebook

Ibarra.

​Updated at the bottom with the search completed. First posted at 9:06 a.m. on Wednesday.

Cops think they know who killed El Camino Real High School soccer player Francisco Rodriguez:

Calabasas residents Jason Schumann, 24, and Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 11 murder that shocked the San Fernando Valley.

The two appear to have a newborn baby together, and she seemed to be friends with the 17-year-old victim, at the least.

The question for cops now is:

Where's the murder weapon?

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Too many video games?

​Oh jeez. SoCal K-12ers are so hard-core these days. Yesterday's little situation in South L.A. almost outdoes the Riverside fourth-grader who filed a restraining order against a classmate with a knife.

KFI radio broke the news that, just before school let out, two seventh-graders from Samuel Gompers Middle School tried to settle their feud the old-fashioned way -- with a dramatic classroom duel.

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SMPD

An SL like Travolta's.

​Updated at the bottom with the condition of Travolta's ride, with photos of the leftovers. First posted at 12:20 p.m.

The movie Gone in 60 Seconds, every 20-year-old frat boy's favorite "cult" film about stealing the dream rides on their dorm room walls, featured a motley crew of high-tech antiheroes who could swipe a Mercedes before you could finish saying, "Whole Foods parking lot."

Outlandish. Fantastic. And utterly enjoyable for the inner car guy inside all men.

But John Travolta, of all people, seems to have helped cops uncover a real Gone in 60 Seconds theft ring, at least according to what police are alleging:

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ABC7

Try not to swing a pipe at cops.

​Updated at the bottom with the man's ID. First posted at 11:41 a.m.

A man who swung a metal pipe wildly at police and broke out the windows of a Carl's Jr. in Monterey Park was fatally shot by the cops, sheriff's officials said.

Video (after the jump) from the incident seems to support the cop's instinct that this guy needed to be stopped.

The confrontation between taser- and gun-wielding officers and a 20-something man with a 3-foot metal pipe or bar in his hand unfolded ...

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CBS / OnScene TV

Burkhart.

​Update: How did he plead? No big surprise here. Deets at the bottom. First posted at 12:19 p.m.

Harry Burkhart was charged today with 63 more counts in connection with the New Year's weekend arson fires that terrorized Los Angeles, the District Attorney's office confirms.

That brings the number of counts faced by the 24-year-old German national with Chechen roots to 100.

Burkhart was originally suspected in 53 blazes, but ...

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​Updated at the bottom: The Times ID's the victim. Our headline has changed and this piece was wholly rewritten after we picked up a false report of an arrest in the case. First posted at 6:54 p.m. Thursday.

Reports of an arrest in the grisly case of human body parts found this week in the Hollywood Hills were premature at the least, the LAPD says.

A tweet by CBS Los Angeles stating there had been an arrest in the case today set off a flurry of calls to the LAPD, prompting it to state tonight that ...

... there have been NO arrests made in the homicide investigation involving the discovery of body parts in the Hollywood Hills.

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LAPD

Moran

​Updated at the bottom: There might be another assailant out there, but cops still think this guy did most of the handy work.

Call him the Mad Slapper.

Cops this morning arrested a man they say has slapped, punched and pushed four three women and one man, unprovoked, near City Hall and, yes, LAPD headquarters downtown.

The city's illustrious General Services police spotted the suspect yesterday and even took his photo, but did not arrest him. Huh. Alas, LAPD cops nabbed Jermaine Vincent Moran about 7 this morning near ...

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