UK Window Cleaning Thug Life

Navy personnel standing over the drugs seized from the yacht where Grimsby window cleaner was jailed for 8 years for role in £200m cocaine smuggling plot.

Grimsby window cleaner jailed for 8 years for role in £200m cocaine smuggling plot: Thomas Britteon, 28, of Convamore Road, was one of three men who were caught aboard The Makayabella – a yacht loaded with a tonne of cocaine – in the Irish Sea in September. At Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard, along with John Powell, 71, and Benjamin Mellor, 35, both from West Yorkshire, he pleaded guilty to having more that 13,000 euro worth of cocaine for sale or supply and having it on the yacht for the purpose of importation.

Window cleaner Britteon had been offered just over £14,000 – 20,000 euro – for his role in the operation – which had said he had thought would be like a Caribbean holiday. Powell’s 47-year-old son, Stephen Powell – who was jailed at Leeds Crown Leeds for 16 years last December for conspiracy to import the drugs – was described by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin as being the brains and the money behind the crime.

The court heard John Powell bought The Makayabella in March 2014 on instructions from his son and was to be paid a six-figure sum for this part in the operation. More than 1,000kg of cocaine, packed into 41 bales, had been collected from the coast of Venezuala in August 2014 and packed onto the yacht. The trio had planned to rendezvous with a smaller vessel the Sea Breeze 16 miles off Rosslare a month later, with the aim of bringing the drugs back to the UK.

However, the Makayabella ran low on diesel and was under observation drifting at sea for two days.

Food supplies for the three men on the yacht had run out and they were extremely low on drinking water. The court heard, when they were eventually boarded by the Irish Navy, the trio had run out of food and diesel and were so hungry, one of them had begun to take the drug to repress his appetite.

Garda Inspector Fergal Foley said yesterday: “To be quite blunt they were delighted to see the Navy.”

He told the court the movements of the Makayabella yacht in the Caribbean were reported to the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre after the RNLI came to rescue of the Sea Breeze 18 miles off Rosslare, on September 18. The vessel had run out of petrol but had several drums of diesel were found on board. Stephen Powell was also found on the ship.

A US naval vessel also observed the Makayabella appeared to be floundering 450 nautical miles off the coast and reported this to the US Maritime Information Centre. Backtracking information on the Makayabella to the Caribbean it was discovered that Mellor had to be rescued in the Caribbean where he was found floating in a dinghy and under the influence of cocaine.

The Makayabella was intercepted by the Irish Navy.

Acting on this information, a boarding party came aboard the ship on September 23, 217 nautical miles off the south coast of Ireland. The three immediately confessed their crime and the 41 bales of cocaine were seized. Powell was jailed for 10 years and Mellor – who had started to take the cocaine to stave off his hunger and was to be paid £71,636.35 – 100,000 euro – was jailed for eight years.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “This is a very significant crime in which the accused were involved knowingly. “They gave of themselves to go to sea in a yacht provided by Mr Powell from money from his son. “Mr Powell was more knowingly involved with the finances and sourcing of the boat and he stood get more out of it financially if the thing came to fruition. The other two men were roustabouts.”

Referring to the co-operation between intelligence agencies all over the world, he said, “It is encouraging to see the reach of agencies is in no way limited by territorial waters or economic areas of influence. It is encouraging to see there is no hiding place for drug importers.”

Ciarán O’Loughlin for Powell said the 71-year-old had a lot health difficulties and had no previous convictions of any kind. His father was a policeman. Alice Fawsett said Mellor, who broke his wrist on the voyage had been using drugs since the age of 12 and embarked on the operation to pay off a drugs debt, seeing this as the solution to all his problems. Michael O’Higgins said Britteon was working as a window-cleaner when he met Stephen Powell and that he agreed to sign up for what sounded to him like a Caribbean holiday.

The 51-year-old window cleaner, of Morgan Drive, Greenhithe, denied attempting to murder Dionne Norris, claiming he loved her and did not want to kill her. David Norris stabbed his wife at least nine times.

Greenhithe window cleaner David Norris stabbed wife Dionne at least nine times: A husband who tried to kill his estranged wife when he stabbed her at least nine times in a graveyard has been jailed for 20 years. David Norris wept as a judge told him: “I am satisfied this was a murderous assault.”

The 51-year-old window cleaner, of Morgan Drive, Greenhithe, denied attempting to murder Dionne Norris, claiming he loved her and did not want to kill her. But a jury of eight men and four women convicted him today by an 11-1 majority verdict. He had admitted wounding with intent. He will serve half the sentence before being released on licence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Norris told his wife as he repeatedly plunged the knife into her: “I’m sorry, Dionne, if I can’t have you no one can.” He only stopped the attack when she “played dead” and a farmer disturbed him after hearing her screams.

The couple had been together for 30 years and married for 27 years. They had two children.

Mrs Norris, 45, said the relationship was good at first but it deteriorated as the years went by. “He treated me like dirt,” she said. An Arsenal supporter, she said she left him on August 28 last year, taking with her just her club shirt. She went to stay with Michael Bedford, who she met on Facebook and later started a relationship with.

On October 11 she and Norris agreed to visit her mother’s grave at Blue Bell Hill crematorium and then his grandmother’s grave at St Nicholas Church in Southfleet. Norris asked her if they could save their marriage, but she told him it was over. When they reached the churchyard in Southfleet he went to the boot of the car and she walked to the grave with flowers. “I noticed he was looking around,” said Mrs Norris. “I bent down to put flowers on the grave. He just lunged at me, He said: ‘I’m sorry, Dionne, if I can’t have you no one can.’

“He put his hands tight around my throat. I screamed. He put his hands over my mouth. I was on the ground by the grave. He was sitting on my legs. “I was trying to fight him off. I saw him taking a knife out of his pocket. I said: ‘Dave, think of the boys.’ He said: ‘---- the boys.’ “He stabbed me. I don’t know how many times. I was on my side. I couldn’t get him off. I was aware of a gentleman. David looked around and told him to ---- off.

“I thought he was going to kill me because of the evil in his eyes. I had to play dead. I said to him: ‘I can see my mum. Let me go and be with my mum.’ “I wanted to let him think he had killed me. He stroked my forehead and said: ‘Now go to sleep with your mum.’ I closed my eyes and held my breath. “I could see him slowly walking away. I opened my eyes and started screaming. The man came. He called the police and an ambulance came.” Mrs Norris was taken to a London hospital and treated for multiple stab wounds.

Jailed: Window Cleaner, Lee Brown turned violent after returning home from a night out.

Angry window cleaner breaks nearly every bone in man's face after discovering drunk babysitters with daughter: A furious father broke nearly every bone in a man's face when he discovered the people babysitting his 11-month-old daughter were drunk. Lee Brown turned violent after returning home from a night out to find a party going on at the home where his baby was being looked after.

The 23-year-old flipped and dragged Darren McKay out of the flat before punching him in the head in a brutal attack, reports the Newcastle Chronicle. When Brown finally backed-off, Mr McKay was taken to Wansbeck Hospital suffering from a broken forehead, nose, jaw and eye socket, as well as bruising, swelling and a deep cut to the face.

Now, Brown, of Katherine Street, Ashington, has been jailed for 17 months after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm at Newcastle Crown Court.

Sentencing him, Judge Penny Moreland said: “You went to the house where your daughter was being looked after and, because you were unhappy with how she was being looked after, you assaulted Darren McKay.” Judge Moreland added: “What you did has had a substantial impact on the way he lived his life.”

The court heard the attack happened when Brown and his partner Natasha Snow returned after a night out on September 12 last year after hearing the people in charge of looking after their daughter for the night were having a party. Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said Brown dragged Mr McKay by the shirt down some stairs and out of the house. He was found later by fellow revellers slumped on the ground before an ambulance was called. Mr Pallister said: “He had gross swelling and bruising to his face, especially around the eyes. "He had a full thickness laceration to his eye brow and bruising to the elbow.”

Mr Pallister added: “There was a fracture to the forehead, the eye socket, the upper jaw and a possible nasal bone fracture.” Mr McKay was in Wansbeck Hospital for 48 hours, where his cuts were stitched but his fractures were not deemed to need further treatment. Mr Pallister said a foot imprint was also found on Mr McKay’s face, but Brown denied that was him.

Richard Bloomfield, mitigating, said some of the injuries were caused by someone else. He said: “He [Brown] made arrangements for the child to be baby sat so he could, if he wished, have a drink. “He then saw what he perceived to be a party going on around the child. There was loud music and alcohol being consumed. “He accepts he lost his temper and set about Mr McKay.” Brown, who has started his own window cleaning business, also pleaded guilty to one count of common assault for punching another reveller at the party.

Tas Pappas - Window Cleaner - Star Skateboarder

Tas Pappas, recalling his rollercoaster lifestyle. Now a high rise window cleaner in Melbourne, Australia.

After the fall: Tas Pappas soared to the top of the pro skateboarding world, then crashed back to earth with multiple thuds. Now he's got his wheels back. Garry Maddox meets him.

In the yard on a freezing winter morning, a fit figure in prison greens walks with a limp towards the high wall. Reaching it, he spins around and grabs at his feet. Then he walks back the other way, turns, heads back towards the wall and spins twice. Suddenly, Tas Pappas realises every eye in the yard is watching him. For many of the inmates at Sydney's Long Bay jail, he is clearly just another a fruit loop in the yard. A nutjob. Which is fine. If they think he's mad, they'll leave him alone. So Pappas continues: walking, spinning, grabbing, walking, turning.

It is 2009, less than a decade since he and his younger brother, Ben, were professional skateboarders leading rock-star lives in the US, Europe and Asia, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the world on the vertical ramp. Two young Greek-Australians from Melbourne's tough St Albans who were triumphing on the circuit.

In 1990 young brothers Tas and Ben Pappas went to the US for the first time to pursue their professional skateboarding career.

But then just about everything possible went wrong, with one exception. Unlike his brother, his brother's girlfriend and his father, Pappas is still alive. Haunted, grieving and serving three years in jail for a disastrous attempt to smuggle cocaine from South America - but somehow alive. And to stay sane while he serves his time, Pappas is visualising his tricks as he paces the yard, imagining the wall is a skateboard ramp. He paces and spins, paces and spins - 180, heel flip 900, 1080 ...

Five years later, at the Prahran skate park in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs - now heavily graffitied and waterlogged on a rainy afternoon - Tasou Micah Pappas recalls the moment he fell in love with skateboarding. In the late 1980s, he was 12 when he watched in awe as American pros showed off their tricks at the ramp.

''It was just crazy,'' he says. ''I saw Christian Hosoi about 10 feet above the ramp right about there then flying into massive airs over here. I remember thinking these guys are floating. It was like, 'This is what I want to do.' That was it from that point. I'd be daydreaming at school, I'd fall asleep in class. I'd say, 'I don't care, I'm going skating on the weekend.' '' Pappas's then nine-year-old brother, Ben, quickly became just as obsessed. The two were regulars at the ramp, ambitious skate rats who drove themselves harder than anyone to learn tricks.

At 38, Pappas today resembles a cut-down Adam Gilchrist, shortish and fit. His tattoos, including "Pappas" across his abdomen, a dragon on his forearm and an angel of death inside a bicep, are hidden behind baggy casual pants and a sweatshirt in muted colours. But that's all that's hidden these days. Having opened up for a new documentary on his life, All This Mayhem (screening at the Sydney Film Festival on June 5, then in limited cinema release from July 10), there are no secrets any more.

Tas Pappas today works high rise window cleaning in Melbourne.

The brothers were the only children of a Greek-Australian father, Bill, who worked for a finance company, and an "Aussie" mother, Kerry, who was in catering. They married young and fought regularly until they separated. Eddie Martin, a fellow skater, met the Pappas boys at the Prahran ramp in the early 1990s, where they were known as up-and-comers with a wild streak. ''I was friendly with them but they didn't always connect with everyone because they were quite in-your-face characters,'' he says. ''They were quite small and young, but they were very loud and competitive and a bit rough around the edges.

"They rocked up to the ramp and it was obvious they wanted to learn. They pushed themselves really hard. They'd go all day from the minute they arrived right until their dad came and picked them up, or if they caught the train home, it was, 'One last ride, one last ride.' They were hell-bent on reaching a certain level.''

Martin remembers the brothers as inseparable and intense. ''They would have outrageous brotherly fights but were thick as thieves. If anyone picked on the other one, they'd team up. They really had an intense bond.'' Another skateboarder at the time, photographer and videographer Greg Stewart, remembers Tas as ''strong-willed and full throttle'', whereas Ben was ''more mellow and free-flowing''.

Brought up largely by their father, the brothers fell under the influence of rougher, older skaters at the park. Their home life was chaotic, too. ''The family was very dysfunctional,'' says Pappas. ''We were hurting as kids from a lot of the fights we saw. I was abused as a child - some bloke who was friends with an aunty molested me - so I always felt like I just wanted to get out of where I lived. I wanted to prove myself.

"I ended up having what felt like a chip on my shoulder because of it all. I just wanted to get to America and become something.'' At 14, after watching videos of the world's best skaters, Pappas decided he wanted to be No. 1 in the world, which meant beating the seemingly invincible American champion Tony Hawk.

He went to the US to skate for the first time at 15, then again at 16. After dropping out of Kings Park High School and working for a skate company to save money, Pappas moved full-time to the US at 17, living with other skaters in Tampa, Florida, while training. His brother followed after finishing year 10. ''It was like Disneyland,'' Pappas says. ''You're getting to live this dream. You're young and you're just caught up in it all, not realising that it's a business - that being a pro skater is your job.''

Pappas had used drugs in Australia: acid, weed, ecstasy, cocaine, speed. But on the competition circuit, heavy partying became a regular part of life. ''There were always two camps in skateboarding - your write-offs and your goodie-two-shoe types who were just dead-straight full athlete, training, eating right,'' Pappas recalls. ''Me and Ben were both. I'd eat right, I'd train, but as soon as the comp was over, I'd do fistfuls of drugs.

"The nights we'd party, I'd take extra vitamins and protein shakes to counter what the drugs were doing to my body. So I thought I had it under control.'' Girls were part of the social life, too. ''There's always girls anywhere there's a bit of limelight,'' says Pappas. ''It's no different to any other partying person: just whatever, whenever, however.''

The brothers became successful quickly, with Tas placing third in his first pro competition in Vancouver just after turning 18. But as their fame grew, so did the arrogance, which led to conflict with other skaters, sponsors and competition organisers. ''A lot of St Albans was still in me,'' Pappas admits. ''I was a bit of a bogan over there and the 'piss off' Aussie attitude came out.''

The high point of Tas Pappas's skating career comes on a sunny autumn day at Universal Studios, Los Angeles, in 1996. A huge crowd is watching the climactic competition of the year: the Hard Rock Cafe World Championships of Skateboarding finals. Tas, 21, and Ben, 18, are vying for the world's No. 1 ranking. Their main competition is Tony Hawk, the tall, smooth American champ who seems like an old man to them at 28.

With an injured back, Ben quickly falls out of contention. Hawk skates brilliantly, then Tas fires off a spectacular run that ends with a slide, breaking a rib. To the brothers' astonishment, he is given the same score as Hawk for what they believe is a superior run. ''He was just doing all his old moves from years before and we were going bigger and doing modern tricks,'' Pappas says. ''He was sticking around the three- to four-foot mark, occasional six-foot air. We were chucking 10-footers in, flipping the board.''

It's tense. A run-off is required. Skating with a busted rib, Pappas nails another run and wins. He gets a cheque for $10,000 and becomes world No. 1, with Ben No. 2. Pappas celebrates with a bender. ''I just chopped straight into the drugs,'' he says now, looking back. ''That night was the first time I did ice. It just looked like glass - the first bit of super meth.''

Pappas continued on the pro skating circuit, but the brothers started to be sidelined by their attitude. They fell out with their skate team, which left them without sponsors. There were injuries, more drugs and, despite further success, a gradual disillusionment with the routines of being a pro skater and the politics of the scene.

Spot the Wagtail flipper in the bucket.

On a trip back to Melbourne from the US in 1999, Ben was arrested for attempting to smuggle 103 grams of cocaine, worth more than $50,000, in the sole of a skate shoe. His pro career effectively ended when he was given a 12-month suspended jail term and his passport was cancelled for three years, which meant he could not return to the US. ''He lost the motivation to skate,'' says Greg Stewart. ''It crushed him.''

Meanwhile, Tas had his own problems. He was training hard to become the first skater to pull off a spectacular trick called a 900 - a 2 1/2-revolution aerial spin - but his outsider status meant he was blocked from competing at the X Games, which focuses on extreme sports. Instead, Hawk cemented his place in skateboard history by landing a 900 in the same competition in 1999.

There followed a series of increasingly dark turns, starting with a serious skating injury. ''After I crushed my vertebra, my legs went really skinny and I couldn't skate,'' Pappas says. ''So I called up a mate and got on steroids. I started pumping the 'roids for a year straight and trained my arse off. By the end of the year, I was huge. I did well that year. But I'd already suffered from speed psychosis. The 'roids just exacerbated all my drug stuff and the extra testosterone makes you all confident and cocky, so I was doing drugs on top of it.''

By 2005, he was married to Colleen, an American he met through skating, and living in San Diego with their two children, when money became a worry. Fighting with Colleen left him depressed, so doctors prescribed Klonopin, which Pappas recklessly mixed with cocaine and alcohol. "I was paranoid that she was on with someone,'' he says. ''I don't agree with what I did, but I ended up hitting her and losing the plot and went to jail.'' Pappas spent two months in San Diego prison for assault, snorting his ''mental meds'' to get high, then upon his release went on a two-week bender, shooting up ice and heroin and smoking crack. His father found him near death, gurgling on his own vomit.

Pappas then crashed his car, violating his parole. The American authorities decided to deport him, meaning he would lose contact with his kids. While in a detention centre, his father called with shattering news: Ben was dead. ''I just wanted to die, too,'' Pappas says. ''It was the saddest thing I've ever heard. I was pissing tears down my face in front of a whole jail pod full of psychos.''

Back in Melbourne, Ben and his girlfriend, Lynette Phillips, had been using heroin. In March 2007, Phillips' battered body was found wrapped in a quilt cover and weighted down at Dights Falls in Abbotsford, just east of the CBD. Then, eight days later, Ben's body was found in the Yarra River near Victoria Harbour, in the city's Docklands district.

The state coroner later found that Ben, who had both mental health and substance-abuse problems, had killed her then taken his own life. "The poor girl, she copped it," Pappas says. "He loved her. It was just one ugly situation." He was inconsolable when he was deported to Australia that same year. ''I couldn't stand to be sober,'' he says. ''As soon as I was sober I was crying, so I'd just drop a bottle of vodka or gin to take the edge off.'' Pappas was totally broken when his father died of a heart attack a year later at 54. He believes he stressed his dad into an early grave. ''I gave up,'' he says. "I was in the hospital a few times on heroin overdoses. I was deliberately doing too much, hoping to die. I didn't give a shit.''

In 2008, in a desperate, drug-addled haze, Pappas came up with a crazy way to pay a speed debt and get some money to Colleen in the hope she would let him talk to his kids on Skype. He caught a plane to Argentina with his last $5000, asked a taxi driver where he could buy cocaine, found a dealer who sold him a kilogram, ground it up with a cheese grater in his hotel room, then tried to smuggle it back to Australia inside three skateboards. ''I was off my face,'' he says. ''I had all these thoughts - I can pay him off, maybe I can get my kids back with the money - but it was all just scattered because I was shooting speed like crazy and eating zannies [Xanax] like lollies. I was just a blithering mess.''

Tas today, with partner Helen & Billy.

On the approach to Sydney Airport, Pappas suddenly came to his senses and realised he was going to be caught. When he left the plane, he took a handful of Xanax, bought a bottle of gin at the duty free shop and drank it all. As he approached Customs with the skateboards in his bags, the cocaine alarm went off from the residue on his clothes. Five Customs officers wrestled him to the ground.

Hard stints in Kempsey, Long Bay, Silverwater, Goulburn and Lithgow jails followed before Pappas reached the minimum security Mannus Correctional Centre, near Tumbarumba in NSW, at the end of his three-year sentence. Visited by former skating friend Eddie Martin, who'd made films on graffiti artist Justin Hughes (in 2005) and boxer Lionel Rose (in 2008), Pappas agreed to be the subject of a documentary.

And even though his last use of a skateboard was to import cocaine, he was allowed to have one in his cell, provided he welded the bearings so it could not roll. Pappas started training again, skipping for two minutes, then practising tricks ... ollies, switch ollies, kick flips, switch flips.

While in jail, new partner Helen Norman - they had met through her skateboarding son Ben after Pappas had arrived back in Melbourne in 2007 - travelled to prisons all around NSW to see him with their infant son, Billy. On weekend release, they headed to local skate parks to see what he could do - and teach Billy to skate - to find his skills were all still there after two-and-a-half years off the board. ''All that spinning in the yard paid off,'' he says.

Sitting on the couch at home in Melbourne's Clifton Hill, with Helen quietly by his side, Pappas says reading the Bible in jail made him look at himself honestly for the first time. He still reads it now and goes to church on Sundays. Working as an abseiling window cleaner, Pappas believes he is skating even better than when he was world champion. Last month, he became just the 12th skater - and first Australian - to land a 900 at a new mega ramp on Phillip Island. Billy, now five, is a talented skateboarder, too. ''He reminds me of my brother,'' says Pappas. ''Same personality, same everything. I feel like it's Ben back.''

Helen says it was love at first sight with Tas - ''I saw him and thought, 'I've just got to have him' ,'' she says softly - and was confident that he would pull through, even during their early days together when psychosis had him seeing visions and hearing voices. ''I always believed in him,'' she says. ''I knew there'd be somewhere down the road that he'd get on the right track.'' Pappas has discovered he has long had borderline personality disorder, likely triggered by the sexual abuse as a child, which can lead to self-destructive behaviour.

Eddie Martin calls the brothers' story a Greek tragedy. ''He's come ahead in leaps and bounds in terms of his mental health and attitude," says Martin. "And landing the 900 is such a huge monkey off his back. He's genuinely seeming to turn his life around. I find that inspiring.'' It could all have been so different for the brothers. ''If they just played their cards right, they'd be squillionaires living in America,'' Martin says. ''All the guys that they were way better than have earned huge money and are living wonderful lives.''

Pappas hopes All This Mayhem will make everyone who has written him off realise how much drugs changed both Ben and him. ''I don't want people to think my brother was a monster,'' he says. ''It was the drugs. If he was a monster, he would have just pleaded insanity, gone to jail, got out and got on with his life. He didn't. He killed himself.''

With his ex-wife blocking all attempts to contact their two children - Kaia, 12, and Aydin, 10 - for seven years now, Pappas hopes they will see the documentary and come looking for him one day. ''Everything had to happen for me to learn,'' he says. ''Dad had to die, Ben had to die, I had to lose my kids. I had to be humbled. "I was too angry and I had to be crippled and put on my knees to finally realise I'm not in charge.''

Working as an abseiling window cleaner, Pappas believes he is skating even better than when he was world champion.

Window Cleaning News

Washing windows on skyscrapers is not for the faint of heart: Highrise window cleaners are a peculiar bunch. They strike that unique balance between summertime ubiquity and occasionally scaring you half to death as you’re dancing in your birthday suit in front of your window. Steve Warner is a gregarious 25-year veteran of the biz and the owner of Sky Pro, a full-service building maintenance company. He is also the man who will suspend me like a marionette while I pray to maintain control of my bowels. “Listen, I’m just happy I didn’t go with a company named SkyFall,” I explain.

Highrise window cleaners are a peculiar bunch. They strike that unique balance between summertime ubiquity and occasionally scaring you half to death as you’re dancing in your birthday suit in front of your window. Steve Warner is a gregarious 25-year veteran of the biz and the owner of Sky Pro, a full-service building maintenance company. He is also the man who will suspend me like a marionette while I pray to maintain control of my bowels. “Listen, I’m just happy I didn’t go with a company named SkyFall,” I explain.

Warner employs a staff of men and women - and possibly hybrid squeegee-kids - who seek physical exertion and peacefulness in a career. His former employee roster even includes the fellows in Darkest Days, who toured with Nickleback. (Isn’t everyone’s darkest days listening to Nickleback?) Washing one unit’s windows can take minutes - a bonus for residents but a nightmare for exhibitionists who might have a propensity to repeat “you missed a spot.” Warner shares industry yarns involving nudity, and one story about a window cleaner who once hopped onto a balcony to steal a marijuana plant before descending down the building. Good luck reporting that one to the cops.

I will learn to master a highrise descent and inspect the brick, but not before watching a video on “fall arrest” training, a method for preventing hazards and accidents on the work site. I’m confused by the name, mainly because if I do plummet, I would imagine the police officer would have a tough time cuffing all 10 pieces of my body together. So on a foggy Tuesday, I harness up, secure my “rope grab” to a safety line, and saunter towards the edge of the building. “Any last wishes?” says Steve’s co-worker Len jokingly. “Huggies pull-ups!” I plead.

The first 60 seconds proves to be the most unnerving, as I sit back into the chair and push off the wall. My left hand operates the "life line” while my right grasps a line that controls my descent. When my arm is strained, I tie-off to a hook and dangle. The fog matches my pallor. Len travels down beside me, swinging without a care in the world. I pause and hook off at least four times while Steve photographs my panic. Looking for distraction, I scan empty bedrooms but can’t see anything remotely scandalous. My feet finally hit the pavement and the second drop, my testicles, also completed the fall. Steve was never worried all along. With a $5 million economical policy, we had enough liability coverage for me and half of Jennifer Lopez’s ass. Today’s lesson learned is people who live in glass houses… should put some pants on.

Morgantown - Mike King, who just celebrated his 51st birthday, has fond memories of playing in the early 1980s on the West Virginia men's basketball teams. He was a 6-foot-5, 215-pound forward from Fairchance, Pa., where he starred in high school. King revealed that since graduating from WVU, he was diagnosed with cancer and spent several months in a cancer center in Houston being treated. He has since been declared cancer-free. While he has worked at various jobs, King and his three sons are putting together a family business. It is a professional window-washing company in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. "We are really excited about doing this," he said. "We will be accepting appointments from small businesses as well as residents. We'll travel together with a working crew." His sons are Jeremy, 26; Justin, 24; and Julian, 22. One of them just graduated from Indiana, Pa. The other two are still college students.

Men in kilts take window cleaning to new level: Seattle, Wash. In a city renowned for its eye-catching views, here's a 'sight' compelling some to do a doubletake. Cody Guthrie loves second looks and his reputation as a window washer is spotless.  The name of the company is "Men in Kilts."  There slogan is "No Peeking."  They do window cleaning, gutter cleaning roof cleaning, pressure washing and siding cleaning and they do it all while climbing around buildings in a kilt. Usually the feedback is positive.

Clever business names, and John likes the gardening service in Torquay called I.C. Weeds. A different John likes the pet shop in Carrum Downs called Pooches `N' Cream and the pet grooming mob is Seaford called Woofer Wares. And Mo likes the window cleaners out Cranbourne way called Invisible Windows.

Home Based Business: Window Cleaner - A window cleaner has to do one thing well: clean a window until it’s crystal clear. The two things you need to remember to be always an ideal window cleaner are clear from left to right …  Everyone hates cleaning windows, but everybody also knows it requires to be performed. Did you understand that it’s incredibly inexpensive to buy the supplies you have to become a professional window cleaner? And with only a few tricks of the business, you can get started on this new income opportunity.

A window cleaner has to do one thing well: clean a window until it’s superior. The two things you need certainly to make sure to be an excellent screen cleaner are clean from left to right starting at the top on the inside, and from top to bottom starting at the left on the outside (if you are a leftie, change the handedness). This allows you to clean the dirtier parts following the parts are done. And because you begin by crossing over the body, you’ve an easier time determining whether you’re getting all of the dirt off. Furthermore, if your window cleaner clears horizontally on the outside and vertically on the inside, it’s super easy to inform by the orientation of a streak which part of the window it is on.

Toxic substances are a risk for a window cleaner. Many studies declare that lung cancer in housewives can be as much as 3 times what it ought to be for their usage of toxic cleaning products. In order to avoid damaging your wellbeing as a cleaner, consider using primarily all-natural resources in place of solvents and chemicals. Vinegar-based window solution works pretty well, particularly if you polish the window afterward. A window cleaner, like every other professional, should start fairly small. Don’t take on jobs for multiple-story buildings until the insurance can be afforded by you to cover any accidents concerning the rigging. You might also desire to apprentice with a cleaner who uses that kind of rigging when you purchase it. You can make far more money as a window cleaner who numerous experiences, but before you start incorporating it into your business plan you should do it correctly.

Free health check can work wonders: A window cleaner from Didcot is encouraging people to take up the offer of a free health check with the NHS. The 30-minute checks have been organised by Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group to help prevent heart disease, strokes, diabetes and kidney disease. Invitations are being sent to patients from their GP practice if they are aged between 40 and 74 and do not have a pre-existing heart-related condition. Paul Barham, 50, from Didcot, was glad he took up the offer. Mr Barham – pictured with practice nurse Irene Clark at Didcot Health Centre – said: “I got an invitation for the health check but I didn’t take it up at first. But then my dad Alfred died two months later after a history of heart problems, so I decided to get a check up six months ago. “My blood pressure was really high and I was invited back a week later so they could monitor my heart. “Going when I did was a good thing – I have now been watching my diet and exercising more and it has changed my life for the better.”

Inside Oscars 2013 goodie bags: Condoms, maple syrup and window cleaner - The contents of this year’s ‘Everyone Wins at the Oscars Nominee Gift Bag’ have been revealed, and while they’re worth an estimated $45,000 (£30,000), some of the presents are surprisingly low-end. Because celebrities really don’t get enough free swag and are particularly hard-up during the award season, PR company Distinctive Assets puts together an opulent selection of gifts for Oscar nominees each year as a thank you for their making the long and arduous trek down the red carpet. Gifts range from the outrageously generous (a trip to Australia) to the appropriately Hollywood (a $5,000 face-lift gift certificate), but curiously also include the sort of thing you might pick up at a 24-hour Tesco. A bottle of Windex window cleaner (RRP $3.99) caps off this year’s gift bag, while a six-pack of condoms are thrown in for good measure, ensuring the stars stay protected while spring-cleaning their apartments.

Choose the right window cleaner: Some window cleaners perform better than others. The Good Housekeeping Research Institute recently tested 17 cleaners and reported that the JAWS Glass & Hard Surface Cleaner (Jawscleans.com) was the only one to leave the surface completely streak-free. “In fact, unlike other higher-priced window cleaners, you can use this non-toxic, non-ammonia cleaner in direct sunlight and still avoid streaks,” said JAWS International CEO Bruce Yacko.

While not many homeowners are willing to make major improvements to their home prior to listing it for sale, there are a few small things that can make a big difference. Another small ticket improvement would be washing your windows. Cleaning your home is a no-brainer but many sellers forget that buyers cherish natural light and one of the first things they'll be looking at are your windows. Make sure that each and every window leaves a sparkling impression.

Schools scandal: We expose the £37m budget cuts - Greg Dempster, general secretary of the Headteachers’ Association of Scotland, said: “Teachers tell me that the money they actually have to spend has been reducing year on year for a long period. “The Education Secretary should already know this is an issue. “We would like to see a situation where schools are properly funded and where fundraising for essential supplies is not necessary.” One head teacher at an Ayrshire school who was willing to speak on condition they remained anonymous, said: “We will do all sorts of things to try to free up a little bit of cash to get it back into the classroom, for example turning the heating down or not bothering with window washing for a year. “The situation is becoming a crisis, there is no doubt about that.”

Is the Micro-merchant a new Threat? (Safeguarding from micro-merchants’ fraud) - Making a payment to a plumber, window-cleaner or nanny – otherwise known as “micro-merchants” – couldn’t be easier or more convenient, thanks to innovative companies such as Square, Spindle and iZettle which have pioneered the dongle-based payment for mobile Retail Payments. Their card readers attach to smartphones and enable on the spot payments when traditional card terminals are not available. In Finextra alone, the news about such latest deployments across the US, Europe and so on, come in daily.

Unfortunately, with any payment method come new fraud vectors. Cards in the wrong hands pose a real danger, so there are processes in place to mitigate the risk. What processes have we got in place for micro-merchants? Will existing merchant authentication offerings work with the mobile world? The biggest problem I foresee is weak enrolment and activation. For micro-merchants, enrolment and activation are two critical elements in detecting repeat fraudsters. What if the micro merchant is not even that, but just a collector of stolen cards. No need to process through a merchant any more, he/she is the merchant! Take the money and run is now swipe the cards and disappear.

Fraud prevention has become a matter of survivability for many merchants. However, with the emergence of the micro-merchant, where a smart-phone and card-reader dongle are all that’s required to set up shop and process card payments, protection from merchant fraud, driven by the relative ease of being able to process cards, is becoming an imperative in the protection of acquirers. While prevention of breaches is important, the industry is concerned about the friction factor, so it is imperative that institutions employ a layered approach of strong authentication combining visible and invisible security checks, to protect against rogue merchants in the growing area of micro-merchants. This ensures that a complex security model can be implemented, with low/no friction resulting in high ease-of-use for the genuine merchant, and engendering confidence and trust.

Hiring pros for spring cleaning tasks? What to look for and what it should cost: Cleaning your home’s windows can have a dramatic impact on both the interior and exterior of the house, but it is a major project. If your home is large, you have a lot of windows and little time, hiring a professional may be the best way to get your windows cleaned. Look for companies with an established reputation. A typical window cleaning should include the inside and outside of all windows in the home, removal and cleaning of screens, and cleaning of all sills and tracks (which means they must open every window to fully clean it). Most companies charge per pane and your total cost will vary based on many factors, including the number of windows in your home, how many are on upper floors and even your region of the country. Typically, however, you should expect to pay between $2 to $7 per pane, according to CostHelper.

Claremont - Three candidates answered citizen questions Saturday to convince a crowd of about 25 that they deserved one of two available seats on the City Council. Incumbents Corey Calaycay and Larry Schroeder mostly defended and explained what they've done on the council, while professional window cleaner Michael Keenan said the city needed to focus on environmental issues. All three emphasized that they wanted citizen-driven policies, though. Keenan said movement toward more sustainable policies such as pushing solar energy were necessary to prevent harmful climate change and that those policies would also help the city. "Solar makes money," Keenan said. "We should've been doing solar two years ago when I recommended it." Keenan has made three previous attempts to run for the council. Schroeder was first elected four years ago. Calaycay was elected in 2005. The forum was hosted by Active Claremont and the League of Women Voters of the Claremont area at the Alexander Hughes Community Center. The election for the two council seats is March 5.

North Beach restaurant owner concerned about impacts of Central Subway work: In a city known for its top-notch cuisine, outdoor restaurant seating can be precious real estate. Piazza Pellegrini on Columbus Avenue has the rare luxury of a spacious outdoor patio — a perk that is all the more coveted in the ultra-dense North Beach neighborhood — but owner Dario Hadjian isn’t exactly counting his blessings right now. That’s because for the next two years, Piazza Pellegrini will abut a major public transit project on Columbus Avenue, an endeavor Hadjian fears will drive away the lunchtime customers who flock to his restaurant.

“There’s going to be dust, there’s going to be loud noises, there’s going to be construction equipment parked outside my restaurant,” said Hadjian, who has 60 outdoor seats at the site. “This will drive my restaurant out of business.” Hadjian said he estimates that losing the lunch crowd — construction is scheduled for mostly daytime hours — will cost his business $500,000 a year. He said The City should offer him compensation. “The profit margins of a restaurant are very small,” Hadjian said. “If I lost just 5 to 10 percent of my business, I could lose the restaurant.”

Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, whose district includes North Beach, said he also plans to find ways to help Hadjian. “We completely understand Dario’s concerns, but we believe that we can work with Muni to minimize disruptions to his business,” True said. Muni spokesman Paul Rose echoed that sentiment, saying the transit agency will help connect Piazza Pellegrini with city services that could help soften construction impacts — such as “marketing services and window and sidewalk cleaning.” “While we understand their concerns ... San Francisco does not pay businesses for construction work adjacent to the site,” Rose said.

Coming clean about housework - Some feminists take a strong line about housework, creating the Wages for Housework movement and arguing that men shouldn't be let off chores, and there are those who think hiring another woman to do your cleaning is a betrayal. Some of us, though, don't see why it's OK to outsource the jobs that can be done by men: cars go to the garage, plumbers arrive, window cleaners put up ladders to the upstairs windows with no one saying we're oppressing the lad who climbs them. Yet we're supposed to be doing down another woman if we make her do the washing. (Actually my mother-in-law used to clean her own windows – or the insides of them; she said God did the outside, although He wasn't very reliable.) You aren't considered to be oppressing anyone if you take stuff to the cleaners.

Cumbrian man caught with £30,000 of cocaine in his trousers: Mark Skelton, 32, from Workington was arrested after a police officer stopped the Ford Mondeo car in which he was travelling on the A66 at Penrith on October 11 last year. In 2008 Skelton was jailed for just over three years for supplying drugs which caused the death of a soldier friend. Kingsman Terry Thompson, 20, of Workington, died from a drug-induced heart attack after taking the ecstasy while home on leave from Iraq to attend his grandmother’s funeral. Skelton was jailed again yesterday after a judge at Carlisle Crown Court was told a police officer asked Mondeo driver Martin McClure where they had been. He said they had been to an auction but when asked the same question Skelton said he was a self-employed cleaner out on an emergency call. The two different answers were enough to make the officer suspicious.

The pair were taken to Penrith police station, where they were searched. Nothing was found on Mr McClure, prosecutor Dick Binstead said, but a knotted plastic bag containing a white powder, later found to be cocaine, was discovered on Skelton. Skelton, of Yeowartville, Workington, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine, a class A drug, with intent to supply it. Mr Binstead told the court the 27 grams of the drug found on Skelton would have been worth more than £29,000 when sold at street level. But the cocaine was of such an unusually high purity a dealer would have been able to “dilute” it by cutting it down with an agent, making it go at least four times as far. Skelton, who ran his own window cleaning and contract cleaning business, was jailed for three years and two months and ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge.

The Worst Of The Window Cleaning News

Five months for bogus caller who took cash from pensioners: A bogus window cleaner who “preyed on” a vulnerable, elderly couple has been jailed for what a district judge described as a “despicable” offence. Luke Brewster, 27, of Leeds Road, Shipley, was yesterday found guilty of fraud by making a false representation after he turned up at the Thackley home of Eric and Alma Ross, asking for money. Prosecutor Mark Haigh said Brewster was “notorious” for posing as a window cleaner, with eight previous convictions dating back to 2010 for similar offences in the Idle and Shipley areas. Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court was told 87-year-old Mr Ross answered the door to a man on the evening of August 6 last year, who said he was there to collect window cleaning money.
Giving evidence Mr Ross said he had not recognised the man and thought he was up to date with his window cleaning payments. He gave the man £20, who then he said he would return with the change but the couple did not see him again. Mr Ross said: “To be honest, I went back and realised I’d been conned. The whole set-up made me realise I should have thought about it more than I did.” Mrs Ross identified Brewster as having been the man who came to the door after she was shown photographs by police. She told the court she had felt “fairly sure” Brewster was the culprit.
Finding him guilty of the offence and sentencing him to five months in prison District Judge Joanne Hirst said: “This is a despicable offence, you preyed on a vulnerable and elderly couple.” She said he had not learned his lesson by previous sentences and custody was inevitable. In his defence Brewster told the court he had not been involved in the crime. He said he had been threatened by a group of window cleaners and there had been rumours about him in the area. “This time I have not done it,” he said.
Speaking after the hearing Mrs Ross said: “You feel vulnerable. We both feel sorry for the guy. We think what’s brought him to that? “We are both Christians and we usually give people the benefit of the doubt. “We were brought up in a different era, when you could trust people. “People should be more careful these days, Don’t let anyone cross your threshold if you don’t know them, you can’t be too careful.”

Drinkers hit by 10p rise in price of pint: Sheffield landlords today branded a price hike of up to 10p on a pint of beer as another ‘blow’ for struggling pubs. Brewers have announced increases in the cost of popular beers, such as Carlsberg. Roger Davies, landlord of The Rosegarth freehouse pub in Aston, has put up prices by 10p. A pint of Guinness now costs £3 and Carling £2.80. He said: “It is another blow for pubs. People have been put off coming for a drink with a while now with the supermarkets being so cheap.” Carslberg UK blamed its 7p increase on rising costs of raw materials, energy and fuel. Window cleaner Martin Hill, 45, of Ecclesfield, said: “I don’t drink that much, probably ten pints a week, so it’s only going up by £1. It will put other people off, though.”

A window cleaner was arrested after checks found he was not inside his home when he was supposed to be. Joseph O’Donohue, 44, of Canberra Way, Warton, near Kirkham, admitted breaching bail. Blackpool magistrates agreed to rebail him. Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said O’Donohue had been bailed on the condition he kept an electronically tagged curfew inside his home between 8pm and 6am. On January 11 the electronic system monitoring the curfew registered that O’Donohue was not inside his home at 8.06pm. When arrested O’Donohue said he had only been half-an-hour later for his curfew.

London searches as part of £450,000 Lisburn drugs probe: Searches have taken place in London as part of a widening investigation into a £450,000 drugs find in County Antrim, the High Court has heard. Addresses in the north of the city were targeted on Wednesday.  Detectives are probing a suspected crime gang allegedly importing and supplying drugs in Northern Ireland. Details were disclosed as bail was refused to one of four people charged over a cocaine and cannabis seizure in Lisburn two days before Christmas.

Mark McAleese, 35, of Johnston Way in the city, faces charges of possessing and being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, and concealing criminal property. He is alleged to have been at the home of two co-accused when police uncovered the haul. A cocaine press and two suspected Taser stun-guns were also found at that property. Follow-up searches at Mr McAleese's home led to the discovery of more than 28,000 euros and £11,000 sterling, the court was told. Phone records were alleged to show contact with Pakistan, Holland and the Republic of Ireland.

Kate McKay, prosecuting, said receipts were found for purchases of expensive furniture and pointed out that Mr McAleese was an unemployed window cleaner. "Police believe this is an organised drugs crime gang responsible for the supply of significant amounts of cocaine and cannabis into Northern Ireland," she said. Mrs McKay described the ongoing investigation as "a spider's web" which has now spread beyond Northern Ireland.

A PSNI detective was said to have joined Metropolitan Police in carrying out a number of searches in north London on Wednesday which led to the arrest of two Chinese nationals and the seizure of £120,000 in cash. Mr McAleese claims, however, that the money found at his home came from business ventures linked to the sale of Ugg boots and Viagra tablets. His barrister said he had admitted making a lot of money through importing the pills over the last three years. It was also stressed that Mr McAleese was just visiting the house where the drugs and equipment were recovered. "He has maintained his innocence," the defence lawyer added. But Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan refused his application for bail due to the risk of disruption to continuing police inquiries.

Christmas Windows 2011

Lakeland-based artist Ray Cuzzone spends October, November and half of December painting Christmas scenes on Polk County business fronts. He described the seasonal gig as his livelihood.

Window Guy Gives Businesses Holiday-Themed Windows: Turns out, there is a person who decides when the timing is right for Christmas decorations, and he's a grizzled, ball cap-wearing painter. "I'm the window guy," said Ray Cuzzone. The 73-year-old Lakeland painter has spent the past 35 years painting bug-eyed reindeer, smiling Santas and bright red ribbons on Polk County storefronts. And with more than 40 clients to serve each year, he starts prying open his paint cans in late October. A nomadic artist, Cuzzone said the holiday season has become essential to his livelihood, one constant among his usual smattering of random commercial jobs. Over a six-week span, he brings in the bulk of his annual earnings, he said. His methods are straightforward. Using the bed of his pickup as a paint station, Cuzzone dips his brushes into all sorts of holiday reds and greens — then colors in simple sketches he pre-draws on the window glass.

The flourish of hands reveal his bouncy self-confidence. Only partially hidden in stubble, he sports an infectious grin. The smile only broadens at mention of the timing of his work. Pausing to light a cigarette, he mused for a moment. "People say to me all the time, ‘But it ain't even Halloween yet! It ain't Thanksgiving yet!' " he exclaimed. "You know when it's early enough? Oct. 1. Who cares?" Local restaurants certainly have no complaints. They make up his biggest customer base. Cuzzone spent part of last week at Fresco's Bakery and Bistro on Kentucky Avenue. He crossed the street the same week to complete two more stores. Two weeks before, he finished Harry's Bar and Grille. "This will be the first year he's painted the windows for us," said Fresco's owner, Tina Calhoon. "You'll never be sorry promoting Christmas too early in the restaurant industry, because it's all about gift certificates these days."

Of course, with more than 40 stores to complete, Cuzzone's timing is based largely on mathematics. He has to finish painting by mid-December, meaning he must start in late October. Once Dec. 10 rolls around, painting more windows doesn't justify the cost, he said. "There's a million, trillion artists in this country," Cuzzone said. "And they're probably better than me. But I make money doing this. You hear the term ‘starving artist?' That's not for me." There aren't many window artists in Polk County, which gives Cuzzone a big market. His work can be found across Lakeland and in the east part of the county. The storefronts take about five hours apiece to complete, which can be tiring, he said. For bigger projects, he'll sometimes enlist his son, Tony, to help. "Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, and how can you not recognize that if it's staring you in the face at a window?" he said.

Bloomingdale's 59th Street Unveils Holiday 2011 Windows

Christmas Window Displays Light Up Across Manhattan To Kick Off Holiday Season: Slowly but surely, the Christmas customs which make New York City a holiday destination are returning to ring in the 2011 season. Macy’s Herald Square will unveil their legendary Christmas Windows Thursday evening. Whoopi Goldberg is set to appear alongside the cast of Broadway’s Sister Act. Meanwhile, Bloomingdale’s debuted their 59th Street holiday windows Wednesday evening. The event included a performance by cast members from Broadway’s Priscilla Queen of the Dessert and the winner of America’s Got Talent, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.

Bloomie’s windows celebrate the store’s iconic shopping bags. The display features a selection of recreated, oversized vintage shopping bags on a blue backdrop. The festive decor also has a camera tucked away inside – it will snap a photo of window-gazers to display in the window, and will also  be sent to the Bloomingdale’s Facebook page. Lord & Taylor lit their Christmas windows Monday night with the help of Kathie Lee Gifford.

Earlier than ever: A Selfridges employee hands a decoration on a tree in London in August last year. This year the Xmas season started in July.

A shoe store in Kelowna has upset many in the town because of its Christmas display of a coke-snorting reindeer.

A cocaine-snorting reindeer display prompts uproar in Kelowna, B.C. - A window display in downtown Kelowna, B.C. has given whole new meaning to the phrase: White Christmas. The window display of a two-foot-tall golden reindeer apparently snorting cocaine was put up earlier this month for its shock value, said shoe store owner Steven Johns. And shock it did, he admits.  It also brought in a lot of business and that was his goal, said Johns, who said he has a masters degree in communication, specializing in marketing consultancy from Royal Roads University in Victoria, B.C.

But the cocaine, he assures the Star in a phone interview, wasn’t real. The white powder on a table and on the Christmas tree was nothing more than cleaning powder, he explained. “Shock value sells,” said the 31-year-old who owns the fashion shoe store. “Any publicity is good publicity. “It’s not about promoting drugs. It’s a shock value window that got people talking. We’re in an economic crisis in Canada. The big box stores are eating us alive. Small stores have to compete with the sharks in a very tough market.

“We’re a young people’s fashion shoe store. We cater to a young, hip clientele who love cutting-edge shoes and cutting-edge window displays.” And the display proved his point, he said. It not only increased sales, but also generated calls from as far away as Los Angeles and Chicago. One caller even offered him a job in Los Angeles doing marketing. And clientele from Calgary drove to Kelowna to see the window and take pictures, he said. But in Kelowna not everyone appreciated Johns’ windows or attempts at increasing sales. He said that for the first two days business was booming thanks to the display. Then a number of older citizens complained on the local television news about it.

See the winning Christmas card from last year here.