A NJ Man Seeks Root Canal from Woman Advertising in a WhatsApp Group Text, Ends Up Regretting his Decision

A New Jersey woman was caught in February 2026 after allegedly practicing dentistry without a license.

Female dentist with patient; credit: SoyBreno on Unsplash

Investigation into a Fraudulent NJ Dentistry Practice

People reported that Ana Amato was arrested on Feb. 19 after a "months-long" investigation into her dentistry that began after charging a man $1,000 for a root canal. The man found her services from an ad on WhatsApp.

The South River Police Department Chief Mark Tinitigan said the following in a press release:

"This is certainly not the type of case we see every day, but it affirms our officers approach every call - routine or not - with the same level of professionalism and commitment to public safety."

Sgt. Peter Roselli and Officer Peter Szukics from the South River Police Department took a report, which first appeared to be a routine call. They quickly learned it was not a normal dispute between two people. 

During that call, the police officers discovered revealing information that Amato may have been performing dental procedures without a proper license.

Detective Patrick Molina then spent months looking into the incident, and the police determined that Ana Amato of Old Bridge was practicing dentistry without a license.

A Man Found out Mid-Root Canal She Would Not Finish the Procedure

After seeing an ad in a WhatsApp group chat, a man agreed to pay the unlicensed Amato $1,000, with a $300 down payment for a root canal. He went to her office on Sept. 22, 2025. She proceeded to inject his gums with an anesthetic and then began drilling into his affected tooth. Then, mid-session, she "abruptly" stopped and told the man to come back later in the week so she could finish the procedure.

Before he came back to her office for the remainder of the procedure, Amato allegedly told the man that she "wouldn't be able to do it and gave him a list of local dentists." At this point, the two "got into an altercation," because she would not return his down payment. 

He then took his complaint about the unlicensed Amato to the local police station.

The South River Police Department executed a search warrant at Ana Amato's office on Feb. 19, 2026, where she was arrested and items were seized for the investigation.

Amato was charged with second-degree aggravated assault, third-degree unlawful practice of dentistry, and third-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity.

Details of the Investigation can be read in the Facebook post below:

credit: South River Police Department

Sources:

Goldman, Jeff. "Fake dentist advertised on WhatsApp, tried to perform a root canal, court docs say." NJ.com. 2 March 2026.

Phillipp, Charlotte. "Woman Accused of Impersonating a Dentist After Starting a Root Canal on Patient." People.com. 8 March 2026.

South River Police Department on Facebook.

California Man Arrested After Leaving 'Human Skin' Teddy Bear Outside a Convenience Store in Prank Gone Wrong

A California man was arrested after a prank that went very wrong. He claimed to have left a "human skin teddy bear" outside of a convenience store on Sunday, July 13, 2025. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene to investigate the teddy bear.

California man arrested after claiming to leave a human skin teddy bear outside a convenience store

'Human Skin Teddy Bear' was a 'Macabre Prank' Outside Convenience Store

ABC7 News reported that a California man left a "human skin teddy bear" outside of an AMPM convenience store on Bear Valley Road in Victorville on Sunday, July 13, 2025. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was called to the scene to investigate the strange teddy bear that was left on the ground outside the convenience store.

A zoomed-in image of the bear can be seen below.

Human skin teddy bear outside Victorville convenience store

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department: 'No Human Remains' Found on Teddy Bear

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department determined that there was not actually any "human remains" or "human skin" on the teddy bear. The claim was utterly false, and the police arrested 23-year-old Hector Corona Villanueva, and booked him for a report of an emergency while knowing that it was intentionally false and for planting evidence under the pretense that it was real. 

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department issued a statement about this incident, stating:

"Incidents such as this take up valuable emergency resources and put the public at risk, possibly delaying response time to legitimate calls for service. We would like to thank those that reported information that was helpful during the investigation of this case."

What was the 'Human Skin' Teddy Bear covered with?

The teddy bear was not made out of human skin. It was made out of latex.

ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke to Robert Kelly of Dark Seed Creations, an artist from South Carolina, who said that he made the teddy bear, and it was not made out of human skin, but out of latex. He confirmed that he did ship one of the bears he made out of latex to Victorville. He assumed it was just a routine order; however, he started to receive many calls when fans of his work started calling him on Sunday after recognizing one of his bears.

Kelly said:

"I guess I'd probably be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it a little bit. You know, I'm an independent artist, so you know, I know what starving artist life feels like. So, a little attention is sometimes good regardless of not being able to condone whatever. I mean, I don't know if the guy broke any laws or it was just a prank, but it looks like he definitely got some people riled up." -Robert Kelly, Dark Seed Creations artist

His human skin teddy bear normally retails for $165 on his Etsy website. 

As of the date of publication, the human skin teddy bear was sold out.

Another True Story about a Teddy Bear Containing Ashes

An Alabama woman was driving around and saw a teddy bear on a garbage pile. She stops and grabs it to bring it home to her dog as a chew toy. When she and her daughter get home, they discover the teddy bear has ashes inside of it along with a secret note.

Read the full story here.

Philadelphia Police Department used 'Fantasyland' Coordinates for Years until Discovered; Now they use 'Atlantic Ocean'

For over 10 years, the Philadelphia Police Department logged the coordinates for crimes "without an exact location" to Disney World. It continued unchecked for years until a news investigation questioned the practice. They decided it would be a better practice to log these crimes into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, as is the practice of other police precincts.

An on-duty police officer; credit: Martin Jernberg

The practice of repeatedly doing something over and over again the same way incorrectly “because that’s how we’ve always done it” is now biting the Philadelphia Police Department.

An investigative report by NBC 10 Philadelphia found that Philadelphia Police Department continued to report “location-less” crimes incorrectly for over 10 years until an investigative report prompted them to change this practice.

The Washington Post also reported on this story.

For the Philadelphia Police Department crimes without a precise GPS location, police officers were using the coordinates of “Fantasyland,” a specific area within Disney World, which is located in Florida. (Source: The Washington Times)

This type of GPS reporting was inaccurate for crimes without a specific location. The NBC 10 Philadelphia investigative team looked into this. They wanted to know why Philadelphia crimes were being reported to Fantasyland. This uncovered how long this practice has been going on within the department and prompted a change in this practice.

What Happened When Philadelphia Police Did Not Have a Precise Location?

In general, when a police officer submits a police report, they also log the GPS coordinates where the crime took place. This allows crime analysts to map out the crime data and compile statistics. It started to raise questions about why Philadelphia crimes were being reported in Disney World, a theme park in Florida.

NBC 10 Philadelphia reported:

“For more than a decade, if Philadelphia police officers made a typo or were unable to record a precise location for a crime committed in the city, the department would mark the incident with GPS coordinates inside Disney World in Florida. Specifically, the area behind Cinderella’s Castle known as ‘Fantasyland’ became the default location for inaccurate crime data.”

(Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

What is more mind-boggling is there was not any other location found inside the Philadelphia city limits with more crime than the crimes logged at Disney World, which shows how common this practice was within the police department.

According to NBC 10 Philadelphia, “over the past six years, more than 5,000 crimes — including 16 arsons, 50 homicides, and 298 auto thefts — were plotted to Disney World.”

It is obviously clear that Philadelphia crimes were not taking place in Disney World, and the GPS coordinates for the crimes should not have been reported in this manner.

The reason it was done this way, was all about the statistics.

Done This Way So it ‘Wouldn’t Skew’ the Philadelphia Crime Statistics

When NBC 10 Philadelphia news investigators brought this issue to the Philadelphia Police Department, their director of research and analysis, Kevin Thomas began to look into it, as he was “unaware” of this practice at the time he was first asked.

After looking into it, “he asked others in the department who said the choice to map certain crimes to Disney World was made more than ten years ago” and he added, “In no way was this meant to be in any way humorous.” (Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

The reason: They chose Disney World so these crimes without a location so would not affect Philadelphia crime statistics.

“It was just an innocuous location chosen within the U.S. that would obviously not have anything to do with Philadelphia whatsoever.” -Kevin Thomas, Philadelphia Police Dept. direct of research and analysis (Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

Philadelphia’s Police Reported Location-less Crime Against Industry Standards

Business Insider interviewed an expert, Christopher Herrmann, a former crime analyst supervisor from the New York Police Department.

“The practice of using a fake location for unknowns not only creates a false record, but having that option also creates an environment in which officers don’t feel they have to put in the extra effort to accurately map the incidents” -Chris Herrmann, a former crime analyst supervisor from the New York Police Department (Source: Business Insider)

According to Herrmann, “police departments should be able to accurately map at least 95% of crimes. At some departments that have been crime mapping for a long time, like the NYPD, the data can be over 99% accurate.” (Source: Business Insider)

For crimes with unknown locations, Herrmann says that it is a better practice to GPS log the crime somewhere that is clearly not the location of the crime — like the middle of the Atlantic Ocean — and not at Disney World or even the police headquarters.” (Source: Business Insider)

A Philadelphia Family Hurt by this Practice

One prime example of how this practice hurt a family is when Shineka Crawford lost her son in a shooting on the streets of Philadelphia. She found her son in the street on the 1700 block of 68th Avenue in West Oak Lane.

However, the Philadelphia Police Department marked the GPS location as Disney World.

(Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

“I can’t get that picture out of my head. The pain never goes away, and never gets better. It’s hurtful. He got murdered on the street in Philadelphia.” -Shineka Crawford (Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

Is this a Resolution or a Band-Aid to a Problem that Needs to be Corrected?

It should be noted that after NBC 10 Philadelphia investigated this story, the Philadelphia Police Department changed its policy, and "will now plot inaccurate crimes in the Atlantic Ocean." (Source: NBC 10 Philadelphia)

Perhaps an even better solution is for the crime reporting software to have an "exact location unknown" option so police departments do not have to inaccurately attribute crime to places it didn’t happen (including the Atlantic Ocean). The crime reporting software needs an update, so police officers don't continually have to find a workaround.

Sources

Freeman, Danny. “For Years, Philly Police Dumped Crime Data at Disney World.” NBC 10 Philadelphia. Published September 22, 2022. Updated on September 23, 2022

Matthews, Brad. “Philadelphia police logged crime data at Disney World for years.” The Washington Times. 24 September 2022.

Orecchio-Egresitz, Haven. “How Disney World’s Fantasyland was turned into an apparent crime hotspot by Philly police.” Business Insider. 23 September 2022.

California Department of Motor Vehicle Files Complaint: Tesla 'Mislead Consumers'

Photo by Vlad Tchompalov on Unsplash

On July 28, 2022, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) filed a complaint against Tesla's self-driving and autopilot claims.

Tesla posted several claims on its website that its vehicles “could be equipped with advanced driver assistance systems” and “the system is designed to run short and long-distance trips with no action required by the driver.” Both statements are untrue and misleading, according to the complaint.

Complaint: Tesla Ran Misleading Advertisements on its Website

In the period May 2021 to July 2022, Tesla (TSLA) ran advertisements on its website "at least five times,” which violates California's Civil Code, according to the DMV complaint.

The driving features Tesla labeled as "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving Capability" was described in the suit as misleading.

Tesla stated in its advertisement: "Your Tesla will determine the optimal route, navigating urban streets, complicated intersections, and freeways."

In June 2022, Tesla began using a disclaimer that these features require active driver supervision, which contradicts the "misleading labels and claims," according to the complaint.

The “Autopilot” feature comes standard in all Tesla vehicles.

Tesla warns drivers to stay alert while using it, but a 2021 MIT study found that drivers using the feature were more distracted and looked away from the road more often.

Fact: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data released in June 2022 found 273 crashes involving Tesla driver-assist technologies in the past nine months, either caused by Tesla Autopilot or its full self-driving software.

NHTSA studied 497 crashes, and 43 percent were caused by driver-assist technologies, commonly referred to as “Autopilot” and “Full Self-driving Capability.”