Latest news with #Asa
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'The life we built has been destroyed': Heartbroken family-of-five left homeless after 'stranger burnt down £64k canal boat because he wrongly believed they had torched his boat'
A devastated family-of-five fears their 'life has been destroyed' after an intruder allegedly broke into their houseboat and set it alight in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. For the last six years, Tess, 35, and her husband Akin, 33, have painstakingly turned their canal boat from an empty shell into a comfortable family home. They always viewed 'October' - named after the month in which their first child Asa, five, was born - as more than just a floating residence. Aside from the cosy internal living area, the 60ft boat was built to be a sustainable home, with solar power panels, a water filtration system and its very own roof garden, which was known for its lush array of tomatoes, strawberries, aubergines, cucumbers and potatoes. There were also many other reasons the boat held such a special place in their hearts - for it was here on board October that the couple's two youngest children Myra-Rae, 3 and Zephaniah, aged four months, were born. But cherished memories might be all the family have left to hold onto after their houseboat, docked in Hackney Wick, east London, was set alight by an individual unknown to the family in the early hours of Saturday, May 24. Thankfully, Tess and the children were away camping at the time, while Akin had gone out for the evening with friends. But when he returned, fire crews were already at the scene battling to put out the ferocious flames. In that moment, Akin, who works as a digital health consultant, believed it could be 'the end of everything' - and was left helplessly watching from the bridge as October was consumed by flames. Before and after: The family had lovingly restored the boat from a shell into a 'beautiful' home - but now they fear they might not be able to return A Met Police officer told the family afterwards they may have simply been unfortunate victims of 'mistaken identity' in a possible tit for tat boat-burning incident. Now effectively homeless, the family has had to resort to staying for a few days at a time with friends after Hackney Council revealed there was no emergency housing anywhere in London. As a single income family-of-five they say a mortgage is simply out of their reach, while the cost to restore the boat to its former glory could prove far too high. Adding to their woes, they bought October in 2019 as an unfitted boat for £64,000 and spent the next six years transforming it into their 'beautiful' family home. But they did not get it reassessed by their insurance before the boat was set ablaze - meaning they stand to only get a payout for its original value as an empty vessel and not what it could have been worth before the fire. Determined to help them return to the life they one knew, friends of the family have set up a GoFundMe appeal to ease their financial burden, but the couple admit the tragedy could spell the end of their canal boating days. Speaking to MailOnline, Tess explained how she and Akin first began living on canal boats nine years ago. 'The lifestyle we have enjoyed with the children has been wonderful because you can be in London, but you're also in nature. 'You've got the marshes and the ducks on the water. There's a really nice boating community and we've met many other families with young children.' But that almost idyllic existence was brought to an abrupt halt over the last Bank Holiday weekend. Recalling the events of that night, Akin said he was walking home after an evening out with friends when he could see an array of emergency lights in the distance and 'a massive deal going on'. He said: 'A fireman stopped me and said: "Well, you can't come through here." But then I told him I live on a boat, so he walked me up to the bridge, pointed and said, "Is it that boat there?" 'That's when I saw my home was on fire. There were firefighters and police cars everywhere. 'In that moment I just thought it was the end of everything. I couldn't imagine anything surviving from what I could see - not much did. 'But it was also this feeling of we built that. It's not like we rented the boat. That was everything we had built over the last almost 10 years. 'It just felt unbelievable to think everything was gone.' Among the items destroyed forever were those steeped in sentimental value, including a teddy bear their eldest, Asa, has slept with since he was a baby. Tess said: 'I lost my great-grandmother's jewellery box, which she had given to me and I was really close to her. So that was upsetting. 'There was also a quilt, which is an old family thing, and also another quilt that my mum made for my son when he was born, and lots of things like that.' Meanwhile Akin has lost many of his prized personal effects. 'I've been DJing since I was 16 to pay my way through university - now all my DJ equipment has gone and my record collection has melted,' he said. 'All my musical instruments, the piano, my guitars, they were destroyed as well. 'I enjoyed collecting sneakers since I was 20, and those have all been burnt up. 'We hardly have anything of our own anymore.' In the aftermath of the incident, the couple say returning to the fire-ravaged wreck has left them traumatised as they began to process what had happened. 'The first time I went back I was in shock. Just the devastation was incredible. 'Everything was gone, it was full of water and there was broken glass everywhere. 'I had to go in again when the insurance surveyor came and looked at it, and I found that much harder. I came out shaking that time,' said Tess. Asa added: 'I couldn't recognise my own home. Part of me thought we had been broken into and robbed, but the forensics guy started pointing out computers, phones, water bottles. I didn't recognise anything because it had all melted.' For now, the family are trying to come to terms with the loss of their home as they decide what their next steps will be. While they have been offered emergency housing, it would have meant having to move miles outside of London and away from friends, school and work. 'The first thing my three-year-old asked when I told her about the fire was "has my nursery burnt down as well?", recalled Tess. 'I couldn't take the children away from everything they know. 'They've lost their home. I can't have them lose everything else all at the same time. 'So I was desperate to keep them at their school and in the community. 'Moving away would also mean that Akin and I wouldn't have any support or help, and it just seemed completely overwhelming. 'But it's hard for us, because every week we are having to find someone else who can host us. We understand that no one can put up a family-of-five indefinitely.' Akin continued: 'The insurance money might pay for rent for two or three years, but it's not enough for a mortgage. That's the real shock of the whole thing. We don't really know how to restart. 'People have discussed rebuilding the boat, but a couple of professionals we spoke to said the interiors could be very toxic, and we're not sure we could afford to get it rebuilt and refitted. 'Our friends and the boating community have been just overwhelmingly supportive and kind. 'We're just trying to see what our way forward will be.' A 34-year-old man of no fixed address has been charged with arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered. He is due to appear at Wood Green Crown Court next week.
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Time of India
Bengaluru cops nab Nigerian woman trying to peddle 5.3kg MDMA worth Rs 10.5 crore
Bengaluru: In one of the biggest drug busts in recent times, a 25-year-old Nigerian was arrested by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths when she was trying to sell MDMA crystals weighing over 5.3kg, and valued at around Rs 10.5 crore, near Rajanukunte. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The accused has been identified as Akinwunmi Princess Ifeoluwa, alias Princess, a resident of Uttam Nagar in Nawada, New Delhi. CCB's anti-narcotics wing (ANW) police inspector Rakshith AK got a tip-off around noon on June 10 about a foreign national trying to sell drugs in Tarahunase village, 6km from Rajanukunte. Rakshith alerted his seniors, including assistant commissioner of police Mahananda HK, who formed a special team to nab the peddler. When cops rushed to Tarahunase village, they found a woman with a bag seemingly waiting for someone. After confirming she was the peddler flagged by the informant, police detained her around 4pm. When police asked her to show her bag, she didn't cooperate initially. Eventually, she confessed she had come to New Delhi in Oct 2021 using a student visa. She claimed she wanted to get admission at a private deemed-to-be university, but when she didn't get a proper response from the college, she didn't enrol and started working as a hairdresser and pedicurist in the national capital. As she was unable to earn enough to lead a lavish life, she went into the drug peddling business. She allegedly met another Nigerian woman named Asa, who instructed her to take drugs to Bengaluru by bus and hand them over to someone. Accordingly, Princess packed the MDMA crystal in packets and reached Bengaluru on June 10. While she was waiting for Asa's message about the man to whom she was supposed to hand over the drugs, she was caught by cops. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Police found 5,325 grams of MDMA crystals and an iPhone on her. A case has been registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and the Foreigners Act, 1946, for overstaying. Further investigation is on to nab Asa and the others involved in the matter.
NBC News
09-06-2025
- NBC News
Friend concerned for Alaska man Tony Kronos, who vanished in March: 'Where's Tony?'
'Where's Tony?' It's a question Asa Chandler hasn't stopped asking since he heard his old friend Tony Kronos was missing. The 40-year-old was last seen at his residence in the 1600 block of Eleonora Street in Eagle River, Alaska, on March 6, 2025. That was three months ago — and the people in Tony's circle haven't stopped pushing for answers since. Asa Chandler met Tony when they were teenagers. Back then, before he legally changed his name to Tony Kronos, Asa knew him as Josh Kronbach. They grew up in Eagle River — about 20 minutes north of Anchorage. 'I think it's around 50,000 people live here in Eagle River,' Asa said. 'So it's not like that small of a town, but you also quite often run into people that you went to school with.' 'He was always a small, little goofball,' Asa said. 'One of the things we'd all do is go out even further north than where we live to a big sand dunes recreational area by a river and have bonfire parties.' As they got older, Tony got into bodybuilding. 'He was, I think, in 2015, named Mr. Alaska,' Asa said. 'So he went from being a real small guy to being real buff.' 'It was a transformation,' Asa said. When Tony wasn't working out, he was working as a longshoreman. 'Basically loading the ships with cars and whatever is, you know, coming in and going out of Alaska.' According to Asa, Tony had recently purchased property in Hawaii and was planning on moving there. Asa would never have imagined hearing the news that his old friend Tony was missing. But in March 2025, that's what happened. Asa says he saw a Facebook post by a mutual friend asking if anybody had seen or heard from Tony. No one had. 'And then I saw a few other people posted about it over the next couple days,' he said. Asa told Dateline what he and Tony's other friends were able to put together about the day Tony was last seen – Thursday, March 6. 'A neighbor saw him pull into his garage that last time that he was ever seen and he had been seen, you know, just before that at the Planet Fitness gym,' he said. Tony's two cars, keys, wallet, and phone were all located at his home, according to Asa. 'By the third week, some friends had organized a meet-up to pass out posters,' Asa said, adding that he showed up to that. 'From there, we all just started making our own efforts to find him.' 'I came up with 'Where's Tony?'' Asa said of the campaign to spread awareness about his friend. He made a video of the staff at a restaurant he frequents posing that question. 'I put that together, and then the next day, I had a bunch of people that wanted to be in on that. So they sent me videos of them saying 'Where's Tony?' and pretty soon it turned from like a 30-second video to two and a half minutes of all these people saying, 'Where's Tony?'' 'We had a big fundraiser,' Asa said. 'So we raised somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand dollars. That's supposed to be reward money.' Asa also reached out to Dateline about Tony's disappearance. He said he wondered if he was missing, would he want people out there pushing for him. 'I just started trying to put myself in his shoes, and hoping someday he will come back and know that some of the old friendships he had panned out — there were people who cared,' Asa said. So Asa worked to bring greater attention to Tony's story. He says it was a major topic of discussion in town for the first couple of weeks after Tony vanished because friends and family were doing radio, TV, and local news interviews. Plus, missing person posters had been hung all around the community. 'But over the last month, it's kind of — kind of dropped off, you know, which – eventually that was probably bound to happen,' Asa said. NBC affiliate KTUU is part of Alaska's News Source, which has been covering Tony's case since March. On April 9, they reported that the Anchorage Police Department and the FBI were searching a property located directly behind Tony's home. Alaska's News Source reported that online municipal property records showed that the home officers were searching is owned by an Anchorage police officer. On April 11, they reported that after three days of searching, officers left the residence. 'Police have not confirmed that activity at the duplex has anything to do with Kronos' disappearance,' reporter Lauren Maxwell wrote. By the end of April, a lieutenant with the Anchorage Police Department sat down for an interview with Alaska's News Source. 'The detectives are working different angles on every piece of information that they've gathered,' Lieutenant Denielle Hrovat, of APD's Violent Crimes Unit, told Alaska's News Source. 'We are not releasing a lot of information, because that could hinder the furtherance of this case.' Hrovat would not comment on why that residence was searched for three days or what, if anything, was found. Dateline reached out to Christopher Barraza, the Deputy Director of the Anchorage Police Department Community Relations Unit, to see if an officer would be available to discuss the case. Barraza told Dateline they are not doing interviews at this time and that 'this case is currently still being investigated.' Barraza stated that the April press release on their website is the most recent update on Tony's case. 'At this time, there is no new information to release,' the release stated. 'However, we want to emphasize that our detectives, in partnership with the FBI, are working diligently and around the clock to bring Tony home.' The release explained that investigations like this one take time. 'All evidence must be carefully analyzed, items must undergo forensic testing, surveillance footage is being reviewed, search warrants executed, and witnesses interviewed,' it stated. 'These steps are critical to ensuring a thorough and accurate investigation.' The Anchorage Police Department ended the release by stating that their top priorities remain: 'the safe return of Tony and holding those responsible accountable.' Tony is 5'9' and weighs about 185 lbs., with hazel eyes. He is 40 years old, has multiple tattoos on his chest and stomach, and has been known to dye his hair various bright colors. The Anchorage Police Department encourages anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Tony Kronos to contact them on the dedicated tip line at 907-786-8999.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Toddler 'Rushed to the ER' After Swallowing Button Battery. Nearly 2 Years Later, Mom Says the Recovery Has Been ‘Torture' (Exclusive)
Kasey Allen's son, Asa, accidentally swallowed a button battery in October 2023 Allen noticed something was wrong with Asa and rushed him to the hospital. It would be one of many trips they would take Now, she's using her platform on TikTok to raise awareness of the dangers of swallowing button batteriesIt was an ordinary day in October 2023 when Kasey Allen's world changed. Allen tells PEOPLE that she was tidying up while her kids were playing just a short distance away. However, as she was finishing up her chores, she didn't notice her then-16-month-old son, Asa, swallow a button battery. "Asa and my other two children were playing as I was picking up and cleaning in our RV," Allen recalls. "At some point, Asa grabbed the remote to the backup camera, which was mounted to the steering wheel, dropped it, the battery fell out, and picked it up and swallowed it." When Allen walked back into the area, she found the remote lying on the floor, and about 20 minutes later, Asa started showing scary symptoms. Allen says the little one began salivating, was noticeably flushed in his face, and became very whiny and fussy. Eventually, symptoms of fatigue began setting in. "I was unsure of what was going on because I didn't know there was a battery in the remote and didn't know the signs of symptoms of button battery ingestion," Allen explains. "I became worried as his symptoms lingered for about an hour, and then he started coughing up black flakes, which was the outer covering of the battery," she adds. "We rushed to the ER, where he was X-rayed, and they found he had swallowed a button battery." According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, more than 3,500 button batteries are ingested per year in the United States. Signs someone has swallowed a button battery include: noisy breathing, coughing, drooling, difficulty swallowing, a hoarse voice, vomiting, chest or abdominal pain, and gagging, coughing or choking with eating or drinking. When swallowed, the small lithium batteries often get stuck in the throat and saliva triggers an electric current, which can lead to severe burning, esophageal perforation, vocal cord paralysis and more. Allen says the recovery process has been "long, disappointing, expensive, exhausting for our family, and extremely hard to watch our son go through." "He's had to go weeks with only IV nutrition, months of torture going back and forth to the hospital, and has dealt with the difficulty of eating and swallowing for 18 months." Allen has been sharing Asa's story and journey of recovery on TikTok. The video she shared of Asa going in for his 27th dilation treatment went viral, amassing over 5.5 million views. "Miraculously, Asa has zero scarred tissue in his esophagus after four treatments from the new facility/doctor from whom we sought a second opinion," she says. "He's had approximately 27 dilations to stretch his esophagus. We haven't had to give him any feeds through his G-tube since his first dilation with his new doctor at the end of February. He is growing so big." Allen hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of button batteries by sharing their story online. "Be aware of what electronics in your home may contain a button battery and make sure it's properly secured with the screw that should now be in place, thanks to Reese's Law," she says. "Know the signs that follow the ingestion of a button battery." "If you think your child has swallowed a button battery, honey is said to slow the corrosion of the battery and could potentially be life-saving." A hack, Allen shares, that she didn't know at the time. Allen chose to share Asa's story on TikTok because she knows the app reaches millions of people around the world. "It was my best bet to get this information out quickly and efficiently," she shares. "We've had an outpouring of support and prayers and parents thankful for the information and awareness." For others that find themselves in a similar situation, she urged them to "find a support group, stay strong, and most importantly, learn how to advocate for your child." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Toddler 'Rushed to the ER' After Swallowing Button Battery. Nearly 2 Years Later, Mom Says the Recovery Has Been ‘Torture' (Exclusive)
Kasey Allen's son, Asa, accidentally swallowed a button battery in October 2023 Allen noticed something was wrong with Asa and rushed him to the hospital. It would be one of many trips they would take Now, she's using her platform on TikTok to raise awareness of the dangers of swallowing button batteriesIt was an ordinary day in October 2023 when Kasey Allen's world changed. Allen tells PEOPLE that she was tidying up while her kids were playing just a short distance away. However, as she was finishing up her chores, she didn't notice her then-16-month-old son, Asa, swallow a button battery. "Asa and my other two children were playing as I was picking up and cleaning in our RV," Allen recalls. "At some point, Asa grabbed the remote to the backup camera, which was mounted to the steering wheel, dropped it, the battery fell out, and picked it up and swallowed it." When Allen walked back into the area, she found the remote lying on the floor, and about 20 minutes later, Asa started showing scary symptoms. Allen says the little one began salivating, was noticeably flushed in his face, and became very whiny and fussy. Eventually, symptoms of fatigue began setting in. "I was unsure of what was going on because I didn't know there was a battery in the remote and didn't know the signs of symptoms of button battery ingestion," Allen explains. "I became worried as his symptoms lingered for about an hour, and then he started coughing up black flakes, which was the outer covering of the battery," she adds. "We rushed to the ER, where he was X-rayed, and they found he had swallowed a button battery." According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, more than 3,500 button batteries are ingested per year in the United States. Signs someone has swallowed a button battery include: noisy breathing, coughing, drooling, difficulty swallowing, a hoarse voice, vomiting, chest or abdominal pain, and gagging, coughing or choking with eating or drinking. When swallowed, the small lithium batteries often get stuck in the throat and saliva triggers an electric current, which can lead to severe burning, esophageal perforation, vocal cord paralysis and more. Allen says the recovery process has been "long, disappointing, expensive, exhausting for our family, and extremely hard to watch our son go through." "He's had to go weeks with only IV nutrition, months of torture going back and forth to the hospital, and has dealt with the difficulty of eating and swallowing for 18 months." Allen has been sharing Asa's story and journey of recovery on TikTok. The video she shared of Asa going in for his 27th dilation treatment went viral, amassing over 5.5 million views. "Miraculously, Asa has zero scarred tissue in his esophagus after four treatments from the new facility/doctor from whom we sought a second opinion," she says. "He's had approximately 27 dilations to stretch his esophagus. We haven't had to give him any feeds through his G-tube since his first dilation with his new doctor at the end of February. He is growing so big." Allen hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of button batteries by sharing their story online. "Be aware of what electronics in your home may contain a button battery and make sure it's properly secured with the screw that should now be in place, thanks to Reese's Law," she says. "Know the signs that follow the ingestion of a button battery." "If you think your child has swallowed a button battery, honey is said to slow the corrosion of the battery and could potentially be life-saving." A hack, Allen shares, that she didn't know at the time. Allen chose to share Asa's story on TikTok because she knows the app reaches millions of people around the world. "It was my best bet to get this information out quickly and efficiently," she shares. "We've had an outpouring of support and prayers and parents thankful for the information and awareness." For others that find themselves in a similar situation, she urged them to "find a support group, stay strong, and most importantly, learn how to advocate for your child." Read the original article on People
