Small Town Misfit

Cincinnati, OH
A 19-year-old Green Township mother is being held this morning at the Hamilton County jail after Cincinnati police charged her with taking her newborn baby along while she broke into a candy store.

Christine Ruther and three others are accused of breaking into Minges Candy Store, 132 W. Court St., downtown, shortly before 1 a.m. and swiping about $400 in candy, police said.

The group was arrested a few blocks away at Fourth and Race streets when police caught up with them by following the trail of candy and candy wrappers.

Arrested with Ruther was her seven-week-old daughter.

Ruther was charged with child endangering and breaking and entering, court records show. She arrived at the jail about 5 a.m. and will go before a judge Friday morning, jail officials said.

An 18-year-old woman and two men, 18 and 22, also were charged with breaking and entering, police said.

Found in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Thanks Luann!

Kalispell, MT
7:36 p.m. A 30-year-old man was caught stealing baseball cards and a G.I. Joe from ShopKo.

Found in the Flathead Beacon

Grass Valley, CA
11:08 a.m. - A caller from a business on the 24100 block of Dark Horse Drive reported all the beer had been stolen.

Found in the Union

Grass Valley, CA
10:30 a.m. - A caller from a school on South Auburn Street reported the theft of andy.

Found in the Union

Columbia, SC
On Feb. 20, a 25-year-old woman offered to buy a homeless woman lunch at a Bojangles’ on Forest Drive. While they were waiting in line she handed the homeless woman a $20 bill. That was a big mistake because the homeless woman took it and ran. Officers caught up to the homeless woman near an apartment complex on Taylor Street. She didn’t have the $20 anymore and the good Samaritan is totally pressing charges for the theft.

Found in the Free Times

Chattanooga, TN
Katrina Kyner of Camden Street came home to find that a small garden shovel from her yard had been used to pry open her front door.

Drawers in a dresser were ransacked along with a small purse. She is missing a coin collection and a bottle of Crown Royal whisky.

Also taken was her deceased aunt’s identification papers.

Two dogs were at the house, and there is an alarm system. But the burglars were undeterred.

Found in the Chattanoogan

Columbia, SC
Don’t leave a massive pile of cash out in your home right before a cleaning crew arrives. A 62-year-old man said he put $1,800 on his countertop just before a 20-year-old woman arrived to clean his Harbison Boulevard apartment on Jan. 15. The man said that after the woman left, $1,500 was missing from the stack of cash. No one else was in the apartment during that time. The man called the manager of the cleaning company who said she would get a statement from the woman who had cleaned the apartment, but the man decided to call the police anyway. Hopefully the police told him it’s generally not a good idea to leave huge wads of cash lying around and to be grateful she left him $300.

Found in the Free Times

Waynesboro, GA
An Augusta man came to Waynesboro with loving on his mind, but ended up with an aching in his head.

The man told police he met a Waynesboro woman on a chat line and agreed to visit her here for an afternoon rendezvous.

The couple was in an upstairs bedroom when another man, claiming to be the woman’s boyfriend, rushed in and threatened to “shoot (the Augusta man) in the head.”

The boyfriend allegedly hit him in the head with a pistol before stealing $50 from his pants pocket.

The Augusta man was ordered to leave and continued to get hit in the head as he tried to walk down the stairs in his underwear, the report said.

The woman and her sister retrieved the man’s clothes for him, and he called police after dressing inside his car and driving to McDonald’s.

Found in the True Citizen

Athens, GA
A Sunset Drive man reported that someone stole three guitars and a chicken pot pie from his home Friday night, according to a police report.

The man told Athens-Clarke police that he leaves the back door unlocked because he lost his key. The victim also said he suspects a friend with a drug problem - who came come over while he was away to borrow DVDs - might be responsible for the burglary.

The guitars are worth an estimated $720, according to the police report, which didn’t put a value on the pot pie.

Found in the Athens Banner-Herald

Erie County, NY
Police were called to the Boulevard Mall where Santa Claus had $200 taken. Santa would be at his chair in the food court until his shift ended.

Found in the Bee News Blotter

Charlotte, NC
A visitor at someone’s home asked to use the restroom but did not really need to go. Instead he went into the victim’s room and stole $9,000 out of the garbage can. Trash raiding, no matter how lucrative, is not really a crime.

Found in Creative Loafing

Atlanta, GA
Someone stole the air conditioner from the roof of a building where the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Union is housed. The union director said the union is there temporarily, until a new office building is complete — but he still comes by every day to check on the temporary office on Simpson Street. No witnesses.

Found in Creative Loafing