Small Town Misfit

Lodi, CA
3:29 p.m.: Someone was throwing “fire balls” at a home in the 1000 block of Dartmoor Circle.

Found in the Lodi News-Sentinel

Rio Grande, NM
3:45 p.m. — A La Joya Street caller said he had been drinking for three days and needed an ambulance.

Found in the Rio Grande Sun

Bozeman, MT
A woman on College Street put her 3-year-old to bed and then went to bed herself. The boy later took his mother’s purse, used the keys in it to start her car and was attempting to put it in gear when police found him. He was returned to his sleeping mother.

Found in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Erie County, NY
Someone put approximately 30 minnows in a Bellwood Avenue swimming pool.

Found in the Bee News

Chadron, NE
Charges have been filed against Jeremiah Bennett, 29 of Chadron, for allegedly threatening his pregnant girlfriend with a sword and claiming he was going to cut off her head in the heat of a domestic dispute that occurred April 19 on the 200 block of North Main St.

Bennett has been charged with two Class II felonies (for using a deadly weapon to commit a felony and assault in the third degree of a pregnant woman), one Class IV felony (for terroristic threats) and one Class III misdemeanor (for disturbing the peace).

He currently is being held in protective custody in Scottsbluff and is being evaluated. Bond has been set at $50,000.

On April 15 Deangelo J. Wall, 22 of Chadron, threatened the life of a 22-year old male by allegedly holding the blade of a 12-inch sword/knife to his throat while at a residence on the 300 block of Chadron Ave. Court reports also claim Wall tried to stab the young man after an argument.

Wall is charged with two Class IV felonies (for attempted assault in the first degree and terroristic threats), a Class III felony (for using a deadly weapon to commit a felony) and a Class III misdemeanor (for disturbing the peace). He is currently out on a $20,000 bail bond and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Dawes County Court Thursday.

Found in the Chadron Record

Goleta Valley, CA
Using the Global Positioning System installed on his cell phone, the owner of the stolen handset was able to track the location of his missing property. In this case, the resourceful victim from UCSB traced his missing phone from Isla Vista to a Cliff Drive restaurant in on a recent afternoon.

The GPS service, which promises to locate the cell phone within a 20-foot radius, proved useful. Following the trace, the victim found an acquaintance, a woman he’d met on State Street some days earlier, sitting at a booth inside the restaurant.

Working on a tip from the victim, deputies contacted the 43-year-old woman as she dined with a friend. Without prompting, she handed over the phone, stating, “I know what this is about.”

The woman, who allegedly stole the phone after “partying” with the victim and his roommates, was arrested for burglary.

Found in the Goleta Valley Voice

Goleta Valley, CA
The president of a fraternity is crying foul play after house brothers discovered a pig carcass inside the organization’s dryer. The prank caused significant damage to the unit, not to mention a disturbing aftermath. The prankster remains a mystery.

Found in the Goleta Valley Voice

Atlanta, GA
A man said he was held against his will for two weeks by a 20-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. He said during this time, they all went to nightclubs and hung out. He said he wanted to get into the nightclub scene, and as long as he paid for everything, things were cool, but when he started to say no, then the suspects threatened him. The man said he believed the suspects would hurt him if he tried to run or call police. He said the suspects forced him to withdraw $15,000 with his ATM card.

He said earlier that day, the suspects made him go to Grady Memorial Hospital and he was able to slip away and call his mother — who came to the hospital and asked the suspects to return his car (a 2007 black Mitsubishi Galant). He said the suspects refused and drove away in his car.

Later, the 19-year-old woman called the man and agreed to return the car. She talked with police. She said she and the man are dating, and she didn’t take his car. She said the man gave her $10,000 to hold, and $2,000 was given to the other suspect’s brother for a contract. She said at no time was the man held against his will, and he was free to go at any time. No charges filed.

Found in Creative Loafing

Hamilton County, OH
Every once in a while, somebody tries to cheat the blind operator of a deli in the Hamilton County Courthouse even though security cameras are trained on the cash register and there are about a dozen sheriff’s deputies a few steps away.

Twice in the past two weeks, Kent Parker was handed a $1 bill by someone who said it was a $10 bill. Both times, a woman was arrested within minutes.

“I have a lot of friends who watch out for me,” said Parker, 43, who has been operating the Courthouse Deli for eight years. “Besides, the cameras catch the whole thing.”

Sometimes Parker can tell if a customer is acting suspiciously.

“They test me, hand me money, seeing if I know what it is,” he said. “I don’t see at all, but there are tricks to the trade.”

One is to simply lay the bill on the counter and ask one of his three employees to verify it. But not until the customer turns away.

“I don’t want to insult anybody by making them think I’m doubting them,” Parker said.

Parker said people try to scam him with the wrong bill about three times a year.

On Monday, a witness saw one such transaction and reported it, and Mary Cayze, 19, of Mount Healthy, was arrested about 10 minutes later outside a courtroom.

On April 24, LaTonya Browner, 39, of Cincinnati, was arrested in a similar situation.

Both were charged with theft, the sheriff said. When a theft victim is impaired, a charge that usually is a misdemeanor is elevated to a felony.

“I don’t know why people think they can get away with it,” Parker said. “And for $9, it’s just not worth it. Maybe I just look like an easy mark.”

Found in the Cincinnati Post

Thanks Luann!

Anamosa State Penitentiary, IA
Prison officials just paid $6,000 to have the outer locks changed in the Iowa maximum security men’s prison that houses 1,289 inmates. Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections told InformationWeek that changing the locks was a precautionary measure because they’re not sure if the keys sold on the popular online auction site were actually for the prison.

But they certainly could be, so prison officials weren’t going to take any chances.

Scaletta explained that a man who used to work as a locksmith for the prison was allowed to work from his home. He retired in 1974 and has since died. When the man’s wife died, their estate, including some keys that are thought to be for the prison, went on sale.

No one at the corrections department knew there was anything amiss until an employee pointed the sale out to them and said some keys might be involved.

“They were sold under the pretense that they were actual keys but we don’t know,” said Scaletta. “We were a little surprised. It’s a very, very unusual thing to happen. You hear about assaults and disturbances that become newsworthy. But you don’t expect to hear that so-called prison keys are being sold online.”

Read the rest of the story at Information Week

Edwardsville, IL
About three weeks ago, Jessica May, who just completed her first year of graduate studies in the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville art and design program, started dressing roadkill in pet and baby clothes to catch people’s attention near campus.

The 24-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., said the idea stemmed from a year’s worth of work dealing with nature. She said she was interested to see whether people would give more thought to the “wild animals” if they were personified by being dressed in human attire, such as a Polo from Baby Gap.

Although she has dressed, and given some manicures, to three raccoons and three possums, she said she is not trying to make a political statement: “I’m not trying to be any sort of militant activist for animals’ rights or anything like that.”

Read the whole article in the Belleville News Democrat

Thanks Shari!

Clovis, NM
About 4:30 p.m. Thursday an officer was called to a bank in the 100 block of South Main Street for a report of a couple performing a sexual act while at the drive-through window to cash a check.

The teller said she was offended.

The officer checked surveillance video and was unable to see the incident on the footage.

The incident is under investigation.

Found in the Clovis News Journal