Angry Truck Driver Tries To Tow Cruiser
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A tow truck driver, upset over a recent ticket, tried to tow a Gresham police cruiser Thursday. Police said Steven Syverson, 32, was arrested after he hooked his truck to the marked police vehicle while the officer was responding to a domestic disturbance call. The police...
Jurors Find Overlooked Evidence In Coat
FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- A convicted robber has won a new trial in Frederick, Md., after jurors found more than $1,300 in the pocket of a coat he allegedly wore while robbing several businesses at gunpoint.The money roll, a rubber glove and a bandage apparently went unnoticed by police,...
Guilty Pleas In Fake N.Y. College Grades
NEW YORK (AP) -- Two former college students avoided jail when they pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge related to paying school officials to falsify their grades and transcripts.Uzi Azizov, 22, and Boris Yakubov, 25, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor state charge of falsifying business...
Man Charged With Swiping Cops' Tip
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Today's crime tip: don't steal police officers' tips. Police arrested Vincent Balough, 46, on on charges of theft and obstructing official business.Police said Balough took a $12 tip two Cincinnati police officers left after eating at a restaurant...
Woman Charged In Surrogate Mother Scam
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina woman accused of promising couples she would be their surrogate mother has been charged with bilking at least six people out of $14,000, police said Thursday.
Burglary Suspect Flees In Squad Car
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) -- A woman suspected in a burglary found a convenient getaway: the squad car of the officers who arrested her.McKenzie Schafer, 27, of Minneapolis, was arrested and handuffed Sunday by officers investigating the theft of a laptop from the North St. Paul Athletic...
Man Accidentally Shoots Self In Buttocks
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- A Scottsdale man inadvertently shot himself in the buttocks Thursday morning. Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Daniel Leatherman, 26, heard a disturbance outside his apartment and saw a man he knew fighting with a cab driver.Leatherman told police that the...
Posing As Plumbers, Wis. Thieves Nabbed
APPLETON, Wis. (AP) -- A police officer didn't buy the story offered by two men who were seen in the early morning hours, walking out from behind a local restaurant that was burglarized the night before.The officer found they had some interesting gear with them -- channel-lock pliers,...
Swindler Facing Arrest Flees Wash. Court
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- A confessed bank swindler who thought he was answering a parole violation summons fled the courthouse after he apparently spied some documents showing he was about to be arrested.John Earl Petersen, 54, left the federal courthouse, got into his black 2007 Cadillac...
If Death Penalty Abolished, What Next?
NEW YORK (AP) -- More than at any time over the past 30 years, the future of capital punishment is in limbo.The Supreme Court will hear arguments next term in a momentous lethal injection case. While it's widely expected that executions will resume in some form following that case,...
Woman Sentenced In Baby Swinging
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A woman convicted of swinging her newborn son like a weapon at her boyfriend and fracturing the infant's skull was sentenced Wednesday to five to 10 years in prison.Chytoria Graham, 28, was fighting with boyfriend DeAngelo Troop after a night of drinking when she...
Man Allegedly Steals Car In Front of Cop
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A man accused of stealing a car in front of a police officer and television cameras in North Carolina has been arrested in Virginia. Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said Tuesday that 38-year-old Anthony Wayne Williams was arrested overnight in New Kent...
Man Says He's Not 'Dinnertime Bandit'
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The man police say is the "dinnertime bandit" who robbed wealthy homes during the evening pleaded not guilty Tuesday, weeks after he was extradited from Belgium after nine years on the run.Alan W. Golder, 52, faces nearly 40 felony counts, including...
Woman Accused In 'Decorations Shooting'
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Authorities say a Springfield woman was booked on attempted murder counts for allegedly shooting two men whose dog damaged Christmas decorations at her home. Ethel Shannon McKinney, 28, was booked on two counts of attempted second-degree murder and illegal use of a...
Annapolis Police Reel In Fishy Customer
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Police said a man was arrested after an officer found him in a store's bathroom with a $700 fishing reel stuffed into his pants. An employee of the West Marine store in the Hillsmere Shopping Center alerted an officer on Monday afternoon to two suspicious...
Tunnel Tire Burglar Fails To Plan Exit
COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- A burglar who tunneled under a wall to access a Coquille tire shop did not have a good exit plan. The burglar was unable to remove anything because the tires were too large to fit through the mouth of the hole.Officers received a report earlier this week of a hole...
Pair Nabbed In Green Card Marriage Scam
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Yuliya Kalinina spelled out exactly what she was looking for in a husband in her Internet ad: "Green Card Marriage -- Will pay $300/month. Total $15,000," the Russian national wrote in an ad placed on the Craigslist website. "This is strictly platonic...
The First Noel the Police Did Arrest
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) -- A Salvation Army bell ringer sang "The First Noel" while shoplifting Christmas ornaments on his break, police said. Sean M. Sayers, 33, Anderson, was arrested Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of conversion.Sayers was being held in Madison County Jail...
Man Allegedly Tries To Jack Plow, Truck
BATTLE LAKE, Minn. (AP) -- Authorities said a man tried to carjack a Minnesota Department of Transportation snowplow truck Tuesday night on state Highway 210 near Battle Lake.Authorities said aplow operator saw the 23-year-old Battle Lake man along the highway and stopped to see if he...
Phony Priest Runs Up Supermarket Tab
PITTSTON, Pa. (AP) -- When a man dressed in black and wearing crosses said to charge his groceries to St. Rocco's Roman Catholic Church, clerks at a West Pittston store obliged.St. Rocco's has a tab at the Gerritys Supermarket. And Officer Joe Campbell says the man "played...
Ind. Inmate Escapes By Clogging Toilet
CHARLESTOWN, Ind. (AP) -- An inmate escaped from a work-release crew after he created a distraction with an overflowing toilet, authorities said.Wayne Mitchell, 24, was in the Clark County Jail for a probation-violation warrant, but had been working with a crew clearing roadside...
Man Sentenced In Bizarre Diagnosing Scam
MONROE, La. (AP) -- A man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for bilking friends and family out of more than $800,000 by convincing them that his wife was a government agent who could arrange to have their medical problems diagnosed by satellite imaging.Brent Eric Finley,...
Passenger Accused Of Brandishing Toy Gun
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A passenger in a car accused of pointing a toy gun at the head of a friend who was driving was charged with inducing panic, authorities said.Justin Carman, 23, brandished the toy along Interstate 70 Monday and caused a stir with at least one passing motorist...
NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio (AP) -- Two Boy Scouts and their fathers selling Christmas trees were knocked to the ground by three men with sawed-off shotguns who took about $350, police in this Cincinnati suburb said. Both adults and one boy also were punched."At first I thought it...
42-Foot-Tall Inflatable Snowman Stolen
TYLER, Texas (AP) -- "Frosty" the snowman has been swiped. The 42-foot-tall inflatable holiday decoration was taken from a tree farm. Officials at Dixon Farms say Frosty, worth about $10,000, was last seen Friday night.So far no arrests.Lot owner Royce Wisenbaker...
Christmas Tree Farm's Firms Stolen
FLAG POND, Tenn. (AP) -- Authorities are on the lookout for a Grinch who stole the tops off more than two dozen Christmas trees from Danny Tipton's farm.The thief or thieves raided the farm in eastern Tennessee sometime between Nov. 24 and last week and cut the top off the Fraser firs...
2 Students Convicted In Bank Robbery
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Two college students say the high cost of tuition led them to rob a bank.The men pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery and six charges of kidnapping. They face 20 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 27.Andrew Butler, 20, a theater major at the...
He Hopes Ironworkers Don't Find Him...
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A brazen thief who offered condolences at a memorial service made off with $10,000 collected for the family of an ironworker killed in a Las Vegas Strip construction site mishap, friends and family members said.Las Vegas police were searching for the suspect after...
Man Accused Of Stealing Plane To Impress Girlfriend
LaPORTE, Ind. (AP) -- A man accused of stealing a twin-engine plane and driving it down the taxiway staged the stunt while he was drunk to impress his girlfriend, police said.Michael Santos, 38, was charged Friday with theft, criminal mischief and operating a vehicle after his driving...
Hmmmm. Something's Different About You
STOYSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Police said a Somerset County man fled a traffic stop, went home, shaved his mustache and changed his clothes, and reported the truck he was driving as stolen.Conemaugh Township police said they stopped Robert Sadlon, 50, for a broken taillight on Thanksgiving night...
