Two men broke into a home in East St.
Louis, Ill., and demanded money, but the 11 residents said they had
none. The robbers were holding them at gunpoint when police responding
to a report of a home invasion knocked at the door. The homeowner
denied anything was amiss, Detective Michael Floore told The Bellevue News-Democrat,
but the officers were suspicious and remained outside. Someone inside
convinced the robbers to change their clothes and pretend to be family
members, and then everyone would go outside together and tell police
the robbers had left. As soon as they were out the door, the real
family members fingered the outlaws to police, who arrested Terrance
Dancy, 20, and Cortez Richardson, 28.
Police responding to a bank robbery in
Greensburg, Pa., arrested David Morgan, 35, several blocks away because
(a) he matched the robber’s description and (b) they saw him counting
the stolen money while walking down the street.
Hall of Shame
A tell-all book by a former employee of
Alcor, the Arizona company that froze the remains of baseball great Ted
Williams, accuses the cryogenics lab of mistreating Williams’ severed
head. In Frozen: My Journey into the World of Cryonics, author
Larry Johnson discloses that an Alcor official swung a monkey wrench at
the frozen head to remove a tuna can stuck to it. The first swing
missed the can and struck the head. The second swing knocked the can
loose. Johnson said Alcor used such cans, left over from feeding a cat
that lived at the lab, as pedestals for its heads. Alcor Life Extension
Foundation denied the book’s account and vowed on its Web site that
litigation would be forthcoming “to the maximum extent of the law.”
Questionable Masquerade
Police who stopped James P. Miller, 20,
for driving the wrong way without headlights on a one-way street in
Oxford, Ohio, noted that Miller was dressed as a Breathalyzer test for
Halloween. He failed his own Breathalyzer test and was cited for DUI.
First Things First
When Kendrick Johnson, 32, got stuck in
a condo elevator in St. Petersburg, Fla., at 10 a.m., he waited more
than an hour before deciding to call for help. Instead of calling 911,
however, Johnson called his boss. She was in her car and drove to a
nearby fire station to get help. Rescue crews arrived at 11:40 a.m. and
freed Johnson by 12:30 p.m. Johnson is the building’s maintenance man.
TSA’s Bend-and-Spread Policy
Airline security concerns have been
raised by a suicide bomber in Saudi Arabia who detonated an explosive
device concealed in his anal cavity. The bomber, a wanted al-Qaeda
militant, pretended to renounce terrorism and repent in order to get
close to Saudi Arabia’s deputy interior minister. In the August attack,
the bomber obliterated himself, but the prince survived unharmed. “It
does pose real issues for airline security if the bomb is inside the
person,” security policy expert Carl Ungerer told Australian media,
which noted that since a passenger tried to ignite a shoe bomb in 2001,
air travelers have to take off their shoes to be screened and that a
thwarted plot to smuggle liquid explosives aboard airliners in 2006 led
to limits on liquids passengers can carry aboard.
Fixation of the Week
Jerry Lowery, 38, told police he robbed three Milwaukee-area optical shops because he “really likes to be around glasses.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
reported that in all three robberies, he took no cash, instead making
off with high-end eyeglass frames. According to the criminal complaint,
after Lowery surrendered, he “became very emotional” when talking to a
detective about the robberies and said eyewear has been a problem for
him for 15 years.
News and Blues is compiled from the
nation’s press. To contribute, submit original clippings, citing date
and source, to Roland Sweet in care of The New Times.
