News & Blues 9/15

Three Australian men who attacked a 27-year-old German exchange
student in a Sydney alley found out they were next to the Ninja Senshi
Ryu warrior school when four students and their teacher came to the
victim’s rescue. “We just ran outside and started running at them,
yelling and everything,” said ninja master Kaylan Soto, who instructed
his students to take action. “These guys have turned around and seen
five ninjas in black ninja uniforms running toward them. They just
bolted.” Police arrested two of the attackers and were looking for the
third. (ABC & BBC News)

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

While arguing at a tavern in Winneconne, Wis., a 30-year-old man
asked his 24-year-old fiancee to return her engagement ring. When she
refused, he tried to pull it off her finger, according to the police
report, which said she punched him in the face four times, bloodying his
nose. (Oshkosh’s The Northwestern)

Scamarama

After fleecing an American woman of $60,000 in a 419 scam, the
scammers notified her that she had won $1.06 million and had to come to
South Africa and bring $2,000 with her to claim her prize in person.
“She duly came, and on arrival on April 15 they took her hostage from
the airport and kept her in a house in Albertsdal, Alberton, for well
over a month,” said Musa Zondi of South Africa’s Directorate for
Priority Crime Investigation. “She was fed once a day while in
captivity.” She managed to escape on May 22 by breaking a window and
notified police, who arrested three Nigerians and a South African woman.
(South African Press Association) 

Bad Samaritan of the Week

A man whose car overheated in Naples, Fla., called his friend, Robert
Matthew Garland, 20, to give him a ride. Instead, according to a
Collier County Sheriff’s Office report, Garland robbed him at gunpoint
of his wallet and shoes and then kicked him out of the car. (Naples Daily News)

Circumstantial Evidence

After Chicago police charged Lapolean Colbert, 19, with beating a
high school student to death, prosecutors told the judge that the
assault was captured on videotape and that Colbert identified himself in
the video and admitted to beating the victim. Despite the evidence
against him, Colbert’s lawyer, Michael Clancy, declared he would fight
the charges tooth and nail, explaining his client has no criminal
background, is a good student and was planning to go to college. (Fox
News)

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.