news & blues

Curses, Foiled AgAin

Police accused Anthony Parkhurst, 20, of stealing a 2001 Honda van advertised on Craigslist by taking it for a test drive but never returning. Orlando police Sgt. Stanley Klem said Parkhurst then listed the vehicle on Craigslist himself and sold it to a couple for $4,000. He promptly stole it and listed it on Craigslist the next day. The couple spotted the ad, alerted police and identified Parkhurst as the seller of the van. Suspecting Parkhurst of belonging to a statewide car-theft ring that stumped investigators for months, Klem said, “Stealing back the car they had just sold could be the break we needed.” (Orlando Sentinel) FBI agents had no trouble identifying Alan Garrett, 43, as their suspect in a bank robbery in Galloway, Ohio. Bank employees not only got the license number of the getaway car, which was traced to Garrett, but also recognized him as a regular customer at the bank. (Associated Press)

spontAneous HumAn Combustion

When a witness startled a man and a woman trying to siphon gas from a Salvation Army van in Tacoma, Wash., it suddenly erupted in flames, which spread to a second vehicle. Both suspects caught fire, too, according to police official Mark Fulghum, who reported the man was able to put out his own flames and fled. The witness used a garden hose to douse the 20-year-old woman, who was taken to a Seattle hospital. (Tacoma’s The News Tribune)

looks minus tHe tAlent — And egos

A Los Angeles sperm bank has launched a service that lets its clients choose donors who resemble Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Justin Timberlake, Tiger Woods and other entertainment and sports celebrities. Pointing out that state law requires sperm donors to be anonymous, Scott Brown, the communications director for California Cryobank, said the clinic’s “Donor Look-A-Like” service is “a way

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of connecting the client to the donor” by suggesting which celebrity the donor most resembles and showing pictures of those celebrities to give clients a “general idea.” Acknowledging that there’s no guarantee the offspring will actually resemble the celebrities, Brown said that since introducing “Donor Look-A-Like,” the clinic has seen a 400 percent increase in visitors to its website. (The Washington Times)

my bAd

Florida authorities charged Amber Lee, 21, with murder for running over a man she thought raped her, but the Florida Highway Patrol said she killed the wrong guy. After Lee mowed down Timothy Bualkmann, 32, with her car in Hendry County, her attorney said the man accused

of raping Lee had been arrested but was released for lack of evidence. “I’m sorry for the man’s family and everything,” Lee said of Bualkmann, “but what happened was an accident.” (CNN)

HomelAnd inseCurity

Prosecutors in Salisbury, N.H., dropped charges against Walter Scott Jr., 59, after a device in his possession that police initially described as a powerful pipe bomb turned out to be a “tire thumper,” used to check the pressure of truck tires by banging on them. The device, consisting of a piece of PVC pipe with metal weights inside, couldn’t have harmed anyone, according to Scott’s attorney, Ted Barnes, “unless they were hit over the head with it.” (Concord Monitor)

breAking non-news

Norwegian radio journalist Pia Beate Pedersen announced to listeners of public broadcast station NRK that she was “quitting and walking away” because station management was putting too much pressure on the staff and that she “wanted to be able to eat properly again and be able to breathe.” Before walking out, she refused to read the scheduled newscast, declaring on air, “Nothing important has happened anyway.” (Britain’s Daily Mail)

reAsonAble explAnAtions

When police in Naperville, Ill., stopped a car clocked at 100 mph in a 50-mph zone, driver Lucas S. Wright, 24, explained “he’d just gotten his car washed and he was trying