Curses, Foiled Again
When a man entered a bank in New Castle, Del., and handed a teller a hold-up note, she told him she couldn’t make out what it said and asked him to rewrite it. Instead, he left empty-handed. Police spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description and arrested Thomas J. Love, 40. (Philadelphia’s WPVI-TV)
State police said brothers Alexander Jones, 25, and Benjamin Jones, 24, spent several weeks using a blowtorch to dismantle a 70-year-old bridge near New Castle, Pa. Then they hauled away 15.5 tons of steel to a scrap dealer, hoping to cash in on the demand for metal. Instead, they received only $5,100 because the demand for steel had dropped recently. What’s more, when the recycler heard about the bridge theft, he notified authorities. “They saw it as an opportunity to make money,” Trooper Randolph Guy said. “But that’s not much money for the work they did.” (Wall Street Journal)
Lest We Remember
Dec. 30, 2011, never happened in Samoa and Tokelau, as the Pacific island neighbors switched sides of the International Date Line. The change puts the islands’ workdays in sync with its Asian-Pacific neighbors, increasing trade possibilities, according to Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, Samoa’s prime minister. (Associated Press)
Too Short to Run
U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney denied a request by four presidential candidates to add their names to Virginia’s March 6 primary ballot because they failed to collect the required 10,000 signatures. Only Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul qualified. In addition, state officials said Newt Gingrich’s petition had 1,500 signatures that appeared to be signed by the same person. “If someone is running for president of the United States,” state Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, chair of the Virginia Senate Republican caucus, said, “you would think they would understand the requirements.” (The Washington Post)
When Spellcheck Isn’t Enough
When Democrats in Derby, Conn., nominated James R. Butler, 72, as their candidate for the 10-member Board of Apportionment and Taxation, his name was mistakenly listed on the ballot as “James J. Butler.” Butler received the most votes, but there’s a real James J. Butler, 46, who happens to be James R. Butler’s son. Av Harris of the secretary of state’s office said James J. Butler should be sworn in because he was the one elected. (Associated Press)
Rescue of the Week
Firefighters in Vallejo, Calif., rescued a 21-year-old man who spent nine hours stuck in a child’s swing. The man told police he became stuck after making a $100 bet with friends, then lubricating himself with laundry detergent so his legs would fit through the swing’s two leg holes. When he couldn’t get out, his friends left him overnight. Summoned by a groundskeeper who heard his screams for help the next morning, firefighters cut the swing chains, then took the victim to a medical center and used a cast cutter to slice the swing off his body. (Vallejo’s Times-Herald)
Silent Treatment
To encourage civility among reckless drivers and inattentive pedestrians, Mayor Carlos Ocariz of the Sucre district of Caracas, Venezuela, assigned 120 mimes dressed in clown suits and white gloves to wag their fingers at offenders. “Many times, the mimes can achieve what traffic police cannot achieve using warning and sanctions in their efforts to maintain control,” said Alex Ojeda, head of a cultural organization that hired professional actors to train the mimes, although he conceded that changing motorists’ behavior might take time. At a ceremony for newly trained mimes, Ocariz vowed to continue the initiative “until the streets of Sucre are full of creativity and education.” (Associated Press)
Old Habits Die Hard
While Mark Burgin was on trial for robbery in Franklin, Tenn., he was arrested for robbing a jewelry store during his lunch break. Describing the heist as “a grab and run,” jeweler Mike Walton provided police with a description that led them to Burgin. Judge Robbie Beal kept the news from the jury until they delivered a verdict— guilty— and then police charged Burgin. (Nashville’s The Tennessean)
Charles Burnett, 29, held up the same New York City bank three days in a row, using the cash to pay for a suite at a nearby luxury hotel during his spree and hiring a chauffeur-driven SUV to take him to his final heist. “I considered him a VIP because he was going to spend like $500,” driver Rafael Rubio said. By then, bank staffers recognized the 6-foot-1,275-pound thief as “the same dumb ass who hit us yesterday,” one of them said. Two passing police officers also recognized Burnett as he left the bank, pursued and tackled him. He was holding a sack with $10,002 in it. Officers found $3,000 more in his hotel room. (New York Post)
Drinking-Class Hero
After sponsoring a bill to legalize carrying a gun into bars in Tennessee, state Rep. Curry Todd was arrested in Nashville for drunken driving while possessing a loaded .38-caliber pistol. State law makes it a misdemeanor to consume alcohol while carrying a firearm in public. The police affidavit stated that Todd, who refused to take a Breathalyzer test, was “almost falling down at times” and was “obviously very impaired and not in any condition to be carrying a loaded handgun.” Todd made national news last year for commenting on a federal law requiring the state to extend prenatal care to women regardless of their citizenship that illegal immigrants “go out there like rats and multiply.” (Associated Press)
The Sharpie Look
Sheldon Williams, a student at Marshall Junior High School in Texas, complained that when he violated a school rule banning “designs shaved into the hair,” the principal used a permanent marker to fill in the design lines. (Shreveport, La.’s KSLA-TV)
When eHarmony Fails
Authorities accused Robbie Suhr, 48, of disguising himself by wearing dark clothes and a mask, then attacking a 26-year-old exchange student living with Suhr, his wife and their two children in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. Police said Suhr told them he wanted to be in a relationship with the woman and that he “intended to tie her up while masked, leave the area, and then return as himself to rescue her.” The woman had stepped outside for a smoke when the masked man appeared. “She fought back, and the suspect eventually gave up the attack and fled from the garage,” police Sgt. Peter Jung said. (Milwaukee’s WTMJ-TV)
Lasting Impression
Detailed photos of the moon’s surface, taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from an altitude of 13 to 15 miles, revealed that Apollo astronauts who visited the moon from 1969 to 1972 left behind buggy ruts in the surface and trash that included discarded backpacks, the bottom parts of three lunar landers, packing material and an insulation blanket. Arizona State University geology professor Mark Robinson, the orbiter’s chief scientist, predicted it would take 10 million to 100 million years for dust to cover signs of the astronauts’ landings. (Associated Press)
