Curses, Foiled Again
Wearing a ski mask and sunglasses, John Columbus Beane, 58, entered a pizza place in Sissonville, W.Va., pointed a .410 shotgun at several employees and demanded money. The workers fled, leaving the store’s electronic cash register. Beane couldn’t figure out how to open it, however, and left empty-handed. Later that night, he entered a sports bar just down the road, again showing a shotgun and announcing a robbery. This time, two patrons wrestled the weapon from him and repeatedly clubbed him with it until police arrived. (The Charleston Gazette)
A man barged into a motel room in Bradenton, Fla., pulled a black handgun from his waistband and demanded “everything you got” from the two men inside. Police Capt. Warren Merriman said the men began to fight, the intruder dropped his gun, and one of the victims pepper-sprayed him in the face. The suspect ran away but returned moments later and begged the two men to sell him back his gun for $40. They pepper-sprayed him in the face again, and he ran away. This time, a police officer who had arrived on the scene, spotted the fleeing suspect and arrested Cedrick Mitchell, 39. (Bradenton Herald)
Uncivil Liberties
Witnesses said a man in his 30s began punching a 67-year-old man in one of the boxes during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “Brahms Symphony No. 2.” The younger man left before police arrived and learned the men had been fighting over seats. The concert continued throughout the incident, although patrons said conductor Riccardo Muti gave the two men a sharp, irritating look—one person called it “dagger eyes”— before continuing with the third movement. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Safety-Net Follies
Convicted killer Anthony “Chopper” Garcia, 22, received more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits from 2008 to 2010 while doing time in Los Angeles County jail. Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker said Garcia’s father and two girlfriends cashed the fraudulently obtained checks and deposited the money to inmate accounts of Garcia and fellow gang members. (Associated Press)
Slightest Provocation
Sheriff’s deputies accused Alicia Martin, 28, and Kathryn Rayannic, 23, of attacking two bar employees in St. James City, Fla., because they were angry that none of the customers was willing to pay to see their breasts. Witnesses said the women had consumed “excessive quantities” of beer at the bar, and when they ran out of money “were offering to show their boobs for drinks,” waiter Shaun Bassett said. “Basically, when they were turned down, they kind of got a little rowdy.” The two victims escorted the women to the parking lot, where the women turned and punched one employee in the head and threatened the other with a knife. (Fort Myers’s WZVN-TV)
San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said Mario Naranjo, 44, and Miguel Naranjo, 22, tried to buy beer at a store in Hesperia, Calif., but their credit card was declined. After trying but failing twice more, the father and son stabbed the clerk in the neck and stomach with a 7-inch folding knife. Then they hit him with an 18-pack of Anheuser-Busch Natural Ice beer because, a sheriff’s official said, they felt disrespected. (San Bernardino’s The Sun)
A clerk at a Detroit gas station shot a customer who complained that the price of condoms was too high. Police said the customer bought a box of condoms but told the clerk he could have gotten them cheaper elsewhere. After being denied a refund, the customer began tossing items off the shelves. The night clerk appeared with a gun and fired a warning shot that struck the customer in the shoulder. He died at the hospital. (Detroit’s WWJ-TV)
Philadelphia police accused Tyrirk Harris, 27, of fatally shooting his 47-year-old neighbor after the neighbor’s dogs pooped in his yard. “We believe this is not an isolated incident,” Chief Inspector Scott Small said. “There have been arguments over these dogs in the past.” (Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV)
Truancy Thwarted
A Brazilian school system is spending $670,000 to provide students with computer chips, to be embedded in school uniforms, that send a text message to the cellphones of parents when their children enter the school or alert them if the children fail to arrive within 20 minutes after classes begin. Coriolano Moraes, education secretary of Vitoria da Conquista’s 213 public schools, said nearly half of the city’s 43,000 public school students have started using the chips and that all of them will be using them by next year. (Associated Press)
Leading the Witness
Superior Court Judge David E. Barrett was presiding over a bond hearing for a sheriff’s deputy accused of rape and assault in Lumpkin County, Ga., when the female victim became evasive while giving testimony. The judge informed the woman she was “killing her case” by being uncooperative, then pulled out his handgun and feigned offering it to her, saying, “You might as well shoot your lawyer.” District Attorney Jeff Langley approached the judge and asked him to put away the weapon. He did, and the hearing proceeded. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Not Lovin’ It
After Evangeline Marrero Lucca, 37, cut ahead of a McDonald’s drive-through line in Fayetteville, N.C., store employees told her she would have to go around and wait in line like everybody else to place her order. The woman became confrontational and refused to move, sheriff’s official Debbie Tanna said, noting that when deputies arrived, “she really got mad.” Lucca stayed put for about 20 minutes, whereupon several deputies entered the car and used a Taser on her, according to witness Anthony Rich, who said, “When they Tased her the second time, she just flopped out of the car like a fish.” (Fayetteville Observer)
Scanner Follies
Spanish police arrested 22 Romanian nationals suspected of operating two Madrid prostitution rings that tattooed women on the wrist with bar codes as a sign of ownership. Police dubbed the suspects “bar code pimps.” (Associated Press)
Why Rent When You Can Own?
NASA head Charles F. Bolden Jr. asked Congress for $830 million so the agency can stop paying Russia to ferry U.S space crews to the International Space Station. “I’m going to pay the Russians $450 million a year for every year that I don’t have an American capability to put humans into low-Earth orbit,” Bolden told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Admitting that the agency’s reliance on Russia is the result of poor planning over the past several years, Bolden said that with the money, partnerships with private industry and President Obama’s commitment, the United States could begin transporting its own crews as early as 2017. (The Washington Times)
