Curses, foiled again
A woman in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., reported hearing a man outside her bedroom window telling someone on a cell phone, “I’m about to commit a crime.” She awoke her boyfriend, who said he observed the intruder sit down on a nearby deck and continue his call. Later, he heard a glass door breaking. An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy who responded followed a trail of blood from the glass door to a nearby intersection, where he found Kevin Wayne Weathersby, 30, sitting on a curb bleeding. (Northwest Florida Daily News) A worker counting the night’s take at a Burger King in Pine Bluff, Ark., told police a man approached with a gun, threatened to kill her and demanded the cash. When he set the gun down so he could put the money in a bag, the worker grabbed it, shot the robber during a struggle, then put him in a headlock and called police, who arrested Jason Robinson, 22. (Pine Bluff Commercial Appeal)
Volkswagen commercials come to life
An Iowa man was telling a 911 dispatcher that a stranger punched him for no reason at a pedestrian mall in Iowa City when he interrupted himself to tell the dispatcher that a different man had just walked up and punched him. Police said the second man was a friend of the original assailant. (Cedar Rapids’ KCRG-TV News)
Defenders of the faith
Authorities said Timothy Neal, 44, and his twin 18year-old sons beat up another man during a drunken brawl at a bonfire in Madison County, Mo., according to sheriff’s Capt. Brad Wells, who explained, “The victim had been talking about religion and demons when the other three became upset and started whipping up on him.” Wells added he didn’t know what specific religious issue started the argument but that the demon talk prompted the beating. (St. Louis Post- Dispatch)
Guns and love don’t mix
Justin Paul Goldstone, 21, admitted killing his girlfriend with a sawed-off shotgun, which he pointed at her with his finger on the trigger while she took his picture. Goldstone said he believed his finger was outside the trigger guard and not resting on the trigger. “I’m satisfied that you didn’t use the gun deliberately, but you did know the gun was loaded,” New Zealand Justice Forrest Miller said when sentencing Goldstone in the High Court at Auckland to three years and four months in jail. (New Zealand Press Association)
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.
