Curses, foiled again
After Eric Ford, 26, reported the theft of $2,300 worth of audio gear from his girlfriend’s vehicle in Lincoln, Neb., police told him it was unlikely to be recovered. Hours later, Ford, who works at a business that installs car stereos, said a customer asked him to hook up a piece of equipment that Ford recognized as his girlfriend’s. “I was kind of upset, but I was kind of laughing about it,” Ford said after calling police, who arrested Anthony Trang, 21, and recovered assorted stolen audio equipment, tools and a rifle. (Lincoln Journal Star) Police Officer Tony Ferro reported that when he detained Daniel Augustus Jones Jr., 22, after finding him standing in the middle of an intersection in Gainesville, Fla., one afternoon, smelling of marijuana, Jones volunteered, “I don’t have any drugs on me.” To prove it, he emptied his backpack onto the street, whereupon Ferro and another officer spotted a quarter-pound bag of marijuana. After his arrest, Jones told Ferro he “forgot he had a bag of weed.” (The Gainesville Sun)
Perfect pitch
Laurel Gordon, 18, competing to become Washington state’s dairy ambassador, has been Grays Harbor County’s dairy ambassador for the past two years. Gordon is lactose intolerant. (Aberdeen’s The Daily World)
Slightest provocation
Police arrested Zachary Wood, 21, in Gordon County, Tenn., for stabbing a friend while the two argued about whether Ford or Chevrolet vehicles were better. (Chattanooga Times Free Press) Authorities in Weld County, Colo., arrested Christina Cantu, 34, after she tried to stab her live-in boyfriend because he was paying more attention to a sick calf than to her. The sheriff’s affidavit says she accused the boyfriend “of not being in love with her anymore.” (Greeley Tribune)
Kids today
State troopers reported that a 14-year-old boy was seriously injured in Katy, Texas, when he tried to skateboard while holding on to a moving SUV. The boy’s father was driving. The boy was trying to show his dad a trick, called “skitching,” where he pushes the skateboard ahead of the SUV, then runs to jump on and grab the SUV at the same time. Troopers said the teen was going 10 mph when he lost his balance, fell and hit his head on the concrete. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. (Houston’s KPRC-TV)
Paper or plastic?
Chinese families in Malaysia caused a shortage of paper replicas of Apple’s iPad 2 by buying them to burn at this year’s Qingming festival. The centuries-old rite honors ancestors by burning fake money or replicas of expensive merchandise. “Some of my customers have dreams where their departed relatives will ask for luxury items, including the iPad 2,” said Jeffrey Te, a prayer-item shopkeeper outside Kuala Lumpur. “I can only offer them the first iPad model.” First- and second-generation paper iPads sell for $1 for models with 888 gigabyte capacity, an auspicious number in Chinese culture. (Reuters)
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.
