Curses, foiled again
Police were able to identify two people who snatched a purse from an 82-year-old woman in New Castle, Pa., because the victim’s 89-year-old friend banged the getaway car with her cane as it pulled away. Police Chief Thomas Sansone said officers found the car by matching the dent to the cane and arrested Jerry Brown Jr., 27, and Tatiana Vargas, 21. (Associated Press) While Pittsburgh police Detective Robert DiGiacomo was looking for an assault suspect, a man climbed into his unmarked car and ordered him to get out. DiGiacomo reported he pulled his gun and identified himself to Micah Calamosca, 21, who explained “he was filming the movie Batman, and that him taking my vehicle was part of the script.” DiGiacomo added, “At no point did I think that was the truth.” In addition, DiGiacomo noted Calamosca fit the assault suspect’s description. (Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV)
Power of suggestion
William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse from Faribault, Minn., persuaded two people he met online to commit suicide. Prosecutors said he posed as a suicidal female nurse to win the trust of a 32-year-old Englishman and an 18-year-old Canadian woman, then pretended to enter into suicide pacts with them and offered detailed instructions on how to take their own lives. (Associated Press) After Wesley McKinley, 16, committed suicide, Sarasota, Fla., school officials placed North Port High School principal George Kenney on administrative leave upon learning he hypnotized McKinley the day before his death. Kenney reportedly has been hypnotizing students for the past two years and had permission from McKinley’s parents to use hypnosis on their son. (Tampa’s WTSP-TV)
Revenge of the poo-poo heads
After an elementary school in Channelview, Texas, suspended a pupil for uttering the phrase “poo-poo head,” the boy’s mother, Tammy Harris, demanded the school library ban the book “The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby” because it contains the same phrase. A committee rejected Harris’s complaint. She appealed and won. (Houston’s KTRK-TV)
Sleep assurance
The Crowne Plaza hotel chain introduced “snore monitors” at six of its hotels in Britain to combat noisy sleepers. The monitors patrol the hotels’ designated quiet zones and knock on the door to warn guests who snore too loudly. “Repeat offenders will be offered an alternative room away from the quiet zone for their next stay,” said Laura Simpson, snore monitor at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Leeds. The hotel chain also is testing “snore absorption” rooms at 10 hotels in Europe and the Middle East. The rooms feature soundproofing on the walls and headboards, anti-snoring pillows and white-noise machines. (Reuters)
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.
