NEWSQUIRKS
Curses, foiled again
A shoplifter who made off with $1,200 worth of designer purses from a store in Cape Coral, Fla., was run over twice by her getaway car. The Fort Myers News- Press reported that a security guard said the woman tried to enter the vehicle when it pulled up as she was fleeing, but she fell out. After the car ran over her, she got up and jumped onto the hood. As the car started driving away, it ran her over again. She managed to get into the car on the passenger side, but a personal business check fell out of the vehicle made out to LaKeitha Watson-Atkinson, whom police charged with several retail thefts.
School daze
Chicago Public School employees spent $67,000 to buy 30 cappuccino machines for a culinary arts program, according to an inspector general’s report, which noted that employees separated the purchases to stay under $10,000 so they wouldn’t have to seek competitive bids or school board approval. The report indicated that several months after the purchase, only three of the machines were in use, although not for the program. One has disappeared, and 22 hadn’t even been opened.
Assisting arrest
Employees who caught a man stealing $900 worth of power tools, clothing, video games and DVDs at a Sears store in Frederick, Md., called police, but when officers hadn’t shown up after three hours, store officials released him. The Frederick News-Post reported that Maryland State Police eventually got around to tracking down the suspect and called him to come in for questioning. He not only agreed, but even showed up early and confessed to shoplifting.
Tree hugger
Sheriff’s deputies in Hillsborough County, Fla., charged Jose Raul Moreno- Lopez, 38, with “lewd and lascivious exhibition” after they said he made sexual motions against a tree.
When guns are outlawed
Police arrested Cassady C. Catolico, 28, in St. Petersburg, Fla., for hitting a man in the head with a bagel.
Compiled from the nation’s press by Roland Sweet. Submit items, citing date and source, to P.O. Box 8130, Alexandria VA 22306.
