Georgia Exxon Station a Focal Point for Dummies in the News

January 28, 2007, Stockbridge, Ga
Firsthand account by "Danlor"

Award #1 goes to the moron who broke into the Exxon gas station I work at to steal not the money... not the tobacco... not even the beer. Nope, Mr. Genius stole some, not all, of the scratch-off lottery tickets.

The first thing I did when I arrived (at 5 AM on a Sunday morning after driving an hour and a half --) was call the lottery people and had them flag all the tickets as stolen. Don't people know that gas stations keep track of the serial numbers of all activated lottery ticket packs? Now when the smart guy tries to cash them in, they will get busted.

What happened is that someone broke into the gas station overnight by throwing a large chunk of concrete through the front door window. He then entered through the now gaping hole in the door and ran up to the front counter. I do not think he went behind the counter because all of the items on the customer side of the counter in front of the lotto scratch-off dispensers were knocked down, and scattered across the floor (lip balm, lighters, etc.). If he had gone behind the counter he would probably have noticed the petty cash drawer with a tidy sum of change in it.

Anyway, the burglar runs up to the front counter, reaches across and rips the lotto scratchoff dispensers right from the counter (they were fixed there via an adhesive). There were 6 columns of dispensers, arranged in order of value ($1 tickets, then $2, $3, $5 and finally $10). Oddly enough he ripped out the first two ($1 and $2) and the last two ($5 and $10), but left the middle two ($2 and $3) alone. It appears that as soon as he had the lotto dispensers, he raced out the entrance again.

There were lotto tickets that had torn off during his flight back out of the store... they were laying in front of the store when I arrived. So obviously, I was confused when I had arrived. I received a call from the owner saying that the store had been broken into so I went to talk to the police. I was expecting something like the petty cash to be gone, the registers to be looted/missing entirely, the backroom computer to be gone and all the cartons of cigarettes to be missing. Oddly enough, the police officer who I talked to didn't seem too surprised... as if this had happened before.

But yeah, all the tickets are reported stolen now... I can't wait to see if the guy tries to cash them in!

Award #2 goes to the astute customer who noticed the broken glass and the trail of sparkly (and sharp might I add) trail of glass leading from the broken door to the counter. First thing he asks is "Hey, did somebody break in?"... I reply "Nope, the cost of air conditioning was too high so we decided to knock out the glass on the door to get a nice cool current flowing through." (Here's yer sign. Ed.)

Man Found Dead with 47 Tombstones in Storage

Feb 2, 3:38 PM (ET)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A dead man's storage locker yielded dozens of tombstones, a macabre collection that police believe represents "a lifetime of stealing."

Some of the 47 gravestones date to the late 1800s; others are relatively recent. Police say they probably came from different cemeteries at different times.

The markers were found in the rented storage unit by the family of Clarence Horner, 54, after he died last year.

Police Chief Tom Casady said the tombstone collection "probably came from a lifetime of stealing headstones." Horner had a criminal record that included convictions for drunken driving and failing to appear at a hearing on a vandalism charge.

Two of the tombstones have been matched to graves.

Casady on Thursday found the mother named on a stone that said only: "Infant son of Charles & Janice Schmidt 1965."

Janice Schmidt of Clatonia, 25 miles south of Lincoln, said she and her husband had always thought of their stillborn baby as Michael Shawn Schmidt, so in 2000 they put in a new stone with the name.

She was shocked that the original gravestone had turned up in a storage unit.

"To think that it was stolen from wherever it was stolen from, you feel kind of hurt or violated," she said.

The second matched tombstone was a temporary marker for a Shelly Wright-Lair, who died Oct. 5, 1981. Someone from a Lincoln cemetery saw the marker on a police Web site and matched the name to cemetery records.

"We don't know how long it had been missing," police spokeswoman Katherine Finnell said, "but a larger one had been put back on the grave."

Authorities believe Horner died March 10. "He had been dead in his apartment for several weeks when maintenance found him, so I don't think he had much contact with family," Finnell said.

Rowboat Owner Ticketed For Running A Stoplight

WESTTOWN, N.Y. (AP) - According to New York City's traffic office, Russell Falkena ran a red light on Manhattan's West Side, in his rowboat.

Falkena, 46, of Westtown in upstate Orange County, recently received a $50 traffic ticket in the mail for running a light in December. The notice included photographs of the vehicle and its license plate captured by traffic cameras that monitor Manhattan's intersections.

It turns out the plate number on the ticket matches those on the registration for Falkena's aluminum rowboat, which he says hadn't left his yard in years. Plus, Falkena says, he was returning from a trip out West at the time he was supposedly ignoring the city's traffic laws.

But this West Side story has a happy ending. A city official told the Middletown Times Herald-Record that the ticket will be dismissed.

Retired Man Nails Robbery Suspect With Frying Pan

WASHINGTON (AP) - A quick-acting retiree whacked a teenage robbery suspect over the head with a frying pan, an action praised by District of Columbia police. Police had been pursuing a red Jeep believed to be carrying two suspects following a reported robbery about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Darnell Gant, 17, got out of the Jeep, took off in another car, and then ran into Gary and Trudy Peterson's backyard in a Capitol Hill neighborhood.

About 9:30 p.m., Gary Peterson, a retired attorney, opened his door to see what the commotion was about and spotted Gant in his backyard. Peterson yelled to police, "He's in here!" before Gant ran into the house.

Peterson grabbed a copper-bottom frying pan and hit the suspect on the head. "I think he was shocked," Peterson, 62, said Thursday. "I don't think he expected somebody like me to haul off and whack him."

Gant then fled into the couple's basement, where he barricaded himself for 2 1/2 hours before his grandmother talked him into surrendering over the phone. The teenager had recently escaped from a group home. Gant was charged as an adult with armed robbery. Police said that during the chase, Gant hit and injured a bicyclist and fired shots at police but did not hit anyone.

Cmdr. Diane Groomes of the 1st Police District called Peterson a hero. "And we liked his choice of weapon," she said.

Ex – Citizen of the Year Guilty of Theft Feb 2, 5:56 PM (ET)

BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) - The former Citizen of the Year in Derry pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than $250,000 from the nonprofit agency she led.

Police accused former Derry Economic Development Corporation chief Cheryl Crawford, 58, of taking the money and gambling it away on the Internet. She also stole from the Derry Depot Square Holdings, a subsidiary for the economic development agency.

Crawford faces up to 10 years at the New Hampshire State Prison. She also must repay the agency and spend 100 hours talking to the public about the dangers of gambling.

Good Security…WTG Guys Feb 2, 5:30 PM (ET)

COLUMBIA, Pa. (AP) - Lancaster County detectives are trying to find out how a Columbia Police Department computer containing crime-scene photographs, autopsy photos and confidential data wound up at a computer store, prosecutors said.

"The computer was turned over to this office yesterday by the owner of a computer-repair business who received it as a trade-in for a used computer system," District Attorney Donald R. Totaro said Thursday. A customer who traded the computer in at The Computer Outlet said he had obtained it from a police officer who rented him an apartment, store owner Jesse Sweigart said.

Farmer Catches Thief and is Charged Himself

CAMBRIDGE, Minn. (AP) - A 74-year-old man who chased down a thief and held him at gunpoint until authorities arrived now faces a charge more serious than the thief himself.

Kenneth Englund, an Isanti County farmer and Township Board member for 37 years, is charged with second-degree assault, a felony. The thief, who the sheriff said admitted to stealing about $5 worth of gasoline from Englund's neighbor, was charged with misdemeanor theft.

Sheriff Mike Ammend said people can't take the law into their own hands, and that Englund's actions were "an invitation to a shootout. There's so many things that could have gone wrong here."

On Oct. 15, Englund pointed a gun at Christian Harris Smith, 28, and a woman at the vacant farm next to Englund's place. He then chased their vehicle at speeds of 70 mph, according to the criminal complaint. A 3-year-old child was in the vehicle.

During the chase, Englund used a cell phone to call the sheriff's office and asked if he should "blow them away," according to the complaint. His shotgun turned out to be unloaded.

Englund pleaded not guilty, was released without bail and is scheduled to return to court Feb. 22.

Smith was charged with another theft and was held in the county jail on a felony warrant from another state.

More than 350 people attended a fundraising dinner for Englund last month and a petition has circulated supporting his case.

Still, Ammend said, there was danger, especially since a woman and child were in the vehicle: "What happens if there was a crash?"

Chief Deputy County Attorney Dan Conlin said no one is looking to put Englund in jail, calling that idea "silly." He also said while the charge fits the facts of the case, it doesn't need to be resolved as a felony.

People who use force to protect property haven't always fared well in court. In a 1983 case, a jury ruled that a Holloway man should pay $77,000 to a burglar he chased down and shot in the foot. The case was settled for half that or less; the burglar got probation.

In 1999, a Red Wing man received six months in jail after he booby-trapped his Wisconsin cabin and injured a burglar. According to media reports, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld $30,000 in damages against the owner of a booby-trapped abandoned farmhouse in 1978, and a California homeowner was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon when his spring gun shot a teenage burglar in 1974.

In Englund's case, some of his neighbors who are concerned about rising crime have been his supporters.

Richard Hansen, chairman of the Bradford Township Board, said crime has risen so much that board meetings have drawn crowds of about 50 people, and a committee was formed to meet with the sheriff and county attorney. The township, about 45 miles north of Minneapolis, does not have a police force. Barbara Ford, of Ham Lake, who owns the land where the theft took place, said she's had attempted break-ins.

"I'll do anything I can to support Mr. Englund," she said. Englund said criminals can escape by the time a deputy arrives from Cambridge, the county seat, about 14 miles away.

The sheriff said his department is understaffed - with 14 deputies to patrol 440 miles of roads.

"We want people's help, we need their help (calling with information), but we don't want people taking the law into their own hands," he said.

Law Enforcement: The War on Neighbors of Drug Dealers Continues
Posted in Speakeasy Main by Scott Morgan on Mon, 01/29/2007 - 9:58pm

81-year-old Isaac Singletary was gunned down in his yard by police who were investigating someone else.

Singletary was known for chasing drug dealers off his property, but when he emerged with a gun and threatened two undercover officers lurking in his yard, they promptly took him down. It was Jacksonville, Florida's third fatal police shooting in 3 weeks.

An investigation is pending, but the police chief sounds confident (predictably) that the shooting was justified. From News4Jax.com:

"You don't expect somebody to come pointing a gun at you, and once they do that, the officers will tell them to drop the gun," JSO Chief Dwain Senterfitt said. "We're still investigating what statements were made, but obviously, at that point, the officers' lives were in danger."

I fail to understand what's so surprising about someone defending their property from unknown trespassers in a high-crime neighborhood. If the officers were surprised to be confronted, they shouldn't have been. They were out of uniform on private property.

It seems likely that both parties involved in this tragedy could have handled it better. Hindsight is 20/20. But the drug war is blind. Prohibition would still be a nightmare if police could enforce it without killing innocent people. Unfortunately, they can't.