WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Rome, Italy (Reuters):

A man in Sicily asked a friend to shoot him in the groin in the hope of making his ex-girlfriend feel sorry for him, police said on Friday. 

Police in the central Sicilian city of Piazza Armerina said they became suspicious when the 27-year-old went to hospital with wounds from a hunting rifle's pellets in the groin area. 

At first he said the wounds had been caused in a hunting accident, but later admitted he had asked a friend, 16, to shoot him in an attempt to win back the affection of his girlfriend, who had apparently left him because of his violent character. 

The man's wounds are expected to heal, doctors said. 

Police said the man, and the 16-year-old, had been charged in connection with the shooting. Local reports said the man's ex-girlfriend had made clear she never wanted to see him again. 
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Clearwater, Florida (Reuters):

A would-be jewel thief who swallowed a 1.5 carat diamond ring has been forced by nature to give up the evidence, Florida police said. 

A Clearwater Police Department spokesman said on Wednesday that Mary Flowers, 38, was arrested last week after a surveillance tape showed her putting the $20,000 ring in her mouth at a jewelry store in a mall. 

Flowers denied swallowing the ring until an X-ray showed it was inside her. 

She was kept under observation in a jail cell until the ring passed through her digestive system late on Monday. 

Flowers has been charged with grand theft with bail set at $5,000. Police are keeping the ring until the case is completed. 
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Chicago, Illinois (Reuters):

A burglar who was wounded while breaking into a Chicago suburb home drove himself to the hospital in his intended victim's BMW, which he had likely stolen the night before, police said Tuesday. 

The 31-year-old burglar, who let himself into the home on Monday night with keys he had apparently stolen on Sunday night, suffered two gunshot wounds and escaped by diving through a plate glass window. 

Police, who arrested him at the hospital, said his wounds were not life-threatening. 
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London, England (AP):

A flight in the United States proved lucky for a British woman who suffered a heart attack. Fifteen heart specialists, all bound for a medical conference in Florida, stood up to offer help when a cabin attendant asked, "Is there a doctor on board?" 

Dorothy Fletcher, 67, who had been on her way from Britain to her daughter's wedding, said Wednesday that she owed her life to the doctors. 

"I was in a very bad way and they all rushed to help," she said. 

"I wish I could thank them but I have no idea who they were, other than that they were going to a conference in Orlando." 

Fletcher, who lives in Liverpool, northwestern England, spent two days in intensive care at the Charlotte Medical Center in North Carolina following the heart attack on Nov. 7. 

She spent three more days in the hospital, but still made it to her daughter Caroline's wedding. 
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Salt Lake City, Utah (AP):

When robbing a bank, it may not be the smartest move to write the holdup note on a personal check. That's what led them to arrest two people here, police said. 

Witnesses told police a man and a woman walked into a bank and handed a teller a note saying they had a gun and wanted money. The note was scrawled on the back of a personal check. 

The robbers left the bank with $1,300. 

Witnesses wrote down the license plate number of the getaway car. 

Police said the name on the registration matched the name on the personal check used for the holdup note. 

After they were arrested, the suspects allegedly told police they wanted the money to pay a drug debt and buy clothes and cell phones. 
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