WhiteBoard News for Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Spotsylvania County, Virginia (CBS):

Edward Blaine might better have spent Wednesday in bed, with the covers pulled over his head. 

Police say Blaine, 61, tried to rob a Port Royal, Va., bank, and gave new meaning to having a bad day. 

He left $100 bills in his wake and, when he reached his rented getaway car, he found the keys had been locked inside. 

It didn't get any better. After he fled his locked car on foot, the frustrated suspect was run down by two civilians and inadvertently shot himself in the leg. 

When he continued to struggle, one of the citizens shot him in the leg, too. 

Caroline County Sheriff Homer Johnson said Blaine, of Spotsylvania County, was eventually charged with eight felonies, including robbery and two counts of attempted murder. He was hospitalized in Richmond for his injuries, which did not appear to be life threatening. 

According to The Free-Lance Star of Fredericksburg, Blaine walked up to two tellers at Union Bank & Trust and ordered them to "be cool" and give him all the money in large bills. The culprit had a gun in his pocket, Johnson said, but never pulled it out. 

Blaine fled the bank with several thousand dollars, but dropped several $100 bills along the way as he tried stuffing the money in his pockets, Johnson said. 

When beating on the car window with a large piece of wood only drew him the attention of the owner and an employee of the auto body shop where he'd parked the car -- blocking one of the bays -- Blaine abandoned the car and fled with them in pursuit. 

When the two men caught him, Blaine tried to shoot them, but instead couldn't get his gun out of his coat and shot his own leg, Johnson said. One of the men also shot the suspect when he kept fighting. 

Blaine had little reason to think this robbery would go well. Police said he served nearly 20 years in prison after being convicted of a bank robbery in Maryland in 1963. 

He had been due in court Thursday to accept a plea agreement for possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony. 

"That deal is off the table now," said King George County Commonwealth's Attorney Matt Britton. 
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Carlsbad, New Mexico (AP):

A sheriff's deputy who assisted two women and five children in a van after it ran out of gas here found there wasn't enough room in the tank because it was full of marijuana. 

Eddy County sheriff's deputy Kelly Calicoat was dispatched to a location near the New Mexico-Texas state line Wednesday to help a motorist who ran out of gas. 

Calicoat arrived to find the women and children had been given some fuel. He decided to follow them to ensure they had enough to reach Carlsbad, Bobby Sullivan of the Pecos Valley Drug Task Force said Thursday. 

Calicoat stopped the van after the driver exceeded the posted speed limit. 

Calicoat contacted the drug task force after speaking with women and becoming suspicious. 

The agents found a concealed compartment in the gas tank containing 72 pounds of marijuana. The also seized $700 in cash. 

The compartment significantly reduced the van's fuel capacity, Sullivan said. 

Leticia Guadian, 24, and Vanessa Chavez, 22, of Fabens, Texas, were arrested and charged with distribution of marijuana and conspiracy. Both were being held at the Eddy County Detention Center on Thursday on $10,000 secured bonds. 

Chavez's five children ranging in age from 18-months to five-years were kept in police custody until their father arrived to get them. 
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London, England (AP):

A woman who slipped into an erotic lingerie store to look around drew far more attention than she intended when her hands got stuck in sexy handcuffs and she had to be rescued by firefighters. 

A crowd gathered to watch the fire crew free the embarrassed shopper from the police-style cuffs with a hacksaw, Sarah Nosec, an assistant at the Ann Summers store in Wolverhampton, central England, said Monday. 

Nosec said the unidentified woman was in the store in the city's central plaza on Saturday with two friends when she began trying on the handcuffs. 

"People mess about all the time with the handcuffs and they jammed," she said. "We tried everything to get them off, but we couldn't, so we had to get the fire brigade out to saw them off. She was very embarrassed." 

The West Midlands Fire Service said it sent out an entire crew to deal with the emergency. 

"I think there was about six firefighters in the shop and they all wanted to come along as it was the highlight of their day," Nosec said. 
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Berlin, Germany (Independent Online):

A German shopkeeper fought off a knife-wielding robber by dropping a six-pack of beer on his feet, sending the assailant limping away empty-handed, police in the west German town of Bochum said on Sunday.

The man had entered a mini-market just minutes before closing time and asked for a six-pack of beer, police said.

The owner of the shop was about to hand it over to him when he pulled out a knife and told her: "If you scream I'll stab you to death."

But instead of screaming, she dropped the beer directly onto his feet and pushed the stunned and howling man out the door. Police said they were searching for the suspect, who was last seen hobbling away from the store. 
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Oslo, Norway (AP):

Like many Norwegian homeowners, Siri Hoelland had nervously awaited her power bill, unsure of the cost because of soaring electricity prices in recent months. 

She was shocked to find out it was more than 7.6 million kroner ($1.1 million). 

"There has been so much talk about high electricity prices that we wondered what the bill would be," the 37-year-old mother of three told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "But we hadn't thought it would be this bad." 

The local power company, Dalene Energi, traced the error to a computer glitch, and pledged to send out a corrected bill. 

Nearly all of this Scandinavian nation's electricity is produced from hydroelectric power, but less rain last summer left reservoirs at their lowest levels in six years, and power producers warned consumers to expect bigger bills. 

The family of five, who moved into a new house in Vikesaa, in southwestern Norway, during the summer, had expected a bill of just less than 6,000 kroner (US$870) for the two-month period, and had even resorted to heating the house with wood to keep costs down. 

Hoelland plans to keep the original bill for 7,626,319.63 kroner. 

"We're going to frame it and hang it on the wall," she said. 
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