WhiteBoard News for Monday, September 8, 2003

Salt Lake City, Utah (Salt Lake Tribune):

Two wannabe cops will most likely never fulfill their dream. 

The men were arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing two laptop computers, a rifle and a shotgun from three squad cars. In interviews with investigators, the men, ages 21 and 24, said they did not take the items for any malicious intent but because they wanted to get a sense of police life. 

"This is not a way to break into the business, " Assistant Sal Lake City Police Chief Craig Gibson said. 

Acting on a tip, officers served a search warrant on an unmarked security car parked in front of an apartment complex. Inside the vehicle they found a laptop previously stolen from a North Salt Lake police car. 

The officers searched the home of the 21-year-old, who works for the security company. Investigators found an M-16 rifle and another laptop taken from a Utah Highway Patrol trooper's car. 

The men may face federal gun charges. 
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Raleigh, North Carolina (Raleigh News & Observer):

A prosecutor claims Barry Huang, a former North Carolina State University professor, used an unusual method to smuggle a vacuum-cleaner hose out of a Sam's Club three days before Christmas last year: inserting it under his clothes via his unzipped pants.

Huang's lawyer, Rob Lane, said the 72-year-old did not steal the $14 hose. Rather, Lane said, Huang found the hose in an empty box on his way out of the store. Huang then put the hose under his shirt, Lane said.

Asked while the jury was deliberating why Huang's fly was down when security officers approached him, Lane said, "There was clear testimony that he walks around with his pants unzipped a lot." Both Huang and his wife testified the professor is a bit absentminded, Lane said.

A Wake County jury chose Thursday to believe the testimony of the Sam's Club employee. Huang was found guilty of misdemeanor larceny.
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Simi Valley, California (Ventura County Star):

What began as an effort to recall a convicted felon from a condo association board turned bizarre when prosecutors discovered the felon never served her time.

Now, because of the controversy caused by her board membership at the Vista del Monte condos, the U.S. Attorney's Office has ordered Judith Collins to appear in court next week to turn herself in and serve the mandatory 41-month sentence in a federal lockup for her 1995 conviction.

Collins, 57, was convicted eight years ago of aiding and abetting a man in a scam to bilk investors out of more than $1 million. She was sentenced in 1996, but somehow never actually made it to prison.

"At this juncture, I am unclear as to why she was never called in to serve her sentence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Davis said Thursday, clearly miffed. "I do think this is an unusual situation."
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Manila, Philippines (Independent Online):

A 53-year-old father ended up in jail in the Philippines after pulling a gun on his son in an attempt to get him to have his hair cut, a police report said on Sunday.

Paciano Ochada was arrested in the suburban city of Caloocan after he threatened to shoot his 25-year-old son, Joey, who refused to trim his locks, the report said.

According to investigators, Paciano nagged his son to cut his hair since Joey grew it out like his idol in a Taiwanese television series popular in Manila.

On Saturday, Paciano came home drunk and again told his son to see the barber.

"When the young man refused to get a haircut, the suspect pulled out his gun and poked it at him," the report said. "Neighbours heard the commotion and called the police."

While pacifying the father and son, police found that Paciano's gun was unlicensed and hauled him to jail. Authorities are preparing to file a charge of illegal possession of firearms against him.
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Oslo, Norway (Ananova):

They met via a cell phone text message, courted and fell in love on the telephone and picked out their wedding rings while talking to each long-distance from jewelry shops in two cities. 

So what could be more natural than Grete Irene Myrslett, 35, and Frode Tangedahl Stroemsoe, 31, getting married in a phone booth? 

That's what they did this weekend in a wedding _ and honeymoon cruise _ sponsored by Norway's state-run telecom, Telenor ASA, to mark the 70th anniversary of its landmark red phone booths that dot the Nordic country of 4.5 million residents. 

Last year, Myrslett, of Oslo, and Stroemsoe, who lives on the other side of country, met through SMS Flirt, a mobile telephone messaging service for singles, Norwegian news media reported this weekend. 

Within a month, they'd run up $1,481 in cell phone bills. So to save money, Stroemsoe, with no regular telephone, waited outside a phone booth each night at 11 p.m. to talk to Myrslett. Cell phone calls are more expensive in Norway than those made via land lines. 

They decided to get married and even picked out their wedding rings before they ever met in person. 

Finally, Myrslett flew to Haugesund, about 200 miles west of the capital, Oslo, to meet her fiance. 

Wedding invitations were via short messaging service, or SMS, and drew about 100 guests to Saturday's wedding. 
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Millford Haven, England (Ananova):

A couple have been rescued by coastguards after falling 20ft into muddy water when they lost their balance on a harbour wall celebrating their engagement.

Millford Haven Coastguard said the man picked up his girlfriend in a romantic embrace after she accepted his marriage proposal on Friday night then lost his balance sending them both plunging into the mud 20ft below.

A coastguard spokesman described the location on the harbour wall at Saundersfoot, on the west Wales coast, as the perfect spot to pop the question.

He said: "It is a beautiful, picturesque spot but all the coastguards could see when they looked down off the harbour wall were four white eyes looking up at them from the mud.

"It was a romantic plan that certainly went pear-shaped."

The embarrassed couple, who were on holiday in the area, were rescued just after 8pm by coastguards from Tenby who used a ladder to retrieve them from the mud as the tide was out.

The spokesman added: "No-one was hurt apart from their pride and maybe their love. No-one knows if the engagement is still on."
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Chow
SuperChef
www.joeha.com