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R.C. Gaitlin, 21, walked up to two patrol officers who were showing their squad car computer equipment to children
in a Detroit neighborhood. When he asked how the system worked, the officers asked him for a piece of identification.
Gaitlin gave them his driver's license, they entered it into the computer, and moments later they arrested Gaitlin
because information on the screen showed that Gaitlin was wanted for a two-year-old armed robbery in St. Louis,
Missouri.
Oklahoma City - Dennis Newton was on trial for the armed robbery of a convenience store in a district court this
week when he fired his lawyer. Assistant district attorney Larry Jones said Newton, 47, was doing a fair job of
defending himself until the store manager testified that Newton was the robber. Newton jumped up, accused the woman
of lying and then said, "I should of blown you [expletive] head off." The defendant paused, then quickly
added, "-- if I'd been the one that was there." The jury took 20 minutes to convict Hewton and recommend
a 30-year sentence.
Chicago - A man robbing a dry cleaning store blew off part of one finger with a shotgun, police said. "This
is no toy; the gun is loaded," the robber said to his victims Monday in the Pekin Cleaners on Chicago's south
side. Police said the robber, wearing a red handkerchief over his face and carrying a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun,
then opened the gun to show it was loaded. When he closed it, the weapon fired, taking off two-thirds of the little
finger of his left hand. After the gun fired, he took $10 from the cash register and a portable television set
from the counter and fled. Police said they recovered the tip of the finger and were able to get a fingerprint.
A store employee, Hattie Butler, said she did not realize the robber had injured himself because he did not show
any signs of pain.
Clever drug traffickers used a propane tanker truck entering El Paso from Mexico. They rigged it so propane gas
would be released from all of its valves while the truck concealed 6,240 pounds of marijuana. They were clever,
but not bright. They misspelled the name of the gas company on the side of the truck.
Drug-possession defendant Christopher Johns, on trial in March in Pontiac, Michigan, said he had been searched
without a warrant. The prosecutor said the officer didn't need a warrant because a "bulge" in Christopher's
jacket could have been a gun. Nonsense, said Christopher, who happened to be wearing the same jacket that day in
court. He handed it over so the judge could see it. The judge discovered a packet of cocaine in the pocket and
laughed so hard he required a five-minute recess to compose himself.
The Belgium news agency Belga reported in November that a man suspected of robbing a jewelry store in Liege said
he couldn't have done it "because he was busy breaking into a school at the same time." Police then arrested
him for breaking into the school.
David Posman, 33, was arrested recently in Providence, R.I, after allegedly knocking out an armored car driver
and stealing the closest four bags of money. It turned out they contained $800 in PENNIES, weighed 30 pounds each,
and slowed him to a stagger during his getaway so that police officers easily jumped him from behind.
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 7:50am,
flashed a gun and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without
a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated,
walked away.
Karen Lee Joachimmi, 20, was arrested in Lake City, Florida for robbery of a Howard Johnson's motel. She was armed
with only an electric chain saw, which was not plugged in.
Portsmouth, R.I. Police charged Gregory Rosa, 25, with a string of vending machine robberies in January when he
(1) fled from police inexplicably when they spotted him loitering around a vending machine and (2) later tried
to post his $400 bail in coins.
