truesee's Blog

Burglar hits home again while police are present

TV left behind, then stolen again as police investigate

Travis Griggs

August 29, 2009

Steve Fluegge was shocked when he walked downstairs in his North Hill home about 6 a.m. Friday and came face to face with a burglar in his living room.

But he was even more shocked when, less than three hours later, the burglar returned and swiped a television he left in the backyard — while a police investigator was still on the scene.

"While they were inside processing the scene, the thieves came back and took it," Fluegge said.

"They were all very embarrassed," said Fluegge, 57.

Fluegge said he discovered the burglar inside his home in the 1400 block of North Spring Street shortly after waking up Friday morning.

"I said, 'What the hell are you doing in my house?' " Fluegge said.

The man ran from the house and fled across the backyard, disappearing into the early morning fog.

"We called the police and they were here within just a minute or so. There were policemen all over the place," Fluegge said.

Pensacola Police Department Capt. Jay Worley said several police units canvassed the neighborhood looking for the suspect, even using a K-9 to track the man's scent. But after looking for more than an hour, they gave up the search.

The burglar made off with several items, including Fluegge's wallet, a watch and a Nintendo 64 video game system. But he left one of the biggest items — the Fluegges' 42-inch plasma television — sitting near a fence in their backyard.

"It's a big, heavy TV. It probably weighed close to 100 pounds. You're not going to carry that thing a mile or two down the road," Fluegge said.

A crime scene technician arrived on the scene about 8 a.m.

Worley said the technician didn't want to move the TV before he dusted it for fingerprints, but he couldn't dust it immediately because it was damp with dew. He covered it with a plastic tarp and left it in the backyard to dry while he worked inside the house.

But when the technician returned about 45 minutes later, the tarp had been tossed aside, and the TV was gone.

"It looks bad and everything, but there's no way it could have been foreseen that someone would come back and do that," Worley said.

"We're doing everything we can to locate the suspect and not mess up the evidence. ... We had no reason to believe the TV would be stolen again," Worley said.

Worley said Friday afternoon that police were still searching for the man, and they hope that crime scene processing from inside the home will link them to a suspect.

Fluegge said the Pensacola Police Department offered to pay for the stolen TV, which cost about $1,000, and overall, he's in fairly good spirits about the ordeal.

He said he and his wife, Bridget, have lived in the home for 15 years, and it never had been broken into before. The couple said they're still shocked at the brazenness of the thief, who came back even though a crime scene van was parked out front.

Bridget Fluegge describes how a robber came back and stole their TV while the police were investigating the break-in at their North Hill Home. The TV was by the fence and part of a crime scene when the thief came back to get the 42-inch flat-screen TV while the police were inside the home.

Fort Lauderdale police lure suspects with fake stimulus cash offer

DAVID SMILEY

Miami Herald

8/26/09

Granny get your (stun) gun

Date goes from bad to worse

Friday, August 28, 2009

Michael P. McConnell
Daily Tribune Staff Writer

Police say man skipped out on restaurant bill, stole woman's car.

FERNDALE — A first date went from bad to worse when police say a man not only skipped out on a restaurant bill but stole his new girlfriend's car while she was still seated at the table.

A Detroit man faces trial on charges he stole his date's car after they ate and he asked her for her keys so he could get his wallet out of her vehicle.

"She gave him her keys and he went out the door," said Ferndale police Detective Sgt. Patrick Jones. "From where she was sitting she saw him get in her car and he drove off at a high rate of speed."

The woman called police from the restaurant.

Terrance Dejuan McCoy, 23, is charged with unlawfully driving away the woman's 2000 Chevrolet Impala, a five-year felony. He waived a preliminary examination Thursday in Ferndale 43rd District Court and was ordered to stand trial on the charge in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Police said McCoy stole the car April 24 shortly after he and the woman, 27, of Southfield ate at the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, 280 W. Nine Mile Road.

"It sounds like a bad date to me," Jones said. "She picked him up that night at his apartment, then he stole her car and didn't even settle up the bill for dinner."

The woman told police she also had a backpack with $300 cash inside the car, along with a laptop computer, iPod and a digital camera.

The stolen car turned up May 5 in Detroit with the radio missing.

The woman told police she met McCoy a week before she saw him drive away in her car. They first met at the Greektown Casino and she knew McCoy only as "Chris," police said.

They talked on their cell phones several times and McCoy sent her a picture of himself that she kept on her cell phone, police said.

The woman called Ferndale police immediately from the restaurant, but officers were unable to locate the woman's car, police said.

"We were able to identify him because she had a picture of him and we had his cell phone number," Jones said.

McCoy was later arrested and Ferndale police picked him up at the Wayne County Jail on July 28.

The suspect has two previous convictions for unarmed robbery in 2005 and was wanted for absconding from probation in Farmington Hills, Jones said.

He is jailed on $25,000 cash bond.

Police: Robber left traffic ticket

 Aug. 27, 2009 at 3:46 PM

Sgt. Barry VanNostrand said Ponder was given an undisclosed amount of cash, which he dropped along with the note while leaving. The suspect allegedly retrieved most of the cash, but left behind the traffic ticket.

Investigators said the ticket bore Ponder's name and address. He was arrested Tuesday in Rochester and charged with felony charges of third-degree robbery and fourth-degree grand larceny.

Wheelchair-bound man keyed car because it was parked in handicapped spot

Will Greenlee

TC Palm
Thursday, August 27, 2009

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 71-year-old man with no legs is accused of scratching a Nissan parked in a handicapped space at a Walmart SuperCenter, apparently thinking the Nissan driver was abusing the parking privilege, according to a police spokesman and a report released Thursday.

The 39-year-old victim on Wednesday told an employee at the Walmart on South U.S. 1 that she was picking up her handicapped mother. She was gone for about 30 minutes, and reportedly noticed someone had keyed the driver's side of the 2009 Nissan Altima.

A check of the surveillance system reportedly showed a legless man in a motorized wheel chair come out of a white van.

The man “powered his wheel chair across the parking lot to where (the victim's) car was parked . . . and came from the front to the rear of the driver's side,” a report shows.

Stopped while exiting the store, Keith Brian Berry, 71, apologized for the “most stupidest thing” he's ever done. He said “people always abuse the handicapped parking when they are not handicapped.”

Berry apologized to the victim, saying he didn't think of the possibility her mother could be handicapped. The Nissan had a handicapped decal hanging from the rear-view mirror.

Berry, of the 3400 block of Bromeliad Court, was issued a notice to appear in court Sept. 23 on a criminal mischief charge. Berry was told he could be arrested for trespassing if he returns to Walmart.

Man could be East Peoria's 'dumbest criminal

After allegedly trying to steal car, suspect shows up at police department

Leslie Williams

The woman then gave the would-be thief the bad news: The car was hers, and she had called police. She then told him to get out of the car and follow her, police said.

"Believe it or not, he started to follow her, but had a change of heart," Papis said. "He ran toward the expressway, jumped the fence behind Fashion Bug and was out of sight."

For almost an hour, a swarm of police, including Fondulac Park District officers and an Illinois State Police dog unit, combed East Peoria's riverfront for Robinson. With help from the victim, police knew who to look for: A black man in his 20s, of average height and weight, wearing a red, white and black jersey, black gloves and jeans.

Even with the great physical and clothing descriptions given to police, officers were unsuccessful in finding him.

But it wasn't Robinson's clothes that eventually helped police nab him. It was the large, abnormal growth hanging from his left ear lobe and patch of black hair on his chin.

After the search for Robinson concluded, Papis returned to the police department to finish paperwork. Not long after he sat down, he heard the dispatcher across the radio call several officers to the lobby of the police station.

To Papis' surprise, Robinson showed up at the police station lobby with a story how he needed money for a bus ticket to Bloomington. He had changed out of his clothes and was wearing a white polo shirt and tan shorts.

"The dispatcher recognized from the descriptors that this may be the suspect we were looking for," said Papis, adding the walnut-size mass on his ear was the tip-off. "I went out to the lobby, recognized that this individual was possibly our suspect and invited him into my office."

With him, Robinson carried two bags, clutched in his hands, into the chief's office.

It was after officers arrived, and as they emptied the contents of the bags, that what the dispatcher and Papis had suspected about the man turned out to be true.

"In his bags was the wet jersey, wet tennis shoes, the blue jeans, gloves, two screwdrivers, one needle-nose pliers and pen light," said Papis, noting the clothes were damp from sweat.

Also found were four pieces of computer paper, detailing step-by-step instructions of three different ways to break into and hot-wire a car.

Stated boldly across one of the papers was the recommendation, "Try this at night." It was advice Robinson didn't follow and Papis didn't let him forget.

"I chided him," said the chief. "I told him he didn't follow the instructions correctly. If he had, he might not have been seen and got away. Technically, he did get away, but if he had done it at night we may not have had all these descriptors and a witness."

Robinson, 20, of St. Louis was arrested on charges of attempted vehicle theft, criminal damage to property and criminal trespass to vehicle. He was taken to the Tazewell County Jail, where he was released without bond but ordered to be in court Sept. 17.

While criminals get caught every day, this arrest, Papis said, was one for the record books.

"The dispatchers and the officers had quite a few good laughs over the scenario," Papis said. "This has to rate as a segment (on the TV series) 'America's Dumbest Criminals.'"

                                                            Billy Robinson

Man called 911 for lost keys

Published: Aug. 27, 2009 at 3:28 PM

3,900 stimulus checks went to prison inmates

Government sent 3,900 economic stimulus checks to prison inmates -- 2,200 got to keep them

Stephen Ohlemacher

Associated Press Writer

Wednesday August 26, 2009, 9:28 pm EDT

Device Lets the Tongue See

Bill Christensen

Technovelgy

26 August 2009 02:45 pm ET

The Wicab BrainPort is a device that takes information gathered by a small digital camera in a pair of glasses and sends it to a "lollipop" electrode array that sits on your tongue. The device was designed to help people who are blind or who have extremely low vision.

The camera in the glasses transmits the light information to a small base unit the size of a cell phone, an article at Scientific American explains. The base unit converts the light information into electrical impulses; this replaces the function of the retina. The retina is the surface at the back of the eye that encodes light into nerve impulses and transmits them to the brain.

The base unit then sends that information into a set of 144 microelectrodes arranged on a lollipop-like paddle that you place on your tongue. The microelectrodes stimulate the nerves on the surface of your tongue. Users have likened the sensation to placing Pop Rocks candies on the tongue.

Although it seems incredible, the user's brain actually learns to interpret the tongue sensations as a kind of visual image. After all, your brain cannot "see" - it can only interpret the nerve impulses from your eyes and then create a picture that helps you move through a room, or find nearby objects.

The base unit has features like zoom control, light settings control and intensity. Using these controls, users can successfully use the BrainPort to find doorways and elevator buttons and even read letters and numbers. At table, users can easily see cups and forks; I suppose you'd take it out to eat.

SciFi movie fans find this technology truly tasty, ever since something like it was demonstrated by Doctor Emilio Lizardo (aka actor John Lithgow) in the 1984 cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension.

The BrainPort device seems to work well in practice: patients quickly learn how to find doorways and elevator buttons and even read letters and numbers. At table, users can easily pick out cups and forks; I suppose you'd take it out to eat.

The BrainPort should be approved for market by the end of 2009; it will cost about $10,000 per machine. It has already been tested by the US Navy; learn how the BrainPort can be used by Navy Seals.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player.php?videoRef=LS_0908256_BrainPort

http://www.news-world.us/pics/2009/07/09/15-strange-buildings-in-the-world/

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Scorned-Wife-Exacts-Revenge-on-Hubby-Entertains-Us-55036842.html

NO, 30G ART'S NOT IN BOX - IT IS BOX

EMPTY 'CARDBOARD' TO FETCH BIG BUCKS

Last updated: 4:57 pm
August 24, 2009
Posted: 2:40 am
August 24, 2009

It doesn't come filled with $100 bills. So why is this box worth $30,000?

Because it's not just a cardboard box. It's a work of art.

Titled "Brillo 5," the box is the work of London artist Gavin Turk, who -- along with such figures as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin -- is part of the Young British Artists scene that emerged out of Charles Saatchi's famed gallery in the 1990s.

Now, it's expected to fetch the huge sum at Christie's postwar- and contemporary-art sale on Sept. 23.

According to Christie's, the bronze piece "is an ironic and ambiguous work that is essentially a copy of a cardboard box."

Turk was traveling and could not be reached for comment, but his studio manager, Dominic Berning, was not surprised by questions about what made a phony cardboard box such a valuable piece of art.

"It's a question people have been asking forever," he said.

Also on sale is a discarded shutter -- an early work by renowned New York conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner.

He hit upon the idea for the untitled 1961 piece when he found the shutter in the trash on Canal Street.

"It is not quite a found object in that I stripped it and painted it," Weiner, 67, told The Post.

"I just used the shutter as a support structure rather than stretched canvas," he said.

"At the time, it was the highest form of abstraction I could reach."

Now, nearly 50 years later, it is expected to take in between $20,000 and $30,000 at the auction.

"At today's market values, it's a bargain," Weiner insisted.

Average New Yorkers found it hard to believe anyone would spend that much on such "art."

Francesca Baez, 20, of The Bronx, said, "The box must be made out of gold, or a celebrity owned it -- like Angelina Jolie discarded the box, and she kept her underwear in it."

As for the shutter, Jennifer Nazario, 25, also of The Bronx, noted, "People do spend a lot on windows."

HOME FOR NARROW MINDED

SKINNIEST HOUSE FOR SALE

Last updated: 11:51 am
August 26, 2009
Posted: 3:34 am
August 26, 2009

You have to be pretty skinny to fit into this address.

At 9½ feet wide, it's the narrowest house in Manhattan. But given that it's located in the heart of Greenwich Village and has been home to famous artists and writers, it will take a fat wallet to purchase this sliver of real estate.

PHOTOS: Peek Inside the Bedford St. Townhouse

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/news/regionalnews/pp_20090826_narrow_house/photo01.htm

On the market for the first time since 2000, 75½ Bedford St. was just put up for sale for $2.75 million -- a million dollars more than it was purchased for and nearly 10 times its asking price of two decades ago.

"This is a place for someone who wants a bit of history, charm, and, well, uniqueness," Alex Nicholas, real-estate broker for the Corcoran Group, told The Post. "But when you have the narrowest house in all New York, you'll always be newsworthy."

Indeed, the 1,500-square-foot townhouse made headlines when it was sold in 1943, 1982, and 2000.

It's the kind of real estate that tourists and native New Yorkers cannot help but gawk at as they pass by, Nicholas said.

Owner Stephen Balsamo, who never lived at the house as his primary residence, renovated the 1873 home to maximize its space.

In the kitchen, a custom stove has all four burners in a single row, rather than the usual two-by-two arrangement. The three floors are all open, but the balconies overlooking the garden were extended, adding depth to make up for lack of width.

Among the luminaries who have lived in the tiny town house are Pulitzer Prize winner Edna St. Vin cent Millay. Accord ing to legend, ac tors Cary Grant and John Barry more are also said to have slept be tween its narrow walls.

Visitors to the home expect to find it dark and claustro phobic, but as a result of the sweeping windows in the back, "every floor has amazing light," Nicholas said.

"On the top floor, there's a huge skylight," he said. "This is old-world charm that's very bright."

Nicholas would not say how many buyers have expressed interest in the property since it went on sale this week. But all indications are that the market for skinny homes is not contracting, he said.