truesee's Blog

Fri Dec 12, 1:10 pm ET

By Randi Weiner
The Journal News • December 11, 2008

CLARKSTOWN - It may have been the missing watermark or the missing security fibers that tipped Clarkstown Police Officer Robert Reilly that the two $100 bills he was holding were fake.

Or it could have been that identical serial numbers, HJ00407598A, appeared on both bills.

Whatever it was, it certainly put the brakes on Jean Etienne's plan to pay his bail with the two fake bills after he was arrested in connection with skipping a court hearing on shoplifting and disorderly conduct charges.

Now Etienne, 20, of Garnerville is facing a maximum seven-year prison term if convicted of two counts of possession of a forged instrument instead of a year in county jail in connection with the missed court hearing on the two lesser counts.

"You see stuff like this, you shake your head," Sgt. Bernard Cummings said. "There is a comic edge to this thing - but not for him. The moral of the story is whenever you are posting bail, use legitimate currency."

Etienne was employed by Macy's in the Palisades Center in April 2007, when management found $20 was lifted from the till. He was charged with criminal possession of stolen property, a misdemeanor. He was charged in July 2007 with disorderly conduct, a violation, in an unrelated case.

When he failed to show up in Clarkstown court on the disorderly conduct charge, a single warrant was issued against him in both crimes, Cummings said.

Etienne's contact with police took a more immediate turn Saturday, courtesy of poor automotive upkeep on the part of a friend.

Stony Point police stopped a car with a loud muffler on Route 9W at Lowland Hill Road about 10:10 p.m. Saturday and found out through a routine identification check that Etienne, the passenger in the car, was wanted on the warrant.

Stony Point officers transported him to Clarkstown Town Court, where he was arraigned before Judge Rolf Thorsen on the two-count warrant.

Thorsen set bail at $200.

Etienne told police that he had $200 to pay his bail, and police took possession of the two $100 bills he had.

When Reilly spotted the missing security measures on the bills and then checked their serial numbers, Etienne was returned to the town lockup. He was arraigned later in the day on the felony forgery charges.

Clarkstown police called the Secret Service, which oversees U.S. currency forgery cases. As of yesterday evening, a Secret Service agent had not spoken with Clarkstown police. Cummings said he did not know how the bogus bills had been disseminated or if others were in circulation.

Cummings said Etienne made a statement about how he got the bills, but the statement was not being made public.

Etienne was being held in the Rockland County jail without bail pending a hearing in Clarkstown Town Court at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

From NBC News:

His white Santa gloves suddenly became red and Jonathan Bebbington says he's got the wounds to prove this was no ordinary kitty.

"It hurt, it had a lot of power in its jaws," said Jonathan Bebbington.

The volunteer Santa Claus was repeatedly clawed and bitten by what he believes was a 30-pound bobcat.

"It was about that large, she was walking it around on a harness," Bebbington said.

It's the pet. Yes, the pet of a woman who brought it to this Petsmart store in Mays Landing Sunday morning for photos with Old Saint Nick. Bebbington says the bobcat didn't become violent until it was on his lap.

"I never expected this while volunteering to do this," explained Bebbington.

"The person was saying how she paid 15-hundred dollars to have this animal shipped in from Wyoming," Christine Tartaro of Penny Angels Beagle Rescue said.

The photo shoot benefitted Penny Angels Beagle Rescue. The woman is believed live in Egg Harbor Township, but she and the young bobcat split before anyone got her name.
Organizers want to find to her and get their hands on the creature's veterinary records.

"Without the record of the shots, I have to go through a series of rabies shots which are very painful," added Bebbington.

It's NOT LEGAL to have a bobcat as a pet in New Jersey. Violators could face a fine of up to $5,000.

Vincent Sonetto of Cape May County Zoo says "any kind of wild animal is just not a good idea for a pet, regardless of how nice it is. Eventually, it can snap."

Jonathan says "if you're a pet owner, you have to be responsible."

Petsmart will be paying Jonathan Bebbington's medical bills. Meanwhile, authorities are working to track down the woman and her biting bobcat which left this Santa scarred for Christmas. Santa "Clawed" Attacker Comes Forward

Elusive no more. The owner of a large cat that attacked a man posing as Santa Claus last weekend in South Jersey came forward Wednesday.

Despite initial fears that the animal was a bob cat—illegal to own as pets in New Jersey-- the animal’s owner,  Christine Haughey insists "Benny" is actually an 8-month old Pixie Bob, a recognized, legal breed.

It is“a unique breed of cat with bobcat heritage,” according to the website, catsinfo.com. But the head of the Atlantic County S.P.C.A. can't be certain and Pixie Bob breeders across the country have been contacting NBC10 to say they believe it is a bobcat.

He shouldn’t worry, she said. Haughey showed NBC10 Benny’s veterinary records and rabies tag to prove the cat has received all necessary vaccinations.

Last Update: 12/10 12:26 pm

LONGVIEW, Texas – A $1 million bank deposit slip wish by a Longview minister to pay for a new church came true — and then some. The Rev. Thomas McDaniels of LifeBridge Christian Center said a businessman, who chooses to remain anonymous, wrote him a $1.5 million check.

Members of LifeBridge, which formed in 2005, had met at a Longview hotel. Their new church opens in a few weeks.

McDaniels described on Monday how in January 2007 he took a bank deposit slip and wrote $1 million, "meaning that one day someone would give us a million dollar gift."

The minister, who prayed over the deposit slip, said a business owner Dec. 2 asked how much was needed to pay for the church.

McDaniels said $1.4 million. The benefactor's check included an extra $100,000.

McDaniels says, in these economic times, that "the Lord wanted to show his power."

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Information from KLTV-TV & Longview News Journal

An extraordinary lucky streak for Maryland lottery players has meant more bad news for a state budget already hobbled by the recession.

Maryland lottery revenue has fallen $27 million below projections since July, largely because a high number of lottery players won big on the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games.

December 9, 2008

Defying the odds, a series of the same digit was drawn eight times for the game in which players choose three numbers, and once in which they choose four. In those games, players often pick a same-number series out of superstition or for other reasons, officials said.

When the winning Pick 4 series was 1-1-1-1 in August, about 1,400 players won $5,000 each, a $7 million combined payout.

When 1-0-1-2 hit last month, 1,100 players won a total of about $5.5 million.

"We expect a couple of those a year; we don't expect 10 of those in four months. That's an incredible percentage," said Maryland Lottery Director Buddy Roogow, who gave a fiscal briefing to the House Ways and Means Committee in Annapolis yesterday on lottery proceeds, which are the third-highest source of state operating revenue, after income and sales taxes. "I couldn't believe it."

Roogow said he couldn't guess the psychological reasons players choose a series of the same numbers, though he mentioned that three 6's, which came up in July, is the "number of the beast" in the Bible.

Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun