Monday 12/5/11
Human Interest News — Posted on December 5, 2011
Man returns cash stolen from Sears in the 1940s
The manager of the Sears store in downtown Seattle says an elderly man has repaid – with interest – cash the man says he stole in the late 1940s.
KING-TV reports that the man hand-delivered an envelope Monday (11/28) addressed to “Sears manager.” Inside were a note and a $100 bill.
The note said the man stole $20 to $30 from a cash register decades ago and wanted to pay back $100.
Manager Gary Lorentson says he thinks the man’s conscience “has been bothering him for the past 60 years.”
Store security cameras recorded the man, but Sears officials said they don’t know who he is and they won’t release the video.
The store plans to put the money toward helping needy families in the holiday season.
Ohio homeowner captures and hogties burglar
An Athens, Ohio homeowner said on Thursday (12/1) that he exercised his right to protect his property when he chased down and subdued the man who robbed his home twice.
What began as a robbery call took an unusual twist by the time Athens County Sheriff’s deputies arrived to investigate, 10TV’s Jessa Goddard reporter.
Homeowner William Stanley said that a thief stole video gaming systems from his home earlier that day. When he arrived home that evening to find the man in his home again, he had had enough.
“He recognized him, chased him up into the woods, couldn’t find him there,” Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly said. “I think he knew where he lives, so he went to the residence and subdued him, hogtied him, put him in the back of his car and delivered him to deputies.”
Sheriff Kelly said that homeowners have the right to protect their property and themselves, but he cautioned others against taking the law into their own hands.
“Under the castle doctrine, you have a right to protect your property and your life,” Kelly said. “That’s what this man felt like he did so we’re not going to press any charges against him.”
The robber will not be identified until he is indicted by a grand jury on a felony burglary charge.
“There’s never been an animal that I haven’t caught, but this one is almost supernatural,” Rick George, the city’s animal control officer, said Thursday. “He’s definitely an escape artist.”
Last month, volunteers erected a steel fence around his hideout — a wooded lot in southeast Milford — but Waldo rammed it and jarred the pins that joined the panels loose.
Like many fugitives, Waldo has surrounded himself with accomplices.
“He’s been traveling with a herd of deer, and they like to hang out and graze together,” George said. “We know the location where they are, but it is private property, and the owner doesn’t want any publicity.”
“This steer is a Black Angus, a breed that is not known for liking people,” George said. “We’re lining up a date in the next few weeks when we can gather a team of about 20 volunteers, including large-animal veterinarians and representatives from the state (Department of Agriculture). It’s not going to be an easy operation.”
Among the options being considered are tranquilizing the animal — which has grown considerably over the summer — and carrying or dragging it from his hideout. That operation will take several men, George said. A bovine version of a Have-A-Heart trap may be employed, baited with hay or other tasty treats. A tow truck may be used to help hoist the heifer into a holding pen.
George said Thursday he has already located an animal sanctuary upstate that will let Waldo live out his days, rolling in clover.
“It’s a big farm and the owner likes to see his animals roam,” the Milford animal control director said. He would not identify the facility.
The farm that it escaped from does not want Waldo back, George said. It is possible that once the animal is captured, the city could seek to collect its costs from the owner, he said.
Flying squirrel invades New Jersey emergency room
Image of a Northern Flying Squirrel.
Firefighters were needed stat after a flying squirrel went nuts in a New Jersey hospital’s emergency room.
The squirrel kept launching itself from an 8-foot-high wall-mounted lamp into a glass wall after becoming trapped in a trauma room at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Rahway Tuesday night.
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Ted Padavano told The Star-Ledger of Newark it would climb up on a light and would jump off and glide.
A pair of firefighters threw a blanket over the squirrel and released it into a wooded area outside the hospital.
Padavano believes there may be a nest in the building because it’s the second time in two weeks that a flying squirrel got in the ER.
from the Boston Herald, Ohio’s 10TV.com, and the St. Petersburg Times and the Connecticut Post