Cartoons by Mark Anderson
That’s Karma, Bro
Police in Colorado are reporting three individuals had it all planned out – when they went to rob a check cashing store one weekend.
That is until, while they were inside the shop, their getaway car was stolen.
Denver Channel 7 confirmed the auto thief “put a damper” on the plans made by the three robbery suspects.
It happened at the Hi Lo Check Cashing on Monaco Street in Commerce City where three suspects are accused of staging an armed robbery.
“But when they came outside to make a clean getaway, their vehicle was nowhere to be found. Police said a fourth criminal stole the vehicle while the suspects were inside,” the report explained.
Police said it was likely that the vehicle already had been stolen, to be used for the heist.
KDVR Television said two of the three armed robbery suspects were arrested.
There were no injuries.
NBC reported a Facebook post by police said, “In an unexpected and ironic twist… as the trio was robbing the business…a fourth criminal stole their getaway vehicle… which may have already been stolen. We don’t know. If we get a solid description of it, we will release that here.”
Police, on social media, confirmed, “We can’t make this stuff up.”
Foxy!
An Arizona woman got a huge shock when surveillance footage showed the thief who stole her backyard cameras was four-legged and fluffy-tailed.
Esmeralda Egurrola, of Tucson, noticed one Monday that her three motion-activated cameras appeared off-line. So, she checked the most recent recording in each camera from an app on her cellphone.
Three videos had documented an entire heist carried out by a gray fox.
“I saw him sniffing and messing with camera one. I went to the second video, which was camera two. It caught him with camera one in his mouth.,” Egurrola told The Associated Press. “That’s when I knew, ‘Omigosh I think he took all of them.’ ”
Egurrola shared video and photos of the intruder fox-trotting away on Facebook. It didn’t take long for reactions to snowball. It was first reported by the Arizona Daily Star.
She tried to search for the cameras, which were a gift and cost around $200, but saw no sign of them. She believes they are sitting in a fox hole.
“So what if I do happen to see them. Am I really going to poke my hand in there? Finders keepers,” Egurrola said.
She plans to eventually get new cameras. Only she will make sure they are tied down.
“I may leave one untied with a tracker,” Egurrola said.
Lean on Me
Officials have secured the area around one of two 12th Century towers that have become symbolic of the northern city of Bologna, fearing its leaning could lead to collapse.
The city announced 4.3 million euros ($4.7 million) in works to shore up the Garisenda tower, one of the so-called Two Towers that look out over central Bologna, providing inspiration over the centuries to painters and poets and a lookout spot during conflicts. Work will proceed during January and February.
Italy’s civil protection agency has maintained a yellow alert on the site, denoting caution but not imminent danger.
The Garisenda, the shorter of two towers built between 1109 and 1119, currently stands 48 meters (157 feet) to the Asinelli’s 97 meters (320 feet). Mayor Matteo Lepore noted in a debate earlier this month that the Garisenda tower has leaned since it was built “and has been a concern ever since.” It sustained additional damage in the medieval era when ironwork and bakery ovens were built inside.
“We inherited a situation that over the centuries has caused this illness,’’ he said. The mayor has asked the government to petition to make the towers UNESCO world heritage sites.
Work to reinforce both towers has been ongoing since the 1990s. Preliminary work on the Garisenda tower will include creating a containment area to prevent any damage to nearby structures or harm to passersby from a “possible collapse,’’ the city said in a statement. Video cameras will maintain surveillance of the site.
Get Off My Lawn
Iris Logan was having a hard time growing grass in the front yard of her St. Paul, Minnesota, home, so she covered the space with stones, statues and decorative art. More than 30 years later, it’s something of a local landmark.
But to a city inspector, it’s a nuisance. Logan, 70, has been given notice to clean up the “planters, wood, metal cans, large rocks and miscellaneous debris” cited after a recent inspection, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. The City Council took up the matter on December 6, 2023.
Logan says the city’s actions forced her to create the mosaic in the first place because workers on a road repair project dug so deep around one of her trees that its roots were exposed. She brought in bricks and dirt, planted flowers and added stones — and just kept adding.
”I’m a rock lover,” said Logan, a former cotton sharecropper from Mississippi. “I’m not going to lie. If I see a rock I like, I try and roll it in my car on a two-by-four.”
Logan recently received written notice that a city official will recommend to the City Council that she be given until Dec. 22 to clean things up. She appealed the order in careful handwriting that filled six pages of a short spiral notebook. The stones don’t extend into the street or impede plow trucks or other city vehicles, Logan wrote in addressing one of the inspector’s concerns.
“I just want to make a stand for the next person,” said Logan, interrupted by a supportive honk and wave from a neighbor driving by.
Casey Rodriguez, a spokesman for the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections, said about 16 other properties on the same avenue also received letters advising them to remove obstructions to comply with city code.
“Generally boulevards should be clear of installations or obstructions (benches, large rocks, etc.) that would impede access to buried utility lines. This also keeps the tree roots clear and provides a place to shovel snow in the winter,” Rodriguez responded in an email to the Pioneer Press.
Earlier this month, a petition supporting Logan drew 150 signatures “in just a few hours,” according to a written statement from Justin Lewandowski, a community organizer who lives near Logan. He’s hopeful the council will soon clarify rules about portable planters.
“The quick support from our neighbors has been a clear signal of how much this art means to our community,” Lewandowski said. “It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about our identity and how we, as residents, engage with each other and with city policy.”