Police have charged two out-of-state men with robbing two other men in western Pennsylvania by claiming they were recording a video for a reality TV show called “You Just Got Robbed.”

Police in Indiana, PA, told The Associated Press the incident happened about 1:20 a.m. one Sunday and that the suspects apparently attend a nearby technical school. They’re identified as 21-year-old Randall Smith, of Temple Hills, MD, and 18-year-old Artie Goodwine, of Memphis, TN.

Police say one of the men put the victims into headlocks while the other recorded the robbery — in which $20 was taken from one of the victims — on a cellphone.

Online court records don’t list attorneys for the men. Smith has posted bail but Goodwine remained in the Indiana County Jail, about 45 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

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Test Drive Dummies

Two western Pennsylvania men have been jailed on charges that they twice stole vehicles while taking them on “test drives” from car dealers.

The public defenders for 70-year-old Leamond Black and 40-year-old Christopher Mitchell could not immediately be reached for comment on the charges reported by the Beaver County Times.

Monaca police say the Darlington Township duo took a 2001 GMC Jimmy sport-utility vehicle for a test drive at Monaca Auto Sales on July 25 and never returned. Police found them six days later inside the vehicle in a supermarket parking lot.

The men allegedly did the same thing at Power’s Auto Sales in Rochester Township on July 17, only to have police find the vehicle abandoned in Pittsburgh with a stolen Ohio license plate.

Both men remained in the Beaver County Jail in Aliquippa, PA.

Source: Beaver County Times, http://www.timesonline.com/

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Dog-Gone Thief

A Pittsburgh man allegedly broke into a woman’s apartment while drunk and stole a potato peeler, a kitchen knife and a small dog.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 24-year-old Garrett Stauber, who was arrested shortly after the burglary was reported about 3 a.m. in Moon Township.

Township police say a woman called 911 to report that Stauber kicked in her door, took the utensils out of her dishwasher, grabbed her dog then left.

A neighbor heard what was going on and briefly scuffled with Stauber who was found sitting shirtless on a couch in his friend’s apartment in the same building where he had been staying recently.

Stauber, who doesn’t have a listed phone, faces a preliminary hearing.

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Unethical and Illegal

A Pennsylvania woman allegedly changed her children’s grades after logging into a school computer system using passwords obtained when she worked for the district.

Investigators say Catherine Venusto used the Northwestern Lehigh School District superintendent’s password to change the grades. She was arraigned on a half-dozen felony counts and released on bail.Officials say Venusto changed a failing grade to a medical exception for he daughter in 2010, when she was still a district secretary. The New Tripoli woman is also accused of bumping one of her son’s grades from 98 to 99 percent in February.

State police say Venusto admitted changing the grades, saying she thought her actions were unethical but not illegal.

A phone listing for Venusto was still unavailable at press time.

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Big Bird

A wandering Australian emu has been returned to its northwestern Pennsylvania owner.

The Bradford Era on reports the bird was captured by Foster Township police and a former McKean County humane officer.

The bird’s owner, Ken Hardy, of Corydon Township, says the bird is one of six he still owns after investing in the birds so he could raise them about 20 years ago.

It was unclear how the bird got free from Hardy’s property, but it had been spotted in various portions of the county for days,including Marilla Reservoir, Glendorn, and several locations in and around Bradford in McKean County. That’s about 130 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Officials say they were able to subdue the bird because they chased it into some woods where it became disoriented.

Source: The Bradford Era, http://www.bradfordera.com

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Bad Like Me

A western Pennsylvania man tried to persuade a judge to give him less prison time for four incidents in which he threatened people with guns during drug deals by arguing that he was harming only “bad people just like me.”

The Daily American of Somerset reports Somerset County Judge John Cascio wasn’t persuaded and sentenced 30-year-old James Vance-Ivey Jr. to 18 months to five years in prison for endangerment, threat and drug charges.

Cascio explained to Vance-Ivey that “even people with criminal records have rights and have the right to be protected by the law and by the Constitution.”

The defendant had argued that his actions weren’t justified, but told the judge he wasn’t targeting “a workin’ man or some law-abiding citizen. These are all bad people, just like me.”

Source: Daily American, http://www.dailyamerican.com

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