A southern Illinois family is finding their homemade maple syrup operation anything but sweet after investigators swarmed their property, mistaking their sap collection for a meth lab.

Laura Benson tells KFVS-TV  that drug agents showed up at her home near Anna one morning saying they fielded a report that a meth-making operation was on the Union County property.

When investigators pointed to buckets near some trees, 49-year-old Benson says she quickly explained the containers were collecting sap for the family’s production of syrup.

The law enforcers quickly moved on, taking with them some homemade syrup the Bensons gave them.

Benson thanks her neighbors for being alert and notifying police, even if it was a misunderstanding. She’s extending an open invitation to those locals to come by for pancakes.

Source: KFVS-TV, http://www.kfvs12.com

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Texting Can Get You 

Thrown In Jail in Oregon

A judge in Oregon noticed an unexpected glow on a juror’s chest while the courtroom lights were dimmed during video evidence in an armed-robbery trial.

The juror, it seemed, was texting.

Marion County Circuit Judge Dennis Graves cleared the courtroom and excused all jurors except 26-year-old Benjamin Kohler.

According to a news release from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Kohler had no explanation for his actions.

Jurors in Oregon are given explicit instructions at the outset of each trial not to use cellphones in court.

Graves held Kohler in contempt, and Kohler spent most of that Tuesday and Wednesday in the county jail. He was released that Wednesday night.

Neither the nature of the text message nor its recipient was disclosed.

Kohler did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment the following Thursday.

An alternate juror took his place. Sheriff’s spokesman Don Thomson said the trial ended that Thursday with the defendant found guilty.

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Can’t Stop in New York

It turns out coasting an SUV with no brakes downhill to a scrap yard isn’t a good idea after all.

Police say a 28-year-old New York man found that out one evening when he attempted to drive an SUV to a scrap yard in Jamestown, 60 miles south of Buffalo.

Officers tell The Post-Journal of Jamestown that the man told them he had disconnected the battery before coasting down a hill to get to a nearby scrap yard. Police say he also told them the 1995 Chevrolet Tahoe had no brakes.

Officials say he was unable to stop at an intersection and collided with another vehicle. He and the other driver suffered minor injuries.

The man was charged with reckless endangerment, failure to stop at a stop sign and having inadequate brakes.

Source: The Post-Journal, http://www.post-journal.com

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Cool Kids in Washington

To Laura King, her three children were acting normal while enjoying dinner at an Italian restaurant in their hometown in Washington state.

But staffers of the restaurant Sogno di Vino (SOH’-nyo dee VEE’-noh) in Kingston were so impressed at her children’s table manners that they thanked her kids and gave the family of five a bowl of ice cream.

It wasn’t until King got home that she noticed a $4 “well-behaved kids” discount on her receipt to cover the dessert. A friend posted a picture of the receipt on the website Reddit, and the story took off.

King’s children are 2, 3 and 8 years old.

King says it’s been entertaining to see all the attention her story has gotten, and she plans to dine at Sogno di Vino again soon.

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Hot Stash in Texas

South Texas law officers have confiscated about $500,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a false compartment of a vehicle’s radiator.

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office announced the drug bust and the arrest of two people from Lake Wales, Florida.

A traffic stop on Interstate 10 several miles east of Weimar (WY’-mer) led to a search. A Texas trooper noticed the radiator appeared to have been altered. A drug-sniffing dog located packages with more than 20 pounds of cocaine.

The Colorado County Sheriff’s Office says 43-year-old Marciano Moreno and his 52-year-old wife Maria were being held on charges of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance. Bond was set at $25,000. Jail records didn’t list attorneys for the pair.