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APPLETON (WFRV) - A 'sticky' situation was averted when police arrested an Appleton man early Wednesday morning for burglary. Shortly after 4:30am, Appleton police were dispatched to a home in the 1600 block of N. Wilmer Avenue for a report of a burglary in progress. The homeowners told officers they were awakened after hearing a person whistling in their basement. The homeowner, armed with a shotgun, held 37-year-old Aaron Maurice at bay until authorities arrived. Maurice was taken into custody without incident. Asked why he was in the house, Maurice said he was on the run from the government. When...

Police officers in Blue Mound didn’t think much of cookies dropped off at their station Monday night — until they got a whiff of them. Overpowering the chocolate chips was the rich scent of marijuana. “It reeked of it,” said Lt. Thomas Cane, a Blue Mound police spokesman. “It wasn’t hard to tell. Anyone that’s been around marijuana before would have known.” Christian Phillips, 18, Watauga, who was serving court-appointed community service for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, dropped off the cookies in a wicker basket about 6:30 p.m. Monday, Lt. Cane said. A card from MADD was attached.

Maryland State Police have a strange case to solve: A man walked into a Frederick County 7-11 Wednesday morning and tried to rob it. His weapon of choice? A banana. The 7-11 on Fingerboard Road in Monrovia has been robbed before, but never like this. At 12:45 a.m., a masked man walked up to the counter and grabbed--a banana. He aimed it at the clerk and demanded cash. "What's he think he's going to do with a banana?! Ain't much you can do with a banana! Throw the peel down and hope he slips on it," said resident Michael Benton....

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office called him stupid Tuesday. But Frank Singleton could almost write the book on how to turn a misdemeanor into a felony without ever leaving the jail's parking lot. "This is one of the stupid criminals," Sheriff's Office spokesman Paul Miller said. Singleton, 21, of West Palm Beach, got released from the county lockup Tuesday after being arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. He immediately ran out into the visitor's parking lot and, in an apparent effort to get away as quickly as possible, tried to carjack a 2006 Nissan 350Z, Miller said. The...

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — A man arrested for an indoor marijuana growing operation after a county worker smelled the illegal plant on a tax payment has been sentenced to 16 months in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said Friday it will review whether a defendant who is judged competent to stand trial has the right to be his own lawyer, even if he has a history of serious mental illness. Ahmad Edwards was convicted of attempted murder and other charges in 2005 following a shooting at an Indianapolis department store in 1999. He was initially found to be schizophrenic and suffering from delusions and spent most of the five years following the shooting in state psychiatric facilities. But by 2005, he was judged competent to stand trial. Edwards asked to represent...

t seems just about everything went wrong for Michael Artiaga when he allegedly robbed a Tazewell Pike convenience store this weekend. Artiaga is accused of entering the Bread Box store, 3101 Tazewell Pike, about 10:46 p.m. Saturday and shoving the clerk aside when the cash register drawer was opened, said Knoxville Police Department Lt. Doug Stiles. Artiaga allegedly grabbed a handful of cash and darted for the door. While making his escape from the store, the 37-year-old Artiaga unknowingly left something behind — his wallet, complete with his driver’ license. As Artiaga drove away, another employee jotted down the suspect’s...

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE INDIAN RESERVATION, Fla. (AP) -- A man who jumped into a lake to flee police was killed by an alligator more than 9-feet long, officials said Tuesday. The man, whose name has not been released, was allegedly burglarizing a vehicle in the parking lot of the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center on Thursday. He ran when police arrived at the scene, said Dexter Lehtinen, one of the tribe's police legal advisors. Tribal police divers searched for the man that night, then again Friday morning and afternoon. During the third dive, the body was recovered. It bore alligator teeth...

Waco, Texas (AP) -- An 84-year-old woman accused of trying to run over a neighbor amid a land dispute has been arrested. Ester McCullough of Downsville, near Waco, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Later Monday, she was released from the McLennan County Jail on a personal recognizance bond, a jail spokeswoman said. McCullough could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In May, she drove into her neighbor's yard, knocking over part of a brick wall, then drove into the...

Victorville, Calif. (AP) -- A convicted armed robber was identified as a rape suspect after he sent a photo of himself to the victim's friend on her stolen cell phone, authorities said. DNA taken from William Bates while he was in prison for the holdup links him to the May attack, authorities contend. Bates, 19, was arrested in late May after he allegedly shot a Victorville gas station patron in the arm during a robbery because the man wouldn't turn over his money, then called authorities to report the crime and claimed to be a witness, county sheriff's deputies said....

Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP) -- Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash. He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened. "I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday. He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden...

That "anything you say can and will be used against you" warning, it turns out, is true. Just ask five-time felon and Knoxville crack house manager Richard Jones Jr. Plowing through uncharted legal terrain, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday approved the use of Jones' confession against him at trial. The ruling proved vindication for similar decisions made by Knoxville federal Judges James H. Jarvis and Tom Varlan. Both U.S. District Court judges had backed up Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Winck's move to hold against Jones his own incriminating words in a November 2004 trial. It was...

Basin fugitive captured June 27, 2006 07:04 PM CDT Javon Woods is in custody Tuesday and his two-day jump from justice is over. Woods no doubt finds the Saint Martin parish jail a more hospitable place to sleep than the Atchafalaya basin. State police say he was suffering from dehydration, wasp stings and bruises when he was pulled from the water this afternoon. His skin was sensitive and sore due to the long exposure to water but overall he's in good condition. KATC's Marcelle Fontenot was there when woods emerged from the water about two o'clock Tuesday afternoon and the...

There are a few things William Henry Weddington might consider striking from his next just-got-out-of-prison to-do list: Taking a drinking buddy to meet probation officers. Getting smashed with that buddy en route to the probation office. Passing out in the lobby. Biting the hand of a deputy U.S. marshal. Weddington, fresh out of federal prison after serving time for an alcohol-fueled shooting at a Knoxville apartment complex, is headed back after a drunken brawl last week with law enforcement in the lobby of the U.S. Probation Office. According to a warrant filed against him for violating his federal supervision just...

San Francisco -- A shooting suspect being pursued in a high-speed chase this morning dragged a police officer for a block after the officer tried to pull him out of his car, Sgt. Neville Gittens said today. The officer has been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries to the head and legs, Gittens said. Two 27-year-old men are also in hospital, both with life-threatening injuries, following a shooting that led to the chase. One man was shot once and another was shot three times, Gittens said. The high-speed pursuit began when just before midnight police received a report of a shooting in...

Downey -- An elderly man apparently upset about a parking dispute died in his burning house after trying to set fire to two of his neighbors' homes using "homemade bombs," authorities said. Only the man, who was in his 80s and not identified, was injured. His home in this Southern California town burned to the ground. Police received a call about an explosion early Sunday and found the man standing in the street holding two handguns. One of his arm was in flames. When police told him to drop the guns, he fled into his house. Minutes later, flames and...

Police in Maine say they caught a burglar who had just broken into a home, because the thief couldn't get his car out of the burgled home's driveway. Tarr told them he pulled into the driveway to turn around, and got stuck on the ice. The homeowner agreed to try to help him get the car moving, but when she saw her laptop in the car's backseat, she took it, and went in the house. That left Tarr outside, frantically trying to move the car. He was still there when police arrived. They discovered that Tarr had three active warrants,...

LANSDALE, Pa. (AP) - A man accused of burglarizing an auto-repair shop and stealing cash and a digital camera apparently didn't plan on a fresh snowfall. Lansdale police said footprints in the new snow Tuesday led to the arrest of David J. Schild Jr. in connection with a burglary at Trails Automotive, where a window was broken and the building was ransacked. "The footprints went right from the scene of the burglary to the front door where he lived, about a block away," Sgt. Dean Miller said. He said a pair of sneakers was found in the basement with a...

FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) -- A convicted murderer who escaped from an Iowa prison this week by using a homemade grappling hook to scale a 30-foot limestone wall was captured Thursday in Illinois. A second inmate remained at large. Martin Moon, 34, was caught after he was found sleeping in a stolen car in the town of Chester, near an Illinois prison. He told investigators he was on his way to Tennessee but gave no reason, authorities said. Moon and Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, broke out of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison on Monday night. Authorities said the...

The winner of the Vonage Award for doing stupid things: In Clovis, N.M., in July, Danny J. Jimenez, 51, was sentenced to six years in prison for a pair of 2003 burglaries. Police had captured Jimenez by following the blood trail that stemmed from his encounter with a pawn shop's glass jewelry case. Later, investigators learned that an injury to Jimenez's head did not come from the jewelry case but occurred when Jimenez accidentally hit himself with a hammer while burglarizing a church later that night. Said a detective, "(Jimenez) had a big, round (indentation) in his forehead that was...

During Eric Rudolph's five years on the lam, despite a nationwide manhunt and a million-dollar bounty, a transient appears to have come closer to catching the serial bomber than did any federal agent. The search for Rudolph, sought in four bombings that killed two people and injured more than a hundred, always focused in this region - a densely wooded area in the western part of North Carolina. Rudolph had spent his teenage years here and had returned as an adult in the early 1990s, supporting himself doing carpentry. In letters to his mother written from a jail cell in...

An ice cream truck driver is in jail charged with peddling more than snow cones and fudgecicles from his vehicle in Albuquerque’s South Valley. The 21-year-old driver, Steven Gonzales was arrested Monday and charged with drug dealing after deputies say he was pulled over with $50 worth of marijuana in his truck. “I’m really disappointed,” said Lonnie Nettles, who has lived in the area of Barcelona and Wilkinson SW for 50 years. “We used to have a good neighborhood. Any more, it’s kind of going down.” “I’m really shocked,” said fellow neighborhood resident Argelia Barraza. “So I guess it will...

STATESBORO, Ga. - Sgt. Jason Kearney sat in his marked patrol car Thursday, waiting for his colleagues to join him for lunch when Ron Stone asked him for a ride. The Bulloch County deputy agreed to take Stone to his car, but first he insisted on searching Stone for weapons, said Sheriff Lynn Anderson. "Stone told Sergeant Kearney to go ahead," Anderson said. But instead of packing a pistol, the 30-year-old Stone was packing pot — two small bags, Anderson said. Stone told the uniformed officer he had spent the night at a friend's house and the marijuana was not...

Robber Jailed After Using Banana As Weapon By Associated Press March 16, 2005, 11:51 AM EST LONDON -- Robert Downey had the mask and the attitude to be a successful robber. But he ruined the effect when he tried to stage a hold-up at his local bookmaker's shop -- using a banana. Noting the suspicious bend in the so-called "weapon," the clerk calmly called the police and on Wednesday, Downey was jailed for nearly seven years for attempted robbery. Prosecutors at the trial at Southwark Crown Court in London said Downey, a drug addict, hatched his scheme to buy more...

Blood-soaked customer arrested Saturday, June 26, 2004 Posted: 3:26 PM EDT (1926 GMT) NAPLES, Florida (AP) -- A man who walked into a Wal-Mart covered in blood and bought garbage bags Friday was charged with murder after authorities found a stabbed body in a trash bin. Wal-Mart workers called deputies after a blood-soaked man walked into the store and bought some clothes, bandages and trash bags around 4 a.m. He paid with a $100 bill that also appeared to be bloodstained, they said, and drove off in a pickup. Deputies found a man that matched workers' description, but the man...

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma woman dialed a wrong number and ended up under arrest after she tried to set up a drug deal with her former parole officer, police said on Tuesday. Patricia Michel was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of the unlawful distribution of a dangerous controlled substance at her home in Durant, Oklahoma, near the Texas border. Michel called her former parole officer, Doug Canant, on his cell phone by mistake, thinking he could help set up a deal where she could acquire methamphetamines, police said. "I am a bit of a joker, so I was...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German trying to steal clothes donated to charity was caught by police after he fell into the man-sized collection bin and got trapped. "Arriving at the container, the officers saw two arms. The left hand held a cigarette and a voice demanded, 'Give me a light!'," police said in a statement. A passerby had alerted them after hearing strange noises coming from inside the metal bin late at night in the western city of Bochum. Police prevented the trapped 43-year-old from smoking, called the fire brigade to free him and let him go after charging him...

FAYETTEVILLE -- An armed man entered a soldier's Fayetteville home and stole one pound of marijuana Wednesday night. The soldier, her roommate, and a friend followed the suspect's vehicle and called 911 during their pursuit. The soldier, 24-year-old Linda Isabel Gonzalez did not immediately report to sheriff's detectives that the robber had taken the marijuana. She later admitted that the marijuana was stolen and did not want to pursue charges regarding the robbery. The Fayetteville Police Department located the vehicle, apprehended the gunman along with the driver of the vehicle. Gonzalez is an active military soldier in the Untied States...

GAINESVILLE - When a thief decided Sandra Boutwell's 1994 Infiniti was a juicy target, he probably didn't expect the car to put up a fight. David Christopher Lander, 51, of Gainesville was arrested early Thursday morning after the car he was burglarizing locked him inside, Alachua County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Keith Faulk said. The 1994 Infiniti is equipped with an antitheft device that automatically locks the doors when the car alarm is triggered, Faulk said. When Lander entered the car, the doors locked. ``Had he pushed the button on the driver's side door, he could have gotten out,'' Faulk said....