All 4 articles have nothing to do with immigration but are rather 'unique' crime reports.

Battle of the brews

Woman attacked with Jim Beam bottle
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March 28, 2008 - 3:21PM
Doug Murphy

A 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills woman was walking Wednesday morning when she told police a man came up behind her and poked her with a Jim Beam bourbon bottle.

The attack took place around 7:45 a.m. in the 3300 block of East Long Lake Road, near Chandler Boulevard and 33rd Street inthe Lakewood area.

According to Sgt. Joel Tranter the woman fought off the attacker with her coffee mug, at one point breaking the man's bourbon bottle, before she ran away and called police.

Local patrol officers have increased patrols in the area of the attack since last week but need the public's help to find the suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStop (602) 262-6151 or anonymous tips can be left with Silent Witness (602) 261-8600.

http://www.ahwatukee.com/news/woamn_275 ... _beam.html

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Robbery suspect who left his phone number is shot by police
Workers told to call when boss returned

Mechanic Jose Sida (left) was working at the Northwest Side muffler shop where a man attempted a robbery Tuesday, leaving his phone number and asking employees to call him when their boss returned to open the shop's safe. (Tribune photo by Abel Uribe / March 25, 200



By Dan P. Blake | Tribune reporter
11:01 PM CDT, March 25, 2008

Robbers don't usually leave phone numbers behind, but on Monday, at a Northwest Side muffler shop, a man asked employees to give him a call when their boss came back to open a safe, an employee said Tuesday.

When the 18-year-old returned a few hours later, plainclothes Chicago police officers shot and wounded him in the leg, police said. Ruben Zarate of the 5100 of West Schubert Avenue was charged Tuesday with attempted armed robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer, the Cook County state's attorney's office said.

The incident started about 8 a.m., when the masked man, armed with a revolver, came in to Velasquez Mufflers For Less at 2600 N. Laramie Ave. and began demanding money, said Jose Sida, 37, a mechanic.

Employees told him they had little money and couldn't open the safe, so the man left two phone numbers for them to call when the owner returned with the combination, Sida said.

"He said, 'You guys better call me because otherwise I'm going to come back to shoot you,'" Sida said.

Instead, an employee called Chicago police.

Officers dressed in plainclothes came to the shop and told employees to call the man, Sida said. The man returned about noon, wearing the same mask and black clothing and officers told the employees to get to the back of the shop, Sida said.

A police source said the teen pulled a gun from his hooded sweat shirt and at least one officer opened fire. Zarate's injury was not thought to be life-threatening, the source said.

Mark Payne, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, said the man was treated at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for a gunshot wound. He said his agency was investigating the police-involved shooting but said that the inquiry would take six months to complete and that he could not release any details.

Sida said the teen's idea to leave his phone numbers was "stupid," but said employees were just following police instructions to call him back.

Employees now are worried the man's friends may return to get back at the shop employees for calling police.

"We followed police instructions, otherwise he would have come back for sure [to rob us]," Sida said.

Tribune reporter Angela Rozas contributed to this report.

dpblake@tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 2126.story
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93-Year-Olds In Sex Sting Make News Around World
By ANTHONY CORMIER and MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 29, 2008

MANATEE COUNTY - They spoke for five minutes, at best.

But those quick conversations between an undercover policewoman and two men in their 90s catapulted the men into a global spotlight and sparked an Internet frenzy that shows how, in today's world, a minor incident can quickly become an international sensation.

The recent arrests of two 93-year-old men in Manatee County on solicitation of prostitution charges has steamrolled across the Web in a matter of days.

The issue made it into European papers, hit the top of the Drudge Report, became fodder for late-night comedians including David Letterman and spread like wildfire among bloggers. The Herald-Tribune's Web site had 40,000 hits on the story in one day.

What started as a typical police case - with, of course, atypical suspects - revealed the power of the Web and shows that the way the world gets its news has changed.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the charge against one of the suspects, Carlos Underhill, who was arrested on a similar charge when he was 75. But authorities are taking the other suspect, Frank Milio, to trial on the charges.

Milio's attorney, however, insists the undercover prostitution sting was a case of police entrapment.

Messages left for Underhill and Milio were not responded to.

Outside the criminal justice system, the story is more about how the Internet has shrunk the world, enabling news from Manatee County to spin its way to Europe in a mouse click.

And, as often happens, it can likely be traced to Matt Drudge, the powerful Internet gossip whose site is one of the most read in the world.

The Drudge Report picked up the Herald-Tribune story on the charges and ran it on the top of its home page. The next day, the story had been disseminated across wire services, other newspapers and broadcast outlets - from USA Today to Fox News.

Shortly after it appeared on Drudge, a reporter from a New York tabloid called the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for details. "It's obvious when you have something like this that people are going to find it funny," said Dave Bristow, a department spokesman.

Meanwhile, two late-night hosts, Jay Leno and Letterman, were chiming in. "This is what happens when Medicare covers Viagra," Letterman cracked.

These days, said David Carlson, a journalism professor at the University of Florida, readers are hungrier than ever for "news of the weird."

"People have always been interested in the 'Man Bites Dog' stories," Carlson said. "And there is no question that people have prurient interests. In this case, it's certainly bizarre enough to get people talking."

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/29 ... news-metro

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Robbery suspect arrested after commandeering Amish buggy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
03/19/2008

JAMESPORT, Mo. (AP) -- A suspect in a gas station robbery forced an Amish man at gunpoint to use a horse and buggy to take him to a trailer home in Jamesport, where he was found hours later hiding in a nearby shed, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Draper Scott Richardson, 26, of Breckenridge, was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. Those charges stemmed from the robbery Saturday of a gas station in Chillicothe that led to shots being fired at bystanders and highway patrolmen, officials said.

He was being held at the Livingston County Jail on $1 million bond.

Patrol Sgt. Sheldon Lyon said that after the robbery, civilians chased the men, who had fled on foot, but one of the suspects fired shots at the pursuers.

Troopers took up the chase after the men took off in their car, officials said, and the suspects fired several shots at the officers. Two patrol cars were hit by bullets, the patrol said.

The fleeing car hit spike strips that had been placed in the road and came to a stop. One of the suspects, David Michael Searcy, 22, of Chillicothe, surrendered after a patrolman fired a shotgun at him, the patrol said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Highway Patrol responded to the Jamesport trailer after getting a report of a stolen Amish buggy. The patrol and the Livingston County Sheriff's Department evacuated nearby homes, blocked off streets and called for a school lockdown as they surrounded the trailer.

Troopers unsuccessfully tried to reach Richardson by phone in the trailer.

After using a bullhorn to order Richardson to come out of the trailer, officers fired about 25 canisters of tear gas into the trailer. An hour later, they found him in a nearby shed.

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