Pair Forced Man To Strip Over Drugs

Police say a western Pennsylvania woman and her 20-year-old son forced a man to strip to his boxer shorts at gunpoint during a botched drug deal.

Police said Nathaniel Lindgren and his mom, 41-year-old Jean Pinko, accosted the man after he came to their New Kensington home. Police say the man left his cell phone as collateral while he went to his friend’s car to get $90 to pay the suspects for the drugs.

But before he could get the money, police arrested the friend on an outstanding theft warrant and began to tow his car away. Frightened, the man threw the drugs into the weeds and returned to get his cell phone.

Police said Lindgren and Pinko thought the man was lying and made him strip to prove he didn’t have the drugs. Lindgren was charged with aggravated assault and weapons charges; Pinko was charged with conspiracy and other crimes. Neither has a listed phone.

Police Nab Alleged Toilet Paper Bandit

Police said they suspect they’ve captured the “toilet paper bandit.”

A man who concealed his face by wrapping his head with toilet paper robbed a Lincoln, Nebraska convenience store last month. Police said the man was armed with a knife, but no one was hurt in the robbery.

He escaped on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

Capt. David Beggs said 29-year-old Joshua Nelson was arrested Saturday night. Beggs said a prescription pill bottle found near the store gave officers a clue to pursue. But he said it took until Saturday for officers to find enough evidence for an arrest.

A jail spokeswoman said Nelson remained in custody on Monday. His attorney did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Owner Of Stalin Museum Murdered

A Russian businessman who set up a museum dedicated to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was electrocuted and bludgeoned to death, Russian media reported.

Vasily Bukhtiyenko set up the Stalin museum in 2005 in Volgograd, previously called Stalingrad, about 560 miles southeast of Moscow.

“He was resting at a tennis court. That is where the murder happened,” state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a spokeswoman for regional investigators as saying.

Police said a motive for the attack was unclear at present.

Man Convicted Of Shooting Himself In Groin

A Colorado man who claimed he was trying to defend himself from a mugger when he shot himself in the groin has been convicted of illegal discharge of a firearm.

Investigators said there was no evidence to substantiate David Leroy Blurton’s self-defense claim and jurors convicted the 50-year-old on Wednesday. The shooting happened at the parking lot of a grocery store in Dillon, Colo., on May 2009. Prosecutors say Blurton had been drinking.

Jurors also convicted Blurton of “prohibited use of a weapon — drunk with a gun” and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors said they will request that Blurton be sentenced to probation.

Blurton maintained that someone hit him in the back of the head and he was trying to defend himself.

Stripper Accused Of Committing Worker’s Comp Fraud

A Pennsylvania woman is facing insurance fraud charges after authorities say she worked as a stripper while collecting worker’s compensation payments.

The state Attorney General’s office said 43-year-old Christina Gamble, of Quakertown, collected thousands of dollars in insurance payments while working at C.R. Fanny’s Gentlemen’s Club and Sports Bar.

According to a complaint, Gamble claimed she fell and hurt her back while working at a restaurant in 2007 and told a doctor it was difficult for her to stand or change positions. Authorities say she received more than $22,000 in disability benefits.

Gamble was arraigned Thursday on two counts of insurance fraud and one count of theft by deception and released on her own recognizance.

A phone listing for Gamble could not immediately be located.

Two Arrested Over Monkey Meatballs

Indonesian police have arrested a couple who made meatballs from the flesh of protected monkeys, an animal conservation group said.

 

The pair poached dozens of rare Javan langurs, also known as silver-leaf monkeys, from Baluran National Park in the east of Java island, according to a statement released by Indonesia-based animal protection group ProFauna.

“Police found 30 kilograms (65 pounds) meat estimated to come from 20 – 25 individuals, two rifles and a live langur,” the statement said.

“The couple admitted that they had known what they did was against the law and they hunted the monkeys for their meat because beef and chicken were more expensive than the protected monkeys.”

Mom Turns In Son For Stealing Drugs From Her Bra

A Memphis woman called police after she found her son stealing her prescription sedatives from her bra.

The Commercial Appeal reported that police found a 28-year-old man hiding under a neighbor’s sport utility vehicle Wednesday morning. The mother, whose name police didn’t release, told officer she awakened before dawn to find her son filching Xanax from her bra, where she kept it to prevent him from stealing it.

Police said the man had 22 Xanax pills, 15 of them wrapped in toilet paper and hidden in his sock. Officer said a search of the man’s room turned up more pills and various drug paraphernalia.

He was in jail Thursday with bond set at $40,000.

28 Detained In Gigolo Raid

Police on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali detained 28 people this week in a crackdown on “beach gigolos,” who scout for foreign female tourists, officials said on Tuesday.

The raids began on Monday after the release of a trailer for a documentary on Bali’s ‘Kuta cowboys’, the muscular and tanned Kuta beach surfers who develop short-term romantic relationships with foreign women in return for gifts.

‘Cowboys in Paradise’ follows the trials and tribulations of several beach boys, their families and their female patrons.

The documentary’s Singapore-based director, Amit Virmani, said he found the arrests deplorable.

Burglars Break Into Prison To Rob Inmates

It would make a good gag for a comedy if it weren’t actually true: thieves have broken into a Dutch prison to steal the inmates’ televisions.

Twice in the last six weeks, burglars broke into a minimum-security prison and stole TVs from cells while prisoners were on weekend furloughs, a spokesman for the justice ministry said on Wednesday.

The prison, in the town of Hoorn 42 km (26 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, is for inmates near the end of their sentences.

The facility is what the Dutch government calls a “very modestly protected environment,” where prisoners transition back into society. They are typically allowed weekend leave, which is when the burglars decided to take advantage.

The thefts happened on two separate weekends about a month apart in March and April. The ministry spokesman said it has still not been able to confirm how the burglars gained access.

A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office in the region confirmed only that a break-in at the prison had been reported to police and added that no arrests had yet been made.

Woman Tried To Use 911 As Taxi Service

Police in one Connecticut city have a warning for nightclub patrons: Don’t call 911 for a ride home.

New Haven police say that’s what 28-year-old Quandria Bailey did, calling the emergency line six times to request a ride from a nightclub back to her Meriden home.

Bailey was charged with six counts of misuse of the 911 system early Sunday. She was released on a $1,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court May 5.

A telephone number for Bailey could not immediately be located Sunday and it was unclear whether she had an attorney.