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The skinny

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 25, 2007

STEALING CARS

DO A LITTLE RESEARCH WHEN TRADING IN A CAR

Jazrahel King had barely had his 2003 Jeep Liberty for a month when he took it to a Norwalk, Conn., car dealer to trade it in on something else. Thing is, he took it to the car dealer from whom police say he stole it. You'd be surprised, but car dealers need more than a month to just forget a car got stolen from them. Sales manager Diego Coleman said that not only did King bring the vehicle in - he wanted to get something a little bigger - but the keys were still on the dealer's key ring and documents in it said that the dealer owned it. And the temporary tag was issued by the dealer. There was really nothing King had going for him here, so police arrested him.

Thief betrayed by a cinnamon bun

Norman Wheeler didn't try to sell the car he is accused of stealing back to the person he stole it from, but the smart money says he finishes his pastries from now on. A witness to a 2004 car theft in Eastpointe, Mich., says a man arrived in one car only to steal another. That first car had a partially eaten cinnamon bun on the front seat. The forensics team saw the pastry, and picked it up, tested it for DNA, and found a match in Wheeler, whose DNA was on file. He pleaded guilty this month.

OLDER. WISER. RICHER.

Brit finds breathing quite profitable

Alec Holden of Surrey, England, turned 100 on Tuesday. What's really cool about that is that in 1990, he placed a bet with a British bookmaker that he would live to be 100, according to the BBC. The bookmaker gave him 250-to-1 odds that he'd be pushing up daisies by now. He plunked down the equivalent of $200, and now he has $50,000. "When we started taking these bets, 100 years old seemed to be an almost mythical landmark," said Rupert Adams of the bookmaker. "But these age wagers are starting to cost us a fortune, and from now on we are going to push out the age to 110." Wondering how to make it to 100? Holden offers this sage advice, from years of experience: "Remember to keep breathing."

SUPERMAN! WATCH OUT!

Lex Luthor's lair found in Serbia

There was a reason that you never heard of Superman saving anyone in Serbia. Turns out that a mineral recently discovered in the country has the same chemical composition as kryptonite. At least if you believe the case from which Lex Luthor stole some "kryptonite" in Superman Returns, which was labeled sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide. So, did the miners know they had kryptonite when they found the glowing green crystals? Well, no, but mostly because it's a white powder. Also, it's not radioactive. They won't even officially name it kryptonite. It's going to be called Jadarite, after the city near where it was found.

Compiled from Times wires and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster.

[Last modified April 25, 2007, 01:45:59]