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The skinny

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 17, 2007

Explosive situations

When stealing gas, better bring a flashlight

The price of gas is making fuel a hot commodity. Aland White of Eltham, New Zealand, found that out the hard way when he woke up just before 3 a.m. and saw his 1986 Mitsubishi Lancer engulfed in flames. "My first thought was that someone had arsoned my car because a gas can was lying nearby," he told that Taranaki Daily News. Then they found the siphon hoses and a lighter. Police surmise that someone was trying to steal the gas, couldn't see and lit the lighter, which is really inadvisable around gas. White assures the thieves were wasting their time. "You can't siphon from this car, I've already tried."

Fireworks are not really a DIY project

A man in Centreville, Va., unimpressed with the local fireworks selection, apparently tried to make some of his own. It cost him his garage, which was severely damaged in the resulting explosion. "It just appears he may have been wanting to make his own homemade fireworks," said Mike Campbell of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "This is what happens when you do that." So don't do that, is believed to be his point.

No smoking in the bombmaking room

Two 19-year-olds in Bayou Black, La., learned the hard way that whenever you are making bombs out of gunpowder, you should just hold off on smoking for the time being. Alex Joshua Horn and Johnathan Anthony Porche are accused of stealing gunpowder from Wal-Mart. Police think that they were trying to make a bomb - Wal-Mart employees say some teens were in the store that day asking about gunpowder and PVC pipe - and it all went bad when Porche flicked his cigarette near the open bottle of powder. After being treated, they were booked.

Never let me go

She found a real Jailhouse Rock

LaDell Alexander of Estes Park, Colo., likes to buy rocks as souvenirs. When she got back from her trip last summer, she started cleaning off her haul, and was amazed at what appeared. "I was about 20 feet away and the first thing I said was, 'That is Elvis,' " said her husband, Lynn Alexander. LaDell doesn't plan on keeping this treasure to herself, though. She plans to sell it on eBay, where you can sell just about anything, and donate the proceeds to a King-approved foundation, thankya, thankyaverymuch. "People are calling me the Elvis Rock Lady," LaDell told the Fort Collins Coloradoan, seemingly okay with that fate.

Update

Fly away runaway

Semaj Booker, who as a 9-year-old in January stole a car, took it on a high-speed police chase, then talked his way onto two airplanes, was sentenced to probation for his elaborate runaway try. And his conviction will be vacated if he doesn't get into anymore trouble. "We hope that he's successful and that we never see him again," prosecutor Fred Wist said.

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 17, 2007, 00:37:18]