The skinny
By TIMES WIRES
Published July 18, 2007
OH, SO SPECIAL OPS
DURING TRAINING MISSION, TROOPS LAND IN PRISON
The training mission went just a little bit awry. About 3 miles awry. Guards at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City, Colo., were on alert when 25 armed parachutists fell from the sky, landing in a cornfield on prison grounds. They held their fire when they noticed they were U.S. special operations troops. At least, as best they can determine. "We don't know who they were, and I'm not sure we'll ever know," said corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti. A spokesman for SOCom at MacDill Air Force Base wouldn't say who the troops were, but admitted they were supposed to land at nearby Fremont airport.
COP MOCKERS
Robbers leave police a $2 tip
A driver in Van Buren, Ark., thought it was weird that a two-ton vault was sitting on the side of Highway 68. So police checked it out and determined it was probably the same two-ton vault that had recently been stolen from the First Community Bank. When it was stolen, the vault had about $113,000 in it. When it was found, it had $2 in it. "We feel like that was a statement to mock us," Van Buren police Detective Keith Lindley said.
CRACKING THE CASE
Drug agent detects a note of cocaine
First, agents in Cartagena, Colombia, thought the piano being shipped to Panama was just a little heavier than a piano should be. Then, one of the agents played a note and thought it sounded off-key. So they opened up the instrument and found 560 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated value of $5-million.
DIS-MISS CHOLITA
Fake braids doom pageant winner
Huge scandal at the Miss Cholita pageant in La Paz, Bolivia, over the weekend. Mariela Mollinedo won, then had the title stripped away when it was discovered she had worn fake braids in her hair. Contestants wore the bowler hats, layered fringed shawls and skirts and costume jewelry that defines the Andean look. But the hair has to be real. The pageant will be repeated Sunday so a new, and presumably legitimately maned, champ can be crowned.
HE'S DONE
Alleged rapist done in at barbecue
Police are not suggesting that a barbecue fork is the best way to catch a rapist, but it seems to have worked at least once. A woman and her son were grilling in Garland, Texas, over the weekend when they heard someone call for help. According to KDFW-Ch. 4, they found a 7-year-old boy being raped by a 17-year-old man. John Jennings pulled the man up, and went old school, punching him in the face. His mom, Linda Rhodes, helped subdue him with the only weapon she had available: a big meat fork. "I stuck him in his butt," she said. "He was well done." Police arrested the man and presumably grilled him at the station.
Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.