True Story: Crime never pays... especially if you're stupid!
ELKO, Nev. (AP) _ A man accused of trying to extort $500 from a Pizza Hut in Elko was foiled by his own cell phone camera. Police said a former employee of the restaurant allegedly called the manager on Friday and told him he had five Pizza Hut signs that are used on the roofs of vehicles and wouldn't return them unless he was paid $500.
Police said the manager wanted proof that Long had the signs. So the 23-year-old man sent him a cell phone picture that proved to be his undoing.
Officers were able to zoom in on license plate numbers of two vehicles in the background that are registered to the man.
He's been charged with extortion, possession of stolen property and grand larceny. Bail is set at $15,000.
Fla. man's shoe found in slain bear
The Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Authorities cut open a slain bear and found a shoe lost by a Florida man while fighting off a bear that attacked his 8-year-old son in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The footwear was discovered in the black bear's stomach during a necropsy at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center, Smokies spokeswoman Nancy Gray said Monday.
It leaves little doubt rangers killed the right bear.
John Pala, a 43-year-old health insurance salesman from Boca Raton with no backwoods experience, literally ran out of his shoes racing to the aid of his young son Evan when the bear pounced on the boy during a day hike Aug. 11 along the popular Rainbow Falls trail.
Twice, Pala grabbed the young male bear's face, pulled its mouth apart and pushed the 86-pound animal away before Evan finally escaped.
Then Pala and Evan's 10-year-old brother Alex pelted the bear with sticks and stones until they could slowly back away and run to join Evan in a parking lot where they left their car.
Pala could hardly walk the next day because of the beating taken by his bare feet. Evan had bruises on his back, stitches in his arms and staples on his scalp, but otherwise OK. Alex was unhurt.
Rangers killed the suspected bear a few hours later in the same place where the Pala family was attacked. They shot the animal when it charged them. One of Pala's shoes was found nearby.
Pala, now home, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that rangers called him Friday to say they'd found his other shoe "inside the bear's stomach." The boys "really got a kick to hear that," he wrote.
He doesn't expect to see the shoe again. "I don't think there is much left of the shoe to send back," he said.
But Evan has hopes for his own memento. "They do have the bloody Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt that Evan had on and plan to send that back," Pala said.
Gray said the necropsy results were still preliminary, but it confirmed the bear did not have rabies.
Authorities say the attack was unprovoked, though Pala said their clothes might have smelled like fried chicken from a meal an hour earlier.
"The three of us are going to be fine," Pala wrote. "Evan, of course, will take a longer bit, but has only stitches to overcome, fortunately none on his beautiful face. The attention the media has provided him has been very therapeutic for him mentally. Not to mention making him quite a little star with his friends."
This was only the eighth bear attack in the past decade on a visitor to the Great Smokies, which is home to about 1,600 black bears and receives more than 9 million visitors annually. However, the attacks included one fatality in 2000.
BEIJING - They lost her pole. She lost a chance to win a medal.
Brazilian pole vaulter Fabiana Murer says Olympic officials lost one of her poles during Monday's final at the Bird's Nest, costing her a chance to compete for a medal.
"It feels like they stole these Olympics from me," Murer said in tears, after finishing in 10th place among the 12 finalists. "I've never seen anything like this."
Murer couldn't jump higher than the 4.45-meter mark on Monday, but her personal best is 4.80, which could have given her a silver medal.
"I went to get one of my poles and it wasn't there," Murer said. "We bring the poles inside a tube and give it to organizers so they can take the poles to the place where we are going to compete. But they lost one of the poles somewhere along the way. I don't know what happened."
Pole vaulters use several types of poles in the same vent, depending on the height they are attempting to clear.
Murer, who came into the event with the fourth best jump of the year, had surpassed the 4.45-meter mark and was looking for the pole she was going to use to try to clear 4.55 meters. She kept pacing back and forth, waving her arms, trying to get track officials to help her.
"I looked everywhere but I couldn't find it," Murer said. "I wanted the officials to stop the event so they could figure out where the pole was, but they kept saying I needed to go looking for it myself."
She said officials kept trying to convince her to continue with another pole, but she didn't want to because it would disrupt her routine.
"That pole was essential if I wanted to get over the 4.55 and the 4.65 marks," Murer said.
After several minutes, she talked with her coach and they decided to skip the 4.55 mark and go straight to the 4.65 with another pole. She failed in her three attempts.
"I was so nervous that I couldn't focus anymore," Murer said. "It was hard to go back and compete."
Miranda later told Brazilian TV that the pole was eventually found after the event in a locker used to keep equipment from athletes who had already been eliminated from the competition.
The Brazilian Olympic Committee said it was trying to seek answers for what happened.
Even Yelena Isinbayeva, who won by setting yet another world record after clearing 5.05 meters, sympathized with Murer.
"It is such a pity for Fabiana," she said. "I wish she took a medal from this because she is ready."
It was no consolation for the Brazilian, however.
"I'm not going to compete again this year," Murer said. "And I'm never coming back to China."
© 2008