Police: Fake cop arrested

Police say a man impersonating an officer with a flashing red light in his car has been arrested after he pulled over the wrong driver — the mayor of Shreveport, La.

Police think the suspect was using the in-dash light to maneuver through traffic Monday night in northwest Louisiana. Mayor Cedric Glover says he pulled over when the drove behind him, but the fake officer then sped away.

Glover says he followed the car and called police. Daniel Niederhelman, 21, of Shreveport has been charged with false personation of a peace officer.

Police seized the light and a handgun from Niederhelman’s holster. Authorities say Niederhelman works for a private security company, but wasn’t authorized to use the light.

Booking records did not list an attorney for Niederhelman.

 

Vienna abuzz over plan for cafe

Talk about a caffeine high.

Coffee enthusiasts will be able to get a cup — and a slice of cake — in a makeshift cafe being set up inside a tower of Vienna’s stately St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Organizers say the cafe will offer sweeping views of the Austrian capital from its perch in the tower, which is 72 meters (236 feet) high.

The lofty cafe won’t be permanent. Vienna’s Coffeehouse Association said Tuesday it’s a one-day deal to help mark the city’s annual Coffee Day on Oct. 1.

 

Trash bin tryst thwarted

A tender moment in a trash bin went all wrong for a couple who found themselves being held up at pocket knifepoint.

Wichita police say two 44-year-olds had climbed into a Dumpster to be alone just after 6 p.m. Saturday when two men interrupted them and demanded their belongings.

Officers say the man and woman were engaged in “an intimate moment’’ when they were robbed of their shoes, jewelry and the man’s wallet.

Police say one of the robbers was a 64-year-old man who egged his 59-year-old companion on during the robbery.

The suspects were found a short time later and the stolen property was returned.

 

Wrong house, different suspect

A northeast Tennessee deputy sheriff who went to the wrong house came back with his man anyway.

The incident occurred Friday evening when Carter County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Barnett responded to a domestic disturbance call, but mistakenly knocked on the door of the wrong house.

The Johnson City Press reported 33-year-old Daniel Hubert Taylor Jr. invited him in. Then, Taylor put his hands behind his back for handcuffing and told Barnett he was ready to go to jail, saying he had an outstanding arrest warrant.

Taylor appeared in court Monday and was sentenced to 40 days.

He was found guilty of contempt and violating probation for failing to pay fines and complete an anger management course from an earlier incident.

 

Soldier alive

Military officials say they’re investigating why a western New York man was told his son had been killed in Afghanistan when in fact the soldier was alive and well.

Ray Jasper of Niagara Falls says he was camping Sunday when he received a call on his cell phone from a woman who said she was a military liaison. He says the woman told him his son, Staff Sgt. Jesse Jasper, was killed in action Saturday.

The father says he later called military officials to get details of his son’s death and was told that his son was alive. Ray Jasper says the officials couldn’t explain the earlier call.

The father says his son later called from Afghanistan and said he would talk to his commanding officers about the call reporting his death.

Chase ends on chief’s yard

A Maine woman attempting to get away from police in Conway, N.H., picked the wrong yard to drive through, crashing within feet of the town police chief and his daughter.

Twenty-two-year-old Eliza Billings of Limerick, Maine, was charged with drunk driving and felonious reckless conduct with a deadly weapon following the Sunday night chase. Police said it started when she allegedly failed to stop for speeding near an intersection.

Police said Billings drove over Police Chief Ed Wagner’s yard, coming close to Wagner and one of his daughters, who were outside working on a school project.

Wagner assisted in taking Billings into custody. She also was charged with disobeying an officer and marijuana possession and was arraigned Monday. Bail was set at $4,000 cash.

 

Huntsville boy fakes kidnapping

An 11-year-old Huntsville boy gets high marks in storytelling after staging a hoax to cover up his bad grades.

Police say the boy faked his kidnapping Friday to avoid bringing home a bad report card, saying that a man with a pistol snatched him after he left Ed White Middle School.

The boy said the man forced him into a “beat-up car’’ and threatened to kill him.

The student said he escaped by jumping out of the car but wasn’t able to grab his bookbag, which contained the report card.

He ran to his grandparents’ house and later confessed to lying. His grandfather called police to apologize.

Sgt. Mark Roberts said police were suspicious that the boy was able to “escape’’ with his band instrument, but not his bookbag.

Roberts said the boy faces no charges at this time.

 

Chunk of ice falls from sky

A Detroit man says a softball-sized chunk of ice fell from the sky and knocked a hole into the roof of his west side home.

Gerald Young tells WJBK-TV that he believes the grayish lump originated from a plane flying overhead about 6:15 p.m. Sunday.

The television station reports that a party was under way outdoors next to Young’s home, but no one was hit by the ice. Young tells the station that he reported the incident to the Federal Aviation Administration.

A neighbor says they heard a whistling sound before the ice crashed into the roof and rolled to the ground.

FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro says the agency is investigating the incident. He said there is a better chance of tracing the ice’s origin if it was saved by the homeowner.

Stuffed bear arrives in Cobb

Things have gotten a bit wild at Cobb County’s recreation department.

The stuffed body of a black bear killed by a car in summer 2008 along a busy road in the north Atlanta suburb has arrived from the taxidermist this month. The bear will soon go to the county’s Cato Environmental Education Center in Austell, but for now it’s greeting visitors to the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs office.

State officials estimate about 2,200 black bears live in Georgia.

 

Man apologizes after assault

A New York man has been arrested on assault and weapons charges after police say he threatened a Lowell gas station clerk with a knife, then returned later to apologize.

Despite the apology, 31-year-old Juan Carrion was arrested Sunday on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and a violation of the city’s dangerous-weapon ordinance.

According to police, Carrion pulled a knife during an argument with the clerk at Moujaes Inc. gas station.

Police were first called to the business in what was originally thought to be a robbery attempt.

After the first encounter, the suspect returned to the gas station to apologize, leading a clerk to call police.

It was not immediately known if Carrion has an attorney.

Anti-cigarette butt effort airs

After a summertime public service campaign about cigarette butts in Knox County there are more of them, not fewer.

The group Keep Knoxville Beautiful launched the campaign after a canvass of 0.2 miles of Maynardville Highway on June 1 turned up 1,386 butts.

Volunteers collected the spent cigarettes again on Aug. 31 and found 1,493 of them.

Beautification group executive director Allison Teeters told The Knoxville News Sentinel she hopes the increase was because of the summer tourist season.

But Teeters said some people who would never think of throwing out other trash don’t think twice about flipping a cigarette butt from a vehicle.

Teeters said the group plans to do another scan at the end of September.

 

Crabber nets baby blue crab

On a recent crabbing run up the James River near Craney Island, a crab plopped out of a pot that caught Sally Epps’ eye. The crab was shell-to-claw baby blue, like he’d been turned upside down and dipped in paint.

Epps has never come across an all-blue blue crab in 11 years of crabbing.

The typical Atlantic blue crab has blue claws and the female has distinctive swatches of red at the tip of the claws.

Epps handed the crab over to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The crab soon died but was frozen for research purposes.