■UNITED STATES
Identity theft arrest made
State and federal authorities said they arrested nearly two dozen people, many with ties to Eastern Europe, in a credit card fraud and identity theft scheme that cost Las Vegas businesses and consumers about US$1.5 million. Greg Brower, US attorney for Nevada, said on Tuesday that 13 people were arrested on federal charges on Monday in southern Nevada and Los Angeles. Las Vegas police said 10 were arrested on state charges, including forgery, credit card fraud and weapons and drug possession. In five indictments unsealed on Tuesday, prosecutors describe an operation using “skimming equipment” at restaurants, smoke shops and convenience stores to obtain credit card numbers and personal identification numbers.
■UNITED STATES
Fourth arrested over teen
A fourth person is in police custody in the case of a teenager who showed up emaciated and shackled at a Northern California gym. Police in Tracy, California, say 29-year-old Anthony Waiters was arrested on Tuesday at his workplace in Pleasanton. He was booked at San Joaquin County Jail on charges of torture, conspiracy, child endangerment, corporal injury to a child and false imprisonment. Police did not release further details, citing a judge’s gag order. Three other people face torture, kidnapping and child abuse charges in the case. Authorities say the boy had been kept chained in a fireplace, choked with a belt and denied food for days at a time during more than a year in captivity.
■MEXICO
Corpses dressed up
Seventeen bodies were found near the northern border areas on Tuesday, including a male corpse wearing a diaper and another dressed in women’s clothes in the city of Tijuana, officials said. “One had a pacifier hanging around his neck and was only wearing a diaper, while the second was dressed as a woman,” said Jose Manuel Yepiz, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office of northwestern Baja California state. Police found a total of five bodies in the border city across from San Diego in the US, and 12 others in the violent state of Chihuahua, including one decapitated body and three that had been tortured.
■UNITED STATES
Thief purloins star’s pups
A grinch has stolen a couple of puppies that actor John Schneider, who starred in the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, intended to give his children as an early Christmas gift. Car thieves swiped Schneider’s sport utility vehicle at a suburban Los Angeles mall last week. The SUV has since been found — but no dogs. Schneider himself searched the neighborhood for the Yorkie and Yorkie-Poodle mix. He says he’s certain whoever took the SUV is caring for the dogs, or even re-gifting them.
■UNITED STATES
Deer crashes class
A fourth-grade class in Michigan learned firsthand about animal behavior when a deer crashed through a window and into its classroom. The six-point buck sent chairs, desks, books and shards of glass flying. A boy suffered a small cut to his head, but there were no serious injuries. Marty Alexander, the principal of Coopersville East Elementary School, says the unexpected guest dropped by on Monday afternoon. He said the teacher stayed cool, instructing her 23 startled students to drop to the floor as the deer bounded across the room. She then led the children into the hallway. After a twitchy, 30-second visit, the buck jumped back through the window and ran away.
RSS