Tom's blog: "Tom's blog"

NEW YORK - There’s nobody nice on this Christmas list: snowman stabbers, Grinch snatchers, wreath-robbing weasels. ’Tis the season for strange crimes by even stranger people, with police blotters expanding faster than a 6-year-old’s wish list of gifts. David Allen Rodgers, 42, was arrested Dec. 3 for driving while intoxicated — at the wheel of a float during the annual Christmas parade in Anderson, S.C. According to witnesses, Rodgers sped down Main Street in the Steppin’ Out Dance Studio float with 19 people aboard, ran a red light and led police on a 3-mile chase. Police said that when Rodgers finally stopped, they found an open container of alcohol in his truck. “I made a very bad judgment on my part,” Rodgers said at a court hearing. In Chicago, 32 plastic baby Jesus dolls were stolen from nativity scenes set up in people’s front yards. The kidnappers then lined up all the dolls along the fence outside a Chicago woman’s home; she rounded them up and turned them over to her parish priest. Similar crimes occurred in 35 cities from Fayateville, N.C., to Mission Viejo, Calif., according to The Catholic League, which tracks nativity vandalism. In Houghton, Mich., somebody stole an inflatable Grinch from outside an apartment complex. That was just one instance in the area’s rash of seasonal thievery: Two brown plastic reindeer, a baby Jesus statue and several wreaths were also stolen. ‘Why me ... and why Frosty?’ In Ohio’s Hamilton County, a pair of 18-year-olds were arrested for using screwdrivers to stab an inflatable 12-foot-tall Frosty the Snowman. “Why me?” asked Frosty’s owner, Matt Williquette. “And why Frosty?” The snowman had survived two previous stabbing attacks. Two other local teens were arrested in an unrelated incident where they allegedly smashed a car with a large decorative candy cane, causing $1,000 worth of damage. An Oklahoma woman was arrested after she visited the Delaware County Jail with a Christmas card for her incarcerated boyfriend. Police said the card held marijuana, leading to Dawn Smith’s arrest. A real-life Grinch in Yonkers, N.Y., made off with $14,000 in staff bonuses and money from the office safe during a Christmas party, police said. Daniel Rios, 38, spent $7,500 in cash but returned about $6,500 in checks, authorities said. And then there’s the case of the Santa Claus kidnapping. A motorcycle-riding Santa Claus with a stuffed Rudolph in his sidecar was arrested after allegedly grabbing an 8-year-old girl from outside a South Carolina convenience store. John Michael Barton, 55, was in his Claus outfit filling his bike with gas when the girl’s family stopped by the store. The girl’s father then saw Barton speeding off with her. After a chase at speeds of up to 80 mph, Barton pulled over his motorcycle and turned over the girl, police said. Barton was arrested later, hiding inside a bar.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A fed-up mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early. The mother called police Sunday after learning her son had disobeyed orders and repeatedly taken a Game Boy from its hiding place at his great-grandmother's house next door and played it. He was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church. "My grandmother went out of her way to lay away a toy and paid on this thing for months," said the boy's mother, Brandi Ervin. "It was only to teach my son a lesson. He's been going through life doing things ... and getting away with it." Police did not release the boy's name. The mother said that her son was found in the last year to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder but that his medicine does not seem to help. She said he faces an expulsion hearing at his school Wednesday. Rock Hill Police Capt. Mark Bollinger said the boy took a swing at a police officer assigned to the school last month. He has been suspended from school since then. The boy's case will be presented to Department of Juvenile Justice officials in York County, who will decide what happens to him, Bollinger said. His mother hopes he can attend a program that will finally scare him straight. "It's not even about the Christmas present," she said. "I only want positive things out of it. ... There's no need for him to act this way. I'd rather call myself than someone else call for him doing something worse than this."

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Two Swedish border control officers risk disciplinary action for keeping a photo collection of "exceptionally beautiful" women who passed through their checkpoint, police officials said Tuesday. The officers, who were working at a ferry terminal near Stockholm, made photocopies of the women's passport photos and placed them in a binder. They also noted the date of birth next to each entry, the Stockholm police department said. The binder contained instructions on how to compile the collection, and orders to make backup copies in case the binder would go missing or be confiscated by "evil-minded bores," police said. The instructions also stated that only "exceptionally beautiful" women belonged in the collection and that no personal data, aside from the date of birth, should be included. The men's employer found the binder and reported them to police, but the matter was dismissed because the compilation was not considered illegal. Stockholm police passed the matter to the national police's disciplinary board, which recommended the men get away with a warning.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A 14-year-old boy who was throwing eggs at cars along with two other teenagers was shot and killed by someone who had been in a sport utility vehicle that was hit, police said. Danny Crawford was killed by a gunshot wound to his upper body, Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis said. He died in an alley on the city’s west side early Saturday, authorities said. The teens were throwing eggs at cars when an SUV that was struck chased them, Detective Tim Huston said. The vehicle stopped and several gunshots were fired, he said. Police were looking for the shooter, who fled in the SUV, Sgt. Dana Norman said. The SUV believed to be involved was found a short time later near where Crawford died. The other teens were not hurt, police said.

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) - A man fatally shot his friend with a high-powered rifle in a dispute over a $20 bet on the South Carolina-Clemson football game, authorities said Sunday. James Walter Quick, 42, was charged with murder in the shooting of Richard Allen Johnson, 43. Johnson died from a single shot to the chest, according to a preliminary autopsy Sunday. The two had bet $20 on the annual game, with Quick taking South Carolina, which won 31-28, and Johnson taking Clemson, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said. They drank beer all afternoon and watched the game Saturday at Johnson's home, and began arguing about the bet after the game. Metts said Quick went to his car, got the rifle he normally uses for hunting and fired one shot, hitting Johnson in the chest. Deputies arrested Quick. Quick was being held Sunday in the Lexington County jail, awaiting a bail hearing. The sheriff's department said he did not yet have a lawyer.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A woman was released from the hospital a day after she was shot in the head six times in an attack police blamed on her ex-husband, Brazilian media reported Saturday. Patricia Goncalves Pereira, a 21-year-old housewife, was shot Friday after an altercation with her ex-husband, who was upset because she refused to get back together with him, Globo TV reported. “I know this was a miracle,” Pereira told the TV network. “Now I just want to extract the bullets and live my life.” Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn’t break through her skull and didn’t even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand. Police said the ex-husband was still at large, Globo TV reported.

EL CERRITO, Calif. - A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors — naked — and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said. The man was lying on a tree stump, masturbating beside a nature path, near a Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday, police said. John Sheehan, 33, of Pittsburg, was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure. But when asked whether he was carrying anything police should know about, Sheehan mentioned the tool, said El Cerrito Detective Cpl. Don Horgan. "You can't get much more concealed than that," Horgan said. Officers drew their weapons and firefighters were called to the scene. Sheehan removed a 6-inch metal awl wrapped in black electrical tape without incident. Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into jail on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon. "When you're talking about an awl or an ice pick and you're dealing with somebody who's fresh out of prison, it's a weapon. That's a stabbing instrument," Horgan said. It was not immediately clear what Sheehan was on parole for. A person answering the phone at the jail Friday night did not know whether Sheehan had a lawyer.

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Amanda Brisendine attributed the 30 pounds she gained in the past year to an abandoned smoking habit and rich food. So when she went to the hospital with sharp stomach pain, she wasn’t expecting to leave with a newborn son. “I don’t know how I didn’t know. I just didn’t know,” Brisendine said Tuesday from her bed at Overlake Medical Center’s Birthing Center, where she delivered Alexander Joseph Britt by Caesarean section. George Macones, chairman of the OB/GYN department at Washington University in St. Louis, said he’s seen about a dozen cases in his nearly 20-year career in which a woman didn’t know she was pregnant. The pregnancy isn’t always obvious when a woman is overweight, or a woman will have spotting or bleeding during the pregnancy and mistake it for menstruation, said Macones, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. The 26-year-old Renton woman went to Group Health Cooperative’s Eastside campus last Saturday after experiencing several days of abdominal pain so intense that she called in sick from work Doctors examined her and performed a pregnancy test that showed she was nine months pregnant. “I was so shocked. I was nauseous,” said Brisendine, whose boyfriend Jason Britt didn’t believe her at first. “I thought she was lying,” said Britt, 33. Already mother to a 14-month-old daughter, Melodies, Brisendine said she didn’t experience typical pregnancy symptoms, like a missed menstruation, morning sickness, fatigue or food cravings. “Everything was normal as far as I knew,” she said. Ultrasounds showed low amniotic fluid in the placenta and the baby wasn’t moving properly, said Brisendine’s doctor, Danica Bloomquist. “From our assessment, the baby wasn’t doing well in utero,” Bloomquist said. “He needed to come out.” After an emergency C-section Sunday, Brisendine delivered 7-pound, 5-ounce Alexander. “We’re in for a really, really big adventure,” Brisendine said.