Several years ago while a Utah Highway Patrolman, I was working an evening shift in Rich County. There are no intersection lights anywhere, in any of the cities, in this small rural community.

As I sat off the side of the road in a marked car at the summit of Laketown Canyon, a car pulled off the road and stopped behind me, with it’s headlights and engine still on. When the driver didn’t immediately exit the car, I went back to determine the driver’s intent and to insure my safety. I asked the driver why he had stopped.

He replied: “I’m just waiting for the light to change officer.”

I arrested him for driving under the influence.

During the same years as a UHP Trooper, one evening after dark I was patrolling a canyon road. As I came around the corner I saw a car stopped in the middle of the highway. The engine was running, the headlights and interior lights were all on, and all four doors were open. The driver was standing on the roof. I inquired what the problem was. The driver said he was trying to get away from the skunk in his car. There was no skunk - or smell - in his car.

I brought him down off the roof and arrested him for driving under the influence.

A carjacker is in custody in part because he refused to believe his victim’s vehicle was out of gas, police say.

The car’s owner had pulled into a closed service station late Thursday night because his gas tank was empty. As the 20-year-old car owner tried to figure out what to do, the car was taken at gunpoint.

The victim said the car was out of gas but the carjacker told him to try to start it anyway.

The car started but ran out of gas and stalled down the street while the victim was at a pay phone calling in the robbery.

The gunman took off on foot, in view of an officer who heard the call and saw the suspect get into another car with two other men.

It was about 16 years ago when I was walking a foot post in Time Square.

One hot evening in July I spotted this “person” harrassing and annoying passersby on my post. I walked up to this individual and as I was just about to warn him, he started running south on 7th Ave.

As he was running his pants were falling down, right to his knees. I yelled to him ” Pull Your Pants Up” !!

He thought I said ” Put Your Hands Up.” So there he is running down 7th Ave. with both hands in the air, and now his pants are right about at his ankles.

So for about 30 seconds cops, tourists, residents, and anyone else who was at the scene for the show, got a real good laugh at this dumb crook.

James M. Downey, 33, Chicago, was charged Oct. 21 with operating a vehicle while intoxicated, possession of methamphetamine, marijuana and LSD and intent to deliver LSD. Police responded to a report of a car on the shoulder of Interstate 35. Officers found Downey asleep with the car in gear and the engine running. His foot was on the brake.

JASPER, Indiana - In an incredible coincidence of timing, a fleeing burglar took a giant leap of faith and landed right in the long arms of the law, literally.

Trent Carie, 21, was inside the Main Street Restaurant & Bar when a passing police officer spotted him and suspected a robbery was underway.

According to Sgt. Mike Fowler, Carie ran from the store and jumped over a tall fence only to land in the arms of another officer and a trooper who had just arrived at the scene. Carie is believed to be the culprit of at least a dozen burglaries of several businesses in the area in recent weeks.

After gambling - and losing - at a Turtle Lake, Wis., casino, a Minnesota man roughed himself up in the parking lot and called police to report that he was robbed, a complaint says.

A good story, considering John Robert Broos Jr. had the bumps and bruises to prove the alleged attack.

Good, but not quite good enough. Broos apparently didn’t know that someone was watching.

According to a criminal complaint filed Nov. 21, surveillance cameras recorded Broos beating himself against a light pole, smudging dirt on his cheeks, and - after checking the damage in his car mirror - repeating the process until he achieved just the right “I got robbed” look.

Broos, 57, of Lino Lakes, Minn., now faces charges for the tall tale - one of the stranger obstruction cases to be prosecuted in Barron County, an official said this week.

“In this profession, it’s hard to be surprised anymore, especially after 22 years, but it is unusual,” said Ruth Bachman, the Barron County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case.

“I’ve certainly had cases where people lied to the police to help themselves out,” she added, “but I don’t know that I can say that I’ve ever had someone go to the extreme of injuring themselves to do that.”

Broos, who couldn’t be reached for comment, faces a misdemeanor obstruction charge, which, if he is convicted, carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail. He was ordered to appear in Barron County Circuit Court.