Two car theft suspects caught a ride Tuesday morning, April 16, from the owner of the car they allegedly stole Monday night, April 15. The stolen car’s owner promptly drove the men to the police station and they are now sitting in Park County jail.

Roommates John A. Houston Jr., 19, and Daniel K. Woldstad, 21, both made an initial appearance in Justice Court Tuesday to felony theft of a motor vehicle. The two residents of 903 E. Gallatin St. were both being held on $5,000 bond. The two are the primary suspects for stealing a car sometime Monday night.

At 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jessica Ghiorzo, of 112 N. K St., called the Livingston Police Department to report her 1991 Dodge Monacco missing.

Ghiorzo, her sister and niece then drove around town searching for the missing vehicle.

About 20 minutes into their search, at about 7:20 a.m., Ghiorzo said she saw two “suspicious men” poking around a mobile home near the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witness at 1505 E. Gallatin St.

Not paying much attention to the two men, she then found her car in the Kingdom Hall parking lot.

Remembering the two men a couple blocks away, she drove by them again. This time the men flagged Ghiorzo down and asked for a ride.

She said she let the two into the car and immediately noticed they both acted very intoxicated and reeked of alcohol.

Suspecting the two had something to do with her stolen car, Ghiorzo told the men she had to stop by the police department to pick something up.

At the police department, Capt. Dave Fenton was just arriving on duty. Fenton said he could not believe her story and went into the station to confirm the earlier reports.

Fenton, accompanied by officers Tom Totland and Jerry Harmon, then arrested Houston and Woldstad.

Police Chief Darren Raney said Tuesday that Houston and Woldstad are the primary suspects in the investigation.

- By Ryan Sones, Livingston, Montana Enterprise Staff Writer

A postal worker accused of putting a white powder in the envelope she used to mail a payment for a traffic citation told authorities she had no idea that it would be perceived as a threat.

Police said Lisa Kocher, 46, of Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania told authorities the powder was a combination of baking soda and cigarette ashes, which she included to mask the smell left by her cat having urinated on the citation.

The envelope was addressed to the “Komrade Magistrate District Officer” and the $94 check had “Bribe for Freedom/Life in America” written on it. Also, the envelope had taped edges and was sealed with an upside-down American flag sticker.

Detective Gary Hammer of the Colonial Regional Police Department told The Express-Times of Easton for Saturday’s editions that authorities do not know if the powder is baking soda and ashes, but they do not believe it was anthrax.

Kocher was charged with making a terroristic threat, disorderly conduct and harassment and taken to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $10,000 bail. She could not be reached for comment because she was jailed, and authorities said she did not have a lawyer.

A science instructor who told police she wanted to play hooky Thursday tried to cancel her class by phoning two bomb threats to a Beaverton elementary school.

“The only excuse was she just wasn’t up to teaching a class today — just didn’t feel like it,” said Officer Mark Hyde, Beaverton Police Department spokesman.

Kimberly F. Haggard, 39, was to teach students kitchen chemistry during an after-school program run by a contractor at Scholls Heights Elementary in the city’s Murray Hill area, Hyde said.

Haggard, of 3333 S.E. 39th Ave. in Portland, was arrested about 3 p.m. when she arrived at the school.

Haggard was released Thursday after she was cited in connection with four misdemeanors, including menacing, disorderly conduct, telephone harassment and initiating a false police report.

She works for Mad Science, a Montreal company that puts on “entertaining science education for kids” in after-school programs, said Brad McLean, sales and marketing manager for the company’s Northeast Portland franchise.

Hyde said a woman called the school’s front office at 12:35 p.m. to report a bomb in the school. School staff called police and the Beaverton School District’s security force.

Students left the school at 16400 S.W. Loon Drive as part of a fire drill. Five police officers and school staff searched the building but found nothing unusual.

Police also began work to trace the phone calls.

Minutes after the first call, a woman who didn’t identify herself called to ask whether the Mad Science class had been canceled.

A half-hour later, a third call was received. Again, a woman said a bomb would go off at 3 p.m., the same time Haggard’s science class was scheduled to start.

Police traced the phone call to Haggard, who school staff members recognized as the instructor.

Students were dismissed on schedule at 2:30 p.m. As a precaution, the school was evacuated before the caller’s 3 p.m. deadline.

Haggard was stopped by police when she arrived at the school about that time. She admitted to Beaverton officers Dan Bortolin and Craig Coleman that she made both threats.

“There is a positive note in that everybody did the right thing down the line,” Hyde said.

McLean of Mad Science said he was unaware of any complaints about Haggard’s work. She has no prior criminal record and passed the company’s background check, he said. McLean said he didn’t know what other schools she might have taught at.

“My guess would be that, no, she won’t return to work,” he said.

Canadian and Michigan officials were quizzical when Damon J. Francis wanted to cross the border - while driving a street sweeper.

Marquette County Sheriff’s deputies in Michigan began asking questions and soon discovered that Francis, 24, was wanted in Hamilton County, accused of stealing the street sweeper from a Lockland company and driving it to the Canadian border. ‘’He was looking for a way to get to Canada,'’ said Kevin McMahon of Contract Sweepers and Equipment, the Lockland company from which the sweeper was stolen.

Police here say Francis drove a white Cadillac through the company’s fence into the parking lot after business hours on May 3, 2001.

Once inside, police said, he broke into the company’s office and stole two fuel cards - credit cards that only can be used to buy fuel for vehicles - and the keys to the street sweeper. He then rolled over the fence in the sweeper and took off, police said.

‘’Maybe he wanted to get back at us,'’ McMahon said of Francis, a one-time temporary employee.

‘’I was laughing, saying maybe he traded in his Cadillac on (the street sweeper),'’ Francis’ attorney, Ron Harris, said Monday.

McMahon surmised that Francis may have headed north because he was trying to avoid prosecution.

‘’If you want to avoid the law, you go to Canada or Mexico - at least that’s what they say in the movies,'’ McMahon said. ‘’It’s not necessarily true any more, but if you’re not too bright, you’re not gonna know that.'’

Police suspected Francis because his driver’s license was found inside the Cadillac used to crash into the lot.

Federal law enforcement agents have notified local authorities they may want to take control of the case. Authorities in Michigan, Francis told his lawyer Monday, charged Francis but dismissed the charges when he was declared ‘’delusional.'’

In Hamilton County, Francis was indicted on charges of vehicular theft, theft, vandalism and two counts of breaking and entering, which could earn him up to 5 1/2 years in prison. Francis has requested to be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

‘’He seemed sane enough to me (Monday) morning,'’ Harris said, adding that most of Francis’ criminal record involves crimes committed while drinking. Last month, Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies flew to Michigan, where Francis has been held since his arrest last May, to pick him up.

A would-be burglar put himself on the fast-track to jail after the Tokyo building he sneaked into turned out to be a police dormitory.

Police arrested the 50-year-old Chinese man after he tried to run away when challenged by an off-duty officer, the late edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Friday.

“I’d never have guessed police lived here,” the article reported the man as saying after he was pinned down by the officer.

The unmarked building had been rented by the Tokyo police as accommodation for officers and their families.

The arrested man was found to be carrying lock-picking equipment and a notebook with the names and addresses of contacts, two of whom were also later arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen goods, the paper said.

A spokesman for the metropolitan police declined to comment.

LEWISTON, Maine - Police who were chasing a man after a traffic stop got an unlikely assist from a skunk, who sprayed the suspect in the face.

Kenneth Rideout, 32, was nailed after he ran into the woods Tuesday night. He was wanted for violating release conditions stemming from a domestic assault.

The skunk didn’t stop Rideout but it slowed him down enough that police officers were able to catch up with him.

“It was powerful enough to pretty much incapacitate him,” said police Lt. Tom Avery.

Officer Eric Syphers arrested the smelly suspect. The squad car reeked by the time the prisoner arrived at the police station.

“Sometimes we get help from where we don’t expect it,” Avery said. “We’re calling this skunk Officer Pepe LePew.”

LONDON - A bungling bandit was nabbed after he left his wallet and mobile phone behind during an armed raid on an off license, a court heard on Thursday.

The robber took his wallet out to pay for a can of lager in a ploy to get the shopkeeper to open the till. But in the confusion as three other members of the gang ransacked the shop escaping with cash, phone cards and booze, he forgot he had left it on the counter, said prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones.

He also dropped his mobile phone which had his number in the memory and did not remember to wear gloves leaving his fingerprints on the can of lager, the Old Bailey heard.

He was arrested the next day in one of the easiest crimes police have had to crack.

Detectives traced Junior Adeoye, 19, from his wallet and his phone. Adeoye, of north London, pleaded guilty to robbery.

The court heard that Adeoye and three others raided the D & D Off License and newsagents in New Southgate, north London.

The gang escaped with two mobile phones, 800 pounds worth of phone cards, 825 pounds in cash and bottles of spirits.

Adeoye realized he had left his wallet behind and tried to hide his involvement by reporting it stolen. But as the evidence piled up against him, he admitted his guilt.

Judge Graham Boal said he would sentence him later on Thursday.