Police in Holland, Michigan didn’t have much trouble tracking down a burglary suspect who took a cab ride home from his alleged victim’s house.

20-year-old Rogelio Bueno of Holland has been charged with 2nd-degree home invasion. He’s being held in the Ottawa County jail under a $50,000 bond.

Police say Bueno broke into a residence on Monday while the victim was out and took a computer, a television, a stereo, a Sony PlayStation and a couple of camcorders. Officers say Bueno apparently decided that he couldn’t carry everything away with him. So he used the victim’s telephone to call Red’s Taxi and loaded up the loot in a cab when it arrived.

A witness had remembered seeing a taxi parked near the victim’s townhouse. Investigators went to Red’s Taxi, checked the dispatch logs and arrested Bueno at his home a couple of hours after the burglary. Police reported finding the stolen property there.

Cab driver Richard Hasty says Bueno explained away all the items by saying he was moving, and asked to be dropped off at an alley.

A rescue effort to save a stranded boater has ended with the man’s arrest on theft charges.

About 50 police officers and emergency rescue workers went to a yacht club in Long Beach Township, New Jersey Thursday after someone reported hearing a man scream for help.

The rescuers found a man clinging to a capsized sailboat that had been stolen from the yacht club. But he swam away before they could reach him.

They later found him hiding alongside a dock.

The man denied stealing the boat. He says it overturned when he leaned on it. But police say they don’t buy his story.

He’s now free after posting $10,000 bail.

By G.M. BROWN
Gainesville Sun staff writer

A Gainesville man was discovered by police after he allegedly broke into a car and couldn’t get out.

David Christopher Lander, 51, of 10013 NW 13th Ave. was arrested early Thursday morning after he was locked inside a car he was burglarizing, Alachua County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Keith Faulk said.

Matthew Cooper of Atlantic Beach, who was in town visiting relatives, was falling asleep just after 2 a.m. when he heard the car alarm go off.

“I thought someone was trying to break into my truck, so I grabbed my shotgun and ran out there in my boxers,” Cooper said. He discovered that it was the neighbor’s car alarm.

As Cooper approached the car, he saw a man trying to kick out the windows from inside.

“I went back and told my wife to call 911.”

When deputies arrived, they found Lander - locked in the car.

“He was trying to hide - all scrunched down in the back seat,” Faulk said. “I guess he thought deputies couldn’t see him.”

The 1994 Infiniti is equipped with an anti-theft device that automatically locks the doors when the car alarm is triggered, Faulk said. When Lander entered the car, the doors locked.

“Had he pushed the button on the driver’s side door, he could have gotten out,” Faulk said.

Cooper said he was amazed Lander couldn’t get out.

“He was intoxicated for sure. When the cops let him out of the car, I could smell the alcohol all over him,” Cooper said.

The owner of the car, Sandra Boutwell of 10112 NW 6th Place, slept through the incident, Cooper said.

“She got out there and couldn’t believe it,” he said. “She was in shock.”

When Lander was arrested, deputies found in his pockets a pendant valued at less than $50 and $3.21 in coins taken from the car. Lander was charged with one count of burglary of a conveyance and one count of theft.

In 19 years of law enforcement, Faulk said he has never seen anything this dumb - “not where the suspect was caught because of his own ignorance.”

“Maybe he needs a new line of work. He’s not very good at what he’s doing now.”

Story courtesy of G.M. Brown and the Gainesville Sun

Ashtabula, OH — Christopher Campbell, 29, of Fargo Drive, was arrested after repeatedly insisting deputies take him to jail after he was asked to leave Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grille at the Ashtabula Mall.

Campbell, who was reportedly “highly intoxicated,” even tried to climb into the back of Deputy Cary Nelson’s cruiser while officers were trying to convince him to go home.

Nelson was called to Applebee’s when Campbell caused a disturbance because staff there stopped serving him. Campbell reportedly wanted to drive home but staff and patrons reportedly believed he was too intoxicated.

Campbell reportedly continued to insist he was not too intoxicated to drive after Nelson arrived.

At one point, Nelson reported, Campbell started to administer a field sobriety test on himself in the restaurant. Nelson did not say if Campbell passed.

Campbell’s mother was called to pick her son up and Sgt. Greg Leonhard and Detective Brian Hubbard arrived to assist Nelson.

Campbell then reportedly became agitated, yelling, using vulgar words, and insisting he be taken to jail.

When the officers tried to put Campbell into his mother’s car, Campbell got out and tried to get into Nelson’s cruiser.

After another attempt failed to put Campbell into his mother’s car, Campbell was arrested.

Campbell was booked into jail for disorderly conduct.

He will be cited into Ashtabula Municipal Court on the charge, which carries a maximum fine of $100.

A sheriff’s deputy who checked on a passed-out, snoring man near the department’s front desk says he found a mouthful of evidence when he tried to awaken him: small bags containing “rocks” of cocaine.

In plain view inside the man’s mouth were two clear, plastic bags with several smaller bags inside them containing a substance that later tested positive for cocaine, the sheriff’s department said.

Deputies eventually roused Edward O. Green by repeatedly shaking him and speaking loudly. The 24-year-old Calumet City, Ill., man was arrested on preliminary counts of public intoxication and possession of cocaine.

A sheriff’s report said Green came to the department’s front desk on Friday to post bail money for someone in jail. He was asked to take a seat until someone could help him.

Green sat down and passed out moments later, snoring loudly and slumping against a wall with his mouth open, the report said.

When Deputy Andy Hynek tried to awaken Green, he noticed alcohol on Green’s breath and the bags inside his mouth, the report said.

Green was released from jail Friday on bond.

There was no phone listing for Green in Calumet City, and he could not be reached for comment.

A German man who served 11 months in prison for his brother has been told he must pay for board and lodging.

And he’s also been told the cash he earned in the prison workshop will not be paid as it was earned under a false name.

The 36-year-old Hamburg man served part of a two year sentence for his brother before authorities cottoned on.

The man, named only as Norbert K, has to pay costs of about £1,500 for food and accommodation, while brother Rudi has been told he still has to serve his two-year sentence for pimping.

To prepare himself for the deception Norbert, who is two years older than Rudi, had his hair cut short and streaked to look like his brother, who even drove him to the Glasmoor prison.

At the gates Norbert showed his brother’s identity card and was let in, although he is bigger than his brother, much heavier and hardly looks like him.

The plan went well until an old friend of Rudi’s turned up at the prison and was amazed to see that his friend had grown.

Rudi gave himself up to the authorities and started to serve his sentence, while Norbert was released. But when he tried to collect the money he earned through prison work he was handed a bill instead.

The T-shirt said: “Fugitive, You never saw me.” The man wearing it wished police hadn’t.

Christopher J. Antus was arrested Monday during a routine traffic stop while sporting the bright orange shirt.

“Well, I guess you are going to have to come with me,” state police Trooper Jerrod Patty said.

Antus asked why.

Patty pointed to the T-shirt: “Well, your shirt says you’re a fugitive.”

The trooper learned that the shirt Antus was wearing was no joke.

Antus, 24, was wanted on an arrest warrant charging him with failure to appear in court, a felony in northern Indiana’s Marshall County.

Antus was jailed without bond Tuesday.