A wireless phone salesman became a high-tech sleuth when a friend’s car was stolen in Chicago with his phone inside.

When Chicago musician and Web designer Eddie Kim had his car stolen in Chicago Friday night, he called his friend Matthew Carney, who lives in Interlochen, to help him cancel his phone service.

But Carney, who works for Sprint PCS in Traverse City, convinced Kim to keep the phone activated so that he could monitor the calls and possibly locate the car.

“I told him it may be the best tool he’s got working for him if he ever wants to see his car again,” Carney told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a story Thursday. “It was just kind of a lucky break that the guy was dumb enough to keep using the car and keep using the phone.”

Carney determined on Saturday morning that several calls had been made to a number in South Bend, Ind. He figured that the phone was being used in South Bend by connecting it to a signal tower there.

Kim called police in South Bend, but he could not convince them to take him seriously, Carney said.

After promising Carney that he would not confront anyone if he discovered his car, Kim went to South Bend.

Kim went to an address he found by entering the South Bend number on a reverse telephone look-up Web site.

Kim found an off-duty police officer who lived nearby and asked for help.

But Kim convinced the officer to help him just as he spotted his car driving away. A police chase involving a dozen patrol cars ensued and police eventually arrested an 18-year-old Chicago man.

Kim’s car was recovered Saturday night.

A teen-aged bank robber in dire need of a lesson in handwriting stole a scene from a Woody Allen comedy, “Take the Money and Run.”

Police in Rochester, New York said Brittany Bell, 16, bungled a robbery at an HSBC bank by failing to write out her demands clearly in a holdup note.

The teller couldn’t decipher the writing and had to pass the note to another teller. By the time the teen was handed a bag of money, it was almost closing time at the bank and other employees were locking the doors.

She wound up trapped in the foyer with the cash, where police captured her. She was charged with robbery and grand larceny.

A would-be hostage-taker learned two important rules of criminal conduct early this morning: Don’t go into a house where you’re outnumbered and don’t fall asleep on the job.

An 18-year-old man was arrested today after allegedly committing a string of robberies and then breaking into an apartment where he held six hostages at gunpoint. But deputies say after the man had been in the apartment for about two hours, he either fell asleep or passed out.

When the occupants of the apartment realized what had happened, they took the man’s gun and called police.

The incident began Thursday at Francesco’s Restaurant, 1922 W. 5400 South, when a man with a gun entered about 10:47 p.m. and demanded money, Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. Leslee Collins said.

An employee told him the money was locked in a safe that she couldn’t open. The man, instead, took the woman’s purse, car keys and truck, Collins said.

From there, the man apparently committed a series of convenience store robberies. The first was at a Holiday Oil in West Valley City. Then just after midnight, deputies were called to another Holiday Oil, 6189 S. 3200 West, that had been robbed.

Then a 7-Eleven near 4800 S. State was robbed. In all three incidents, the robber’s description matched the suspect from Francesco’s, Collins said.

Deputies searching for the man spotted the restaurant employee’s stolen truck about 1:30 a.m. today near 3900 South and 700 West. The driver apparently jumped out of the truck and ran to the Fairway Apartments, 1141 W. 3900 South, where he entered an apartment that was unlocked.

Inside, he found six adult males sleeping and kept them at bay at gunpoint, Collins said.

The man, however, allegedly stole beer from some of the convenience stores and apparently had been drinking. About 3:35 a.m. he apparently fell asleep on the couch. The six occupants of the apartment took advantage of the situation and apprehended the man as they called the sheriff’s office.

Deputies were already in the area looking for the man and arrived at the apartment immediately. The man was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation on a number of charges, Collins said.

Story courtesy of Utah Deseret News

A glob of dog excrement on a Queensland, Australia robber’s shoe has been used as evidence to identify him, landing him with a 10-year stretch for a betting shop hold-up on Australia’s Gold Coast.

Police said Thursday they had used enhanced photos from a security camera to match the pattern of excrement found at the crime scene to that on 26-year-old Jacob Smith’s shoe.

“It’s not rocket science. It’s as plain as poo on your shoe,” police sergeant Alan Piper, a veteran scientific officer, was quoted by local media as saying.

“It could have been one of a thousand or ten thousand shoes, but because that poo was there it was creating a great big feature that allowed us to go to a positive identification.”

“I’d say there has been some more poo on the shoe but it has worn away,” said Piper, who admitted to also doing a smell test.

Smith, who had wrapped a sheet around his face to hide his identity during the heist, was jailed in June for 10 years and 10 months on charges of robbery, being armed and in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

A MAN who tried to rob a 7-Eleven store with a chocolate bar after going on a September 11-inspired binge will be sentenced today.

Gerard Ahearne, 44, feared the world was going to end after he watched New York’s World Trade Centre crumble a year ago today.

The County Court has heard that the attacks motivated Ahearne to go on a bender.

Two weeks later, he found himself drunk outside a Richmond hotel about 1am. He walked across the road to his local 7-Eleven in Victoria St, where he was well known.

After his request for an Eftpos cash withdrawal was refused, he grabbed a chocolate nougat bar.

“This is a hold-up,” he told the attendant, who refused his demand for cash amid laughter from other customers.

He later told police that because he “didn’t get too far with the chocolate bar” he decided to go home and get a knife. Ten minutes later, he was back.

He threatened the attendant, whom he later described as a personable bloke, with a pocket knife and robbed him of $800.

Ahearne then went to Crown casino and blew most of the money.

Ahearne, who pleaded guilty to armed robbery, said drunken insanity prompted his crime.

“There was part of me that’s freakin’ out, as the world is comin’ to an end,” he told police.

“‘Cos of what happened in America a couple of weeks ago . . . I have been pretty freaked out.

“That’s one of the reasons that I have gone on that bender. You know, like, just, this is the end of the world, you know.”

Bungling car thief Andrew Birch found himself caught in a jam after smashing a window of a vehicle he planned to steal.

In a drunken state, he tried to squeeze in through the broken window and became stuck fast, unable to move.

When police arrived at the scene in Craigielea Road, Renfrew, he was still wedged in the window, half in and half out, Paisley Sheriff Court was told.

Birch, 21, formerly of Muir Street, Renfrew, pleaded guilty to attempting to steal the vehicle and also admitted two further charges of being in unlawful possession of a bread knife in the town on October 27 last year, and theft of a camera worth £100 from The Highland Star Restaurant, Dunlop Crescent, Renfrew, on July 18 this year.

A defence agent said Birch had a chronic alcohol problem which was at the root of his offending behaviour.

Birch, he said, had spent a short period in the Army but that service had come to a premature end due to his drinking problems.

He urged Sheriff Colin Pettigrew to place his client on probation to give him a chance to seek alcohol counselling, saying if that issue was not properly addressed, he would present a high risk of re-offending.

Sheriff Pettigrew said background reports on Birch painted a depressing picture.

Birch was placed on probation for a year on the attempted car theft charge and had sentenced deferred on the other complaints for three months for the court to monitor his progress.

Meanwhile, in Australia . . .

By JOHN COLES

STUNNED Tony Jones rang his own mobile phone after it was stolen and the dozy thief revealed his name.

The moron swiped the Nokia, a TV, video and other valuables during a raid on Tony’s house.

The next day, fuming Tony rang the mobile on the off-chance the culprit would give a clue to his identity. Tony planned to pretend he was from the phone firm and was offering a special deal.

But he was amazed when the crook blurted out his name unprompted within seconds.

Tony said: “I hoped to trick the thief into giving some detail about himself. But I didn’t have to he simply answered and gave his name.

“I said ‘thank you very much’ and cut him off.”

Married Tony, 35, immediately tipped police off with the unusual name.

Officers traced the man to an address, where they found the phone and other items belonging to Tony.

The suspect and two other men were charged with burglary in Cwmparc, Rhondda.

Det Insp Paul Cannon, of South Wales Police, said: “It is one of the easiest crimes we’ve ever solved. I just wish all villains were that daft.”

Three men appeared in court and are on bail.

Police in High Point, North Carolina think somebody tried to rob a Baptist church early Wednesday. The main clue - a suspect hanging out of a small window, stuck.

Neighbors heard his cries for help and called police.

The man is six-feet tall and weighs 235 pounds, and it took four officers to free him - two inside pushing and two outside pulling.

Police say the 48-year-old suspect was drunk and is being held on $500 bond on charges of larceny and breaking-and-entering.

Two gunmen desperate to get their hands on a Hyde Park, Massachusetts pizzeria’s dough took five employees and a pit bull puppy hostage yesterday, then begged their petrified victims to lie for them when police showed up unexpectedly.

“They were telling us, `Oh, please, help us! Tie us up!’ ‘’ Pizza Hut manager Orlando Reyes, 20, of Hyde Park said. “One of them said, `I’ve got kids, I don’t want to go to jail!’

“They made believe they were hostages, too.'’

The tables turned when alleged pizza perps Johnathan Ortega and

Miguel Angel Correa, while waiting for a time-delayed lock on the Hyde Park Avenue restaurant’s safe to open, let one hostage walk out if he promised not to call the cops.

The 15-minute timer was still ticking down when police descended.

The hostages’ ordeal, which lasted roughly 50 minutes, began about 8:40 a.m. when Ortega, 23, and Correa, 27, both of Mattapan, allegedly slipped through a side door with a faulty latch and aimed their handguns at Manuel Correa as he made sauce and crust - until then, alone in the store.

“I said, `I don’t know the combination of the safe. I’ve got kids, don’t hurt me,’ ‘’ Manuel Correa, 47, of the South End said.

Manuel Correa, who investigators did not believe was related to his kidnapper, was ushered to the men’s bathroom and forced to lie down on its cold tile floor. His hands were tied behind his back with a telephone cord, he said, but he was also given a hand towel to rest his face on.

“They told me, `If you cooperate, everything will be fine,’ ‘’ he said. “I was praying and hoping nothing would get out of hand. I thought I wasn’t going to see the next day.'’

While Manuel Correa and the two men he feared would surely kill him waited for Reyes to come in at 9:30 a.m. and open the safe containing the previous day’s take, another off-duty manager, Raldy Batista, 26, of Hyde Park stopped in about 8:50 a.m. to use the phone while walking his 4-month-old pup, “Grip.'’

“The next thing I knew, I had a gun pointed at my head,'’ Batista said.

A hooded Miguel Correa, who police said served as the lookout in the kitchen while the masked Ortega kept a gun trained on the hostages, took Batista and Grip to the bathroom, where they joined Manuel Correa on the floor. Batista was tied up with computer wire, police said.

Next to happen by was employee Wilfredo Rodriguez. Soon after he, too, was taken to the men’s room, “He told them his girlfriend was waiting for him outside,'’ Manuel Correa said, “so they let him go and said, `Don’t call the cops.’ ‘’

But once outside in the parking lot, that’s exactly what Rodriguez did.

Unfortunately, cook Alexis Gonzales and then Reyes would arrive before help did.

With Gonzales now tied up, too, Reyes, completely oblivious to what was happening behind a bathroom door just feet away, came in to start his work day.

“I clocked in, you know, routine stuff,'’ Reyes recalled later. He was working on a computer when Miguel Correa allegedly came up behind him, demanding he open the safe.

Had the meatball marauders only come through Pizza Hut’s front door, they would have seen the sign warning would-be robbers, “Safe’s contents protected by time delay/time lock.'’

“I told him (Miguel Correa) I had to wait 15 minutes for the safe to open, so he took me to the bathroom while we waited,'’ Reyes said. “That’s when I saw the guys sitting there. Hell, I was scared.'’

But before Reyes could be tied up, police were at the door and Miguel Correa was in a panic.

The gunmen allegedly began pleading for their hostages’ mercy as they tried to tie their own hands up to make it appear they were victims, too.

“I said, `I’m going to go outside and tell the police officers the bad guys left and you guys were tied up with us,’ ‘’ Reyes said of playing along with the ruse.

The bandits, who by now had hid one gun in a trash can and the other under a storage rack outside the bathroom, fell for it. But as Reyes went to greet police, Manuel Correa, who had freed himself and left the bathroom, was mistaken for one of the holdup suspects and handcuffed, despite being in his Pizza Hut uniform.

Reyes led police to the bathroom and cleared up the confusion.

A grateful Batista, hugging Grip as the pit bull pawed him for kisses, later described being rescued as “like being alive again.'’

Ortega and Miguel Correa will be arraigned Monday in West Roxbury District Court on a wide-ranging menu of charges, including kidnapping, attempted robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, police said.

Courtesy of the Boston Herald

A man driving a van with the message ‘’this is a stolen vehicle'’ scribbled in lipstick across a window led law-enforcement authorities on a high-speed chase yesterday that ended in Bullitt County, officials said.

Richard Crow, 35, of Louisville, was being held in the Bullitt County Jail on charges including attempted murder of a police officer and several counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, said Bullitt County Sheriff’s Detective Jim McAuliffe. Crow also was wanted on robbery charges in Texas and theft charges in Louisville, he said.

The chase started about noon when a Louisville police officer tried to stop the van when it failed to yield at Jackson and St. Catherine streets, said Alicia Smiley, a Louisville police spokeswoman. The officer checked the license plate and learned the van had been stolen a day or two ago from Louisville International Airport, police said.

The van got on Interstate 65 and continued south through Jefferson County and into Bullitt County. Jefferson County and Shepherdsville police, along with Bullitt County sheriff’s deputies, joined in the chase.

‘’On the back of his vehicle, someone had written in lipstick, ‘This is a stolen vehicle,’ ‘’ McAuliffe said.

The van was traveling faster than of 100 mph, McAuliffe said. It struck the rear of Bullitt County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Mann’s car, then eventually cut across the median to head north, then went back south, McAuliffe said. The van hit Mann’s car several more times, then struck a guardrail, McAuliffe said.

Deputies removed Crow from the van through a window, McAuliffe said. Mann was being treated for shoulder and neck injuries.