Two men who couldn’t spell were foiled by a clerk who could.

Police say two men tried to pass a counterfeit payroll check bearing the name, “Boryhill Furmiture” on Monday afternoon at Lowes Foods off U.S. 321 in Hickory, North Carolina.

Police are still searching for the two men, but have arrested Kathy Elaine Gillman, 39, and her daughter Amanda Kaye Gillman, 18, both of Ohio, in connection with the scheme.

The incident unfolded around 1:15 p.m. when two men tried to cash a $498 check at the grocery store. When the store’s office assistant noticed that Broyhill Furniture was misspelled, she rejected the check.

The men quickly left the store. Employees called police and told them they saw the men running toward the highway and that two women were following them in a red Pontiac Grand Am.

Minutes later, Hickory police officers K. Lo and D.J. Morris found the two women. The two male suspects were gone, but inside the car police found 42 checks in amounts ranging from $200 to $400.

The checks were made out to Nathan Williamson and Kevin Gillman. Police believe Gillman is Amanda’s father and Kathy Gillman’s ex-husband.

The checks were from businesses in Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia, including Millcreek Construction, Beaufort Glass and 84 Lumber.

Hickory Police Capt. Steve Wright said the women told police they were traveling from Ohio to Beaufort, S.C., to visit a relative, but would not comment on the whereabouts or identities of the two male suspects.

Wright said the overall quality of the checks was impressive.

“There’s a good possibility that if the name on the check had been spelled correctly, they would have gotten away with it,” Wright said.

A search of the car turned up a software program used to print checks, pages torn from a phone book and a handgun.

The women were arrested on counts of aiding and abetting the obtaining of property by false pretense and possession of counterfeit checks.

Both were placed under $25,000 secured bonds. The mother had an additional $10,000 secured bond.

Their first court appearance is scheduled for today.

Story courtesy of Megan Ward and the Hickory, North Carolina Record

Stephen Richard Hughes has had his wings clipped after waving his arms around and shouting “It’s a bomb! It’s a bomb!” at the Qantas terminal in Auckland.

The 37-year-old industrial broker had been drinking with a colleague before checking in for a flight home to Christchurch on October 23.

A Qantas staff member asked him all the safety questions that have now become standard, concerning sharp objects and dangerous items in his luggage.

That was when he made his bomb remarks, thinking of them at the time as a throw-away line.

He apologised for making such a “silly comment”, but it was too late.

The episode set these events in motion:

He was held at the airport for three hours while he was searched, and a bomb dog was brought in to check his bags. The dog found nothing.

He missed his flight, and forfeited his $300 Qantas ticket.

He had to pay for a night’s accommodation in Auckland, and then had to buy a $420 Air New Zealand ticket next day.

He has been banned indefinitely from flying Qantas. That imposes some serious limitations because of the amount of travelling he does as part of his work.

He was charged with “communicating false information affecting the safety of an aircraft”.

When he appeared before Judge Geoffrey Rea in the Christchurch District Court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to the charge.

Defence counsel Simon Clay said the Australian consul’s office would not commit itself when it was asked what effect the conviction would have on his ability to travel to Australia.

Mr Clay urged that Hughes be discharged without conviction, but Judge Rea declined, saying that a discharge would “send the wrong message”.

“It is the wrong time to be playing jokes of this sort at other people’s expense,” he said.

He convicted Hughes and fined him $2000.

An inmate’s planned release from the La Crosse County, Wisconsin Jail was stymied Tuesday because a sheriff’s investigator claimed he found eight bags of cocaine in the man’s rectum.

According to court records, Marcus J. Thomas, 20, of La Crosse was due to be released after he entered pleas in four open cases. He had been in jail since Feb. 7.

Before Thomas was released, however, sheriff’s investigator Fritz Leinfelder came looking for drugs.

Leinfelder said he was tipped off that Thomas had eight rocks of cocaine he was trying to smuggle out of the jail.

Thomas, who was charged Wednesday with one count of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, agreed to let the investigator search him, the complaint said.

Leinfelder said in the complaint that Thomas cooperated fully until he asked Thomas to lower his jail uniform pants.

Thomas refused and Leinfelder was forced to get a judge to give him permission to search the lower half of Thomas’ body, according to the complaint.

With a search warrant in hand, Leinfelder continued his search and reported finding drugs.

Thomas told investigators the drugs were not his and he was only told to deliver it to a girl who was outside the county jail, according to the complaint.

Thomas eventually removed eight rocks of cocaine, weighing a total of 4.5 grams, from his body.

During a court hearing Wednesday, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Dennis Montabon ordered Thomas held on $10,000 cash bond and scheduled another court appearance for 1:30 p.m. Friday.

Story courtesy of Dan Springer and theLaCrosse Tribune

A Radcliff, Kentucky man who allegedly exposed himself to shoppers in a local store over the weekend targeted the wrong woman — an off-duty officer.

Keith Paul Long, 23, has been charged with indecent exposure, criminal mischief (damaging the counter), resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. All are misdemeanors.

Elizabethtown Police Department Officer Kelly Slone was shopping at the Elizabethtown Target on Saturday night when she noticed a man following her around the store. When she prepared to leave, the man, Long, exposed himself to her, EPD reports show.

Slone phoned headquarters and Officer Clinton Turner responded.

In the time it took for him to arrive, Long allegedly flashed at least two other women.

Turner approached Long to arrest him, and he attempted to run, EPD records show. Turner grabbed Long and the two ended up wrestling on the floor near the jewelry department. The scuffle lasted a few minutes, and a panel on the jewelry counter was damaged in the process.

Police have custody of a store security tape showing the struggle and arrest, EPD spokesman Terry Cox said.

The two other women allegedly flashed gave statements to Turner. Their names were not released.

Long was taken to Hardin Memorial Hospital due to the altercation, but did not need treatment, EPD records show.

He has been held at the Hardin County jail on a $1,000 full cash bond since his arrest. Long pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday and is due to appear in court again March 3, a jail spokeswoman said.

“He just picked the wrong person to expose himself to,” Cox said.

Target officials declined comment.

A burglar who broke into a shop in Texas was arrested after falling asleep on a display bed.

To make matters worse, the shop in Fort Worth is owned by the wife of a county district attorney.

Police were called after employee Jane Sidener noticed someone had used the store’s toilet without flushing, and left a black pistol in the bathroom.

Then she heard someone snoring in the bed, which formed part of a display in the shop.

She said: “I think he was a pretty dumb burglar. Of all the places in town he has to break in to, he picks the District Attorney’s wife’s shop.”

Ms Sidener said the man was irritated after being woken up by police, and told officers: “Hey, I was asleep!”

Bank heist suspect’s getaway vehicle: city bus

A Jacksonville, Florida man suspected of robbing a bank was arrested as he tried to make a slow-speed getaway on a city bus, police said.

A bank branch was robbed Monday morning when a man approached a teller, said he had a gun and demanded money. After the teller handed him the cash, he fled on foot.

He was arrested a short time later on a city bus, said Sgt. Malcolm Farmer of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Officers suspected the robber might use a bus because it was the same escape method used in a prior bank robbery, Farmer said.

Jimmy Batten returned home from the Bayport Inn early Monday and saw a strange car in his driveway.

He later told sheriff’s deputies that he walked to his porch, looked inside and saw a man, shirtless and shoeless, sitting in his living room, a Winchester rifle nearby. The man rocked and then slumped over.

Batten walked in and kicked the rifle away.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” Batten shouted.

Then Batten, 56, noticed that the middle toe on the man’s left foot was missing.

Batten called 911.

Paramedics arrived and took Sean Todd Duval, 26, 26456 Popiel Road, to Brooksville Regional Hospital. Authorities said he would remain in the hospital for several days. He faces burglary and grand theft charges, authorities said.

Duval was aware Batten owned several guns and intended to break in and steal them. He told authorities that the first rifle he saw rested in a sling on a saddle in the living room. He said he took the gun, pointed at the floor and it misfired, taking off his toe.

Duval lay on the floor until Batten arrived.

A man accused of robbing two people in an apartment wounded himself in the genitals when the gun stuffed in his pants went off during the getaway, police said.

Officers responding to the robbery found 19-year-old Jasen Gins lying on the ground screaming in the parking lot at 11588 N. Harrell’s Ferry Road about 10:30 p.m. Friday, police spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly said.

Gins and two other robbers allegedly forced their way into an apartment, held up two men at gunpoint and fled, Kelly said. The other robbers are still at large, he said.

Gins, 16064 Derby Drive, told police he had been shot during a robbery, but Kelly said the bullet went through his underwear and into his leg. No bullet holes were found in his pants to support his claim that he’d been shot by someone else, Kelly said.

After receiving medical treatment, Gins was booked Saturday into Parish Prison on a count of armed robbery.