The Elmwood Place, Ohio police chief used his work computer to solicit sex from a 15-year-old girl, police say.

But the person on the other side of the Internet chat room was really a Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy.

Jeremy Alley, who was sworn in as the village’s chief just 11 days ago, was arrested Thursday at Village Hall after a Hamilton County grand jury indicted him on five charges of importuning.

Alley, who was computer officer for the 2,700-resident village before becoming chief, resigned Wednesday - the same day deputies seized the department’s three computers.

If convicted, the 26-year-old St. Bernard resident could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Elmwood Place Councilman Barney Philpot said he was shocked by Alley’s arrest.

“I’ve known Jeremy since he was 6 or 7 years old,” Philpot said. “He used to play ball with my son. He was quiet and refined and very mannerly. I guess you never know what goes on behind closed doors.”

Elmwood Place Mayor Jim Toles did not return calls to his office and home.

The Mill Creek Valley community is located just off Interstate 75 across from St. Bernard.

Detective Cheryl Hart, a member of the sheriff’s Regional Electronic and Computer Investigations unit, stumbled across Alley’s suggestive chat room comments while posing as a 15-year-old to patrol the Internet for sex offenders, authorities said.

Alley tried to arrange several meetings for the sexual encounter to occur, sheriff’s deputies said.

Alley and the fake 15-year-old first made computer contact March 17, chatting that day, the following day and March 20. They chatted again April 7 and as recently as Tuesday, after he had taken his oath as chief, according the indictment.

Shortly after Alley resigned Wednesday afternoon, Philpot said the mayor called each of the six council members individually to explain the situation.

“I don’t know if the mayor asked him to resign or if he did it voluntarily,” said Philpot, who has been on the council for eight years.

Philpot said Alley had been acting police chief for almost two months and, in that time, he received at least two letters of recommendation and had done a good job responding to community issues. On April 14, the council appointed him full-time police chief.

“I guess this was more shocking because he had done such good work,” Philpot said.

Village Council will hold a special hearing next week to discuss the issue. But Philpot said one of the biggest concerns is getting the computers back.

The temporary loss of the computers will not affect everyday police work, but “we can only go without them for a short time,” Philpot said.

Peeing in a coffee pot could cost millions.

Eight people are suing for $600,000 apiece, in the case of a PO’d office worker who peed in the pot.

Holly Jones has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of creating a criminal nuisance. State police say a hidden camera caught Jones urinating in the coffee at Robinson Aviation in upstate New York.

Now, her co-workers are suing Jones and their employer. The suit charges the coffee-drinkers were made sick by the contaminated java.

The court action also claims the company should have done more to protect its employees. According to police, Jones was angry about being passed over for a promotion.

A court appearance for a traffic citation turned into a more serious problem for a Carlsbad teen when he dropped a marijuana joint in the courtroom.

Robin Loftin, 18, was charged with contempt of court and sentenced to two days in jail for taking the illegal substance into Judge Walter Parr’s courtroom at magistrate court.

According to court records, Loftin was in court Tuesday on charges of driving with a suspended driver’s license and failure to renew his vehicle registration.

After the judge entered the courtroom, Loftin removed the hat he was wearing and the marijuana joint fell from the hat onto the floor.

Parr immediately cited Loftin for contempt of court and ordered him to the Eddy County Detention Center.

The judge deferred the sentences on the traffic citations on the condition Loftin obeys all laws, clears his license and renews his vehicle registration.

This wasn’t Loftin’s first run in with the law due to drugs. Court records show Loftin pleaded no contest in March to possession of drug paraphernalia after an Eddy County sheriff’s deputy watched him hide a marijuana pipe inside a cabinet during a party.

According to the complaint, Loftin admitted the pipe was his and said he had used it to smoke marijuana before the deputies arrived. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail for the crime.

A drunk driver has been arrested in Munich after he stopped his vehicle, walked over to a police car and urinated on it.

He was charged after failing a breath test and then fined the equivalent of £200.

Officers say he stepped out of his car, walked towards the two officers seated inside the vehicle and undid his trousers.

He was arrested on the spot and taken to a nearby police station.

Police say he now faces a driving ban for up to a month. His drink drive fine included a £22 charge for urinating on police property.

The customer walked in through the front door of the pharmacy and distracted the gunman yesterday just long enough for the pharmacist to reach under the counter and grab an aluminum baseball bat.

“It was sort of a moment of opportunity when he looked away,” said Martin Francom, the 54-year-old pharmacist who has owned the Medicine Shoppe in Bremerton for 25 years. “You never know how these things could turn out … I thought I could take him down, and I went for it.”

Francom and his 25-year-old daughter, Candice, a registered nurse, beat the armed man who was trying to rob the pharmacy and pinned him down until police arrived. The suspect, believed to be about 30 years old and from Mason County, was treated at a hospital and booked into Kitsap County Jail.

The incident began about 12:55 p.m. on the 2500 block of Perry Avenue.

The suspect walked up to the counter, pointed a handgun at Francom and demanded narcotics, said Kitsap County Sheriff’s Lt. Earl Smith.

Francom told the gunman he had just been burglarized and supplies were low. The man became increasingly agitated, Francom said. Then, the other customer appeared.

When the gunman looked away, Francom said, he took one swing at his head. The gunman staggered back, bleeding. Francom then tried to grab the gun.

“I refused to be a victim,” Francom said.

The gun discharged twice. The bullets hit a floor and a wall. In the surprise fire, the gun and the bat came free.

“I just picked up the bat and started hitting the guy over and over and over, probably 30 times,” said Candice Francom, who works at Harrison Hospital in Kitsap County and St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. “I wanted to protect my Dad. … I thought about hitting him in the head, but if I caused some brain damage and he died, I didn’t want that on me. I didn’t want to be charged with anything.”

During the struggle, the gunman shouted that he had AIDS, the Francoms said. Investigators aren’t saying whether that’s true. Martin Francom, who suffered cuts to his hands, was treated at a hospital. His daughter was not injured.

“Fear didn’t really enter into it until afterwards, all the what-ifs,” Candice Francom said. “It was all adrenaline.”

Story courtesy Michael Ko and the Seattle Times

The victim of an armed robbery in Brazil was saved when her friend saw what was happening via webcam and alerted the police.

Veronica Soares, a 25-year-old teacher, was using an internet chat room when two armed robbers burst into her home in Aracatuba.

She was chatting with a friend in Montevideo, Uruguay, who saw what was happening, reports the Jornal da Tarde newspaper.

The friend, named in the newspaper as Mauricio, called his uncle, who lives near Aracatuba. He in turn called the police.

Officers reached Ms Soare’s house in time to catch the robbers, who hadn’t realised they had been captured on the webcam.

Police chief Ely Vieira Faria said it was probably the first time the internet had prevented a crime in Brazil.

Police spent months unraveling a theft ring that officers say was responsible for more than $15,000 in stolen goods - from Christmas lights to lizards to calves.

Three people sharing a home on Knapp Road in Grasonville, Maryland have been arrested. Raymond J. Gellert Jr., his girlfriend Shannon R. Gahley, both 20, and their friend, Richard J. Morgan, 18, face a slew of theft, burglary and conspiracy charges, according to the Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office.

They drew the attention of police on Jan. 29, when Deputy Timothy Liberto saw a sedan parked on Country Day Road in Chester. The lights weren’t on, and some people were standing near the vehicle. Nine bales of straw were stacked on the trunk. When Liberto approached, two men he recognized from prior encounters as Gellert and Morgan ran off, police said.

Liberto found Gahley inside the car with her two young children. He discovered more bales along the road. He determined the straw, worth about $45, had been stolen from John C. Lowery of Chester, police said.

Liberto let Gahley go that night because she had her children with her.

It was Feb. 26 before he was able to get a warrant and arrest the trio.

Under questioning from him and Detective Robert Walters, the three admitted there was stolen property at their home.

Officers took them there. “Ray just started pointing out, ‘This is stolen, that’s stolen,’” said Sgt. Dale Patrick.

The home was filled, inside and out, with animals, he said. It was surrounded outside by trash that had been thrown out of the house.

Stolen goods identified that day included two pressure washers, power tools, toolboxes, fishing rods, gas cans, an electric grinder, stereos, bottles of liquor, library books, an American flag, electric lights and three bearded dragon lizards.

Detectives later found even more: wire fencing, electric fence chargers, roof trusses, plywood and framing lumber, tarps, electric cords, a dog house, bales of hay and bags of chicken feed.

Two Holstein calves were found in a chicken coop. Detective Matt Kempel learned that the animals had been stolen from Franklin Leverton of Centreville, police said. They were worth $3,000.

Another calf, a Black Angus, had been stolen from the University of Maryland farm near Wye Island. It was worth $2,700 and had been taken to Preston, where a farmer gave Gellert a large iguana, a goose and bantam chickens in exchange for the animal, police said.

The crimes affected a total of about 20 homes, storage buildings, construction sites and businesses in the Grasonville and Centreville areas, police said.

The stolen items weren’t resold, although some were traded, according to authorities. “Some of it they were just using,” Patrick said.

Gahley usually would drive Gellert and Morgan to the area of the theft, police said. She’d drop them off and wait in the car with her children. Then the men would return with the stolen goods and they’d all leave, police said.

Everything was transported in the four-door car - even the calves, police said.

Other times, the trio worked more closely together to pull off a theft, police said, like when Gahley and one of the men distracted a clerk at The Grooming Place in Chester on Feb. 4 so the other man could slip three bearded dragon lizards from an aquarium into his coat.

Some of the stolen animals were kept inside the house, including the lizards and bantam rooster. Chickens and the two Holsteins were kept outside. The suspects stole more things, like the building materials and feed, for those animals, police said. Southern States in Easton was robbed of fencing and food for the calves, according to Patrick.

Toys for the children had been shop-lifted from the Easton Wal-Mart, police said.

Officers believe the thefts date to at least December 2002.

So far, with the cooperation of the suspects, $10,500 worth of property has been identified and given back to the owners, police said. In the end, most of the items will be returned, according to Patrick.

It took quite a while for officers to do all the paperwork necessary for the case. The last of the charges were filed March 24.

Gellert is facing eight counts of theft of less than $500, five counts of theft of more than $500, three counts of burglary, one count of conspiracy to commit burglary, one count of conspiracy to commit theft, and one count of malicious destruction of property.

He is being held in the county jail in Centreville on $50,000 bail, police said.

Gahley is facing one count of theft less than $500, two counts of theft more than $500, and one count of burglary. She was released on $10,000 bail, police said.

Morgan is facing seven counts of theft of less than $500, seven counts of theft of more than $500, three counts of burglary, one count of conspiracy to commit burglary, and one count of malicious destruction of property. No bail has been set for him.

Story courtesy Wendy Szakelyhidi and The Star Democrat