Sav-A-Center cashier Gennifer Robinson said it didn’t take any real detective work to spot that a check given to her April 23 to pay for groceries was a forgery.

She immediately recognized the distinctive Looney Tunes background from her own checkbook, which had been stolen from her car along with her purse five days earlier.

And there was one more fairly strong hint: “She handed me my own driver’s license,” said Robinson, 20, who now laughs when she shares the story with friends, though she admits it wasn’t so funny at the time.

Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested Ashlie Williams, 20, of 2026 Tupelo St., New Orleans. She was booked with seven counts of fraud under $500, forgery and illegal possession of things less than $300, according to arrest reports. She was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on April 23 on a personal surety bond.

Robinson’s car had been broken into and her purse stolen April 18 while she was visiting a friend in Metairie, she said. As of Wednesday afternoon, Williams had not been booked with any charges related to the theft.

Robinson, who works at the Sav-A-Center at 2900 Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Metairie, said she had just finished a break and Williams was her first customer.

Though her purse had four different forms of picture identification, Williams apparently didn’t look too carefully, Robinson said. “I still don’t know how she didn’t realize it was me.”

When Williams first wrote the check for $259.17, Robinson said she recognized the brown checkbook and Looney Tunes watermark. Her suspicions were confirmed when Williams handed over her own driver’s license.

Robinson said she stayed calm and told Williams that she had to get a signature from her manager. She left Williams waiting at the register until authorities arrived.

Deputies searched Williams and found Louisiana driver’s licenses and identification cards for five other women as well as several credit cards, reports said. Detectives will investigate to determine if any other charges should be filed.

Robinson said the arrest has been the talk of the store.

“Every day I come to work, people are cracking jokes, saying, ‘Gennifer, write me a check.’ ”

Story Courtesy of Michelle Hunter and The Times Picayune

A Crystal River, Florida man was arrested Thursday after deputies accused him of leaning into the driver’s side of a Citrus County sheriff’s patrol car and shifting the vehicle into drive, an arrest report said.

Deputies were at the Crystal Acres Mobile Home Park off State Road 44 just east of Crystal River investigating a traffic case.

Deputies said Carl William Pottschmidt, 32, a park resident, shifted the car into drive and caused it to make contact with another Sheriff’s Office vehicle, the report said. Both vehicles sustained minor damage.

Pottschmidt, who was reportedly intoxicated, told law authorities someone dared him to do what he did.

Pottschmidt remained at the Citrus County jail Friday afternoon with bail set at $5,000.

He was held on charges of burglary of an unarmed, unoccupied vehicle and criminal mischief.

Police are investigating the case of a 15-year-old patient, who they say called an escort service for sex at a hospital.

An employee at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital called police after hearing the teenager and the escort negotiate a fee Sunday evening, according to the university’s department of public safety.

“It’s a bizarre tale,” Capt. Joe Piersante told The Ann Arbor News. “I’ve never heard anything exactly like this before.”

Piersante said statutory rape or soliciting sex charges could be filed.

Police believe the boy called the escort from his hospital room, but had sex somewhere else.

Piersante said he does not think the escort knew the boy was 15 — which is below the legal age of consent — but she still could be charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Investigators were working to identify the woman.

Hospital spokeswoman Kara Gavin said staff members are cooperating with police.

“We have extensive security here, especially for infants and young children,” Gavin said. “Teenagers and younger adults obviously can have visitors and use the phone, and we’re always trying to strike a balance. We expect everyone — staff and patients — to uphold the law while they’re here.”

The case will be forwarded to the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office to decide what charges could be filed.

After going on a “mini-rampage” outside a busy Fremont supermarket, a 21-year-old purse-snatching suspect bled to death when he slashed an artery while breaking into a nearby apartment, police said Tuesday.

Obadiah Videau of Fremont was pronounced dead Monday night at Washington Hospital in Fremont, after he severed his brachial artery after putting his arm through a glass window while trying to climb into an apartment at the Park Villa apartment complex in central Fremont, police said.

“Videau did a strong-arm robbery, a purse snatching and then few minutes later fatally injured himself after attempting two burglaries,” said Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran. “It’s definitely a strange case. This all happened so fast, we are wondering what is responsible for his bizarre behavior.”

Police suspect Videau may have been under the influence of drugs. Results of toxicology tests will be known in about two weeks.

The series of odd incidents began just after 8 p.m. Monday when Videau grabbed the collection plate used by a charity group for donations from shoppers outside the Food Maxx at Walnut Avenue and Fremont Boulevard, police said.

When a shopper in the parking lot tried to block Videau’s escape route, the suspect tossed the collection plate to the ground. Seconds later, Videau grabbed a woman’s purse, police said. But he was thwarted and threw the purse down when the woman’s boyfriend caught up with him.

Videau then ran across nearby Sundale Avenue to the Park Villa apartments where he tried to burglarize two apartments, police said.

At the second home, Videau suffered a series of cuts as he climbed into a window, causing him to fall backward onto the apartment’s balcony.

“We found him there bleeding profusely,” Veteran said.

Two men fleeing sheriff’s deputies early Tuesday morning in a stolen truck wheeled into a Tampa cemetery and crashed, killing the driver.

Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies began the chase about 3:30 a.m. when they saw two men trying to break into Barney’s Yamaha, a motorcycle shop off Adamo Drive.

They chased the pair several miles west into the city, where the burglars turned into the Garden of Memories Cemetery.

Deputies identified the driver as Wilbert Long Jr., of Tampa, and said he crashed into several trees.

The force of the wreck ejected Long from the truck, which overturned and landed on him, killing him instantly.

The second suspect, Kenyal Scott, suffered minor injuries and was arrested on various charges, including burglary of a structure, possession of burglary tools, obstructing an officer without violence and grand theft auto.

State records show the incident was his 17th arrest in Florida since 1995.

His previous charges include vehicle theft, burglary, battery, aggravated assault on a police officer, cocaine possession and violation of probation.

A would-be burglar died early today after breaking into a Sandy Springs house by jumping head-first through a front window.

“This is a weird one, I must admit,” said a puzzled Fulton County police major, Wenda Phifer. “Jumping through glass to get into, not out of some place…I don’t know.”

The mortally injured suspect attempted to struggle with officers, who dragged him out from under a bed before he collapsed from loss of blood, Phifer said. The 35-year-old man, more than 6 feet tall and 250 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes, died at Northside Hospital.

“He must have cut a main artery,” said Phifer. Although the man had no identification on him, Phifer said detectives have some idea of who he may be.

The homeowner, whom police declined to identify, told detectives he and his wife were asleep upstairs in the two-story house on Colewood Way, west of Johnson Ferry Road, and when they were awakened at 2:40 a.m. by the sound of the shattering window.

“The victim ran into the hallway and yelled for the suspect to get out of his house,” as the man rushed by him into the bedroom, Phifer said. The suspect slammed the bedroom door in the homeowners’ face, she added. Somehow the homeowner’s wife got out of the bedroom

The homeowner “grabbed his wife and two sons, and they all got out of the house safely,” Phifer said.

Police answering a 911 call pulled the alleged intruder out from under the bed. “He was initially combative, but began to breath rapidly and in moments collapsed. He was in full cardiac arrest when medics arrived,” Phifer said.

Phifer could not say whether detectives have any indication of what the man was looking for.

“He did have some money on him, but we don’t know if it was taken from the house or if he already had it,” Phifer said. Nothing else appears to have been taken, she said.

A suspected car thief armed with a gun tried to elude police by running into a house, but was chased right back out by the home’s Samurai-sword-wielding resident, police said Thursday.

Wanton Beckwith, 27, of Rialto was booked for investigation of grand theft auto, being an ex-felon in possession of a gun, being under the influence with a gun, evading police and felony hit and run.

Beckwith was allegedly driving a stolen car at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, when police attempted to pull him over. He led officers on a high-speed chase before crashing into two cars at an intersection, according to a statement from Police Chief Roger Johnson.

He then fled the vehicle, Johnson said, ran to a home and entered through the back door.

Fearing for his safety, the resident grabbed a Samurai sword on display in his home, confronted the intruder and ordered him outside, police said.

The man then held the suspect at sword-point until police arrived.