A burglar who broke into a Golden Gate home got naked, opened a cold beer and then got caught after the homeowners returned and surprised him, deputies said.

Thomas and Jean Weibling told deputies they saw the naked, unarmed burglar emerging from their bedroom when they arrived home just before midnight Wednesday. He sprinted out the front door, but left his shorts on the bed with his wallet and ID in the pocket.

Deputies responding to the Weiblings’ 911 call said they found Walter Marcum Krodel, 47, hiding in a back yard down the street. They say he broke into another house after the Weiblings and surprised a resident before running away.

The Weiblings found a cold, open beer in their home office and a jewelry box opened on the bed, deputies said. One of their prescription medication bottles was in the pocket of the shorts that were left behind.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Sheri Mausen said Friday that deputies don’t know exactly what Krodel was up to.

“He didn’t seem to be very cooperative with deputies after they arrested him,” she said.

Krodel was charged with burglary of a dwelling and resisting arrest without violence. His bond had not yet been set Friday and no attorney information was available, Mausen said.

“Krodel also uttered that all he had to do was tell his lawyer he had been stoned and that would get him out of any burglary charges,” his arrest report says.

A defense lawyer taped 113 grams of marijuana to his thighs and tried to enter the Cook County Jail so he could pass the pot onto jailed clients, authorities said.

A drug-sniffing dog barked at Barry Alan Mattes as he entered the jail Friday, and he was arrested after consenting to a search at a checkpoint. Mattes, 49, was charged with bringing contraband to a penal institution, a felony. He was freed after posting bail Saturday.

“He admitted to the sheriff’s police officers that he intended to pass marijuana to his inmates,” Cook County sheriff’s spokesman Bill Cunningham said.

None of the inmates received any of the drugs, so they were not charged with a crime, Cunningham said.

A conviction on the contraband charge could bring a sentence of two to five years in prison.

Mattes did not immediately return a phone call to his Chicago office Sunday.

Lawyers have unmonitored visitor privileges with inmates, while friends and family members who visit are watched and separated from them by glass. Lawyers and their clients are provided private rooms to preserve confidentiality.

Inmates typically are not searched after meetings with their lawyers, Cunningham said.

Police arrested a mugger in Tokyo within an hour of the crime because investigators were in the middle of a large-scale quick-response drill, it was learned Monday.

The arrested man, Akihito Matsuzaki, snatched a bag from the front basket of a 62-year-old woman’s bicycle in Ota-ku, Tokyo, on Friday and fled on his yellow motorbike.

The pensioner reported the incident to police, who were conducting a quick-response drill to deal with a series of sex shop robberies occurring in the ward and the neighboring area.

Investigators immediately put theory into practice and began hunting for the mugger.

Matsuzaki was arrested some 40 minutes after the incident some two kilometers away from the location he stole the woman’s bag.

Police are investigating the 30-year-old Kawasaki man’s claim that he mugged at least four other people. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 23, 2003)

It was 8:00 PM and our local Radio Shack was closed for the evening. An associate had gone over to and locked the front door so that we could finish our business with those who were still in the store and so no one else could come in. There were two young boys about 13 or 14 years old who had been in the store for about 45 minutes now. They were working their way down a single wall at the east end of the store down towards the west end (where the front door is), piling a few goods up along the way like they were going to purchase them.

Well, when they got within about 8 or so feet from the front door, the boy with all the goods in his arms made a run for the door, only to realize the hard way that the door was locked! He ran right smack into it and the goods flew up in the air as the boy landed right back on his back. I ran over and checked to see if the boy was okay and to question him on why he did what he had just done. He pulls out his father’s credit card and tells me that he will pay for everything. Slyly, I asked for his home telephone number because I needed it for billing purposes. With him still watching me, I pick up the telephone and begin dialing the number. His father answers the phone and I explain the situation to him. He asked me if I had called the police.

When I told him no, he exclaimed “well you should have!”

Moral of the story: If you are going to grab and run, MAKE SURE THE DOOR ISN’T LOCKED FIRST!

A masked man tried to rob a central Wisconsin pharmacy Sunday night armed only with his fingers.

The would-be robber didn’t even try to conceal his pointed finger in a pocket to fool anybody into thinking he was holding a gun, authorities said.

He simply held up his gloved hand and pointed his finger, with his thumb extended like the cocked hammer of a pistol, at the pharmacy owner. It didn’t work.

Now Joel D. Peterson, 30, of Marshfield faces attempted robbery charges. Prosecutors couldn’t charge him with attempted armed robbery since a pointed finger isn’t a weapon. Instead, Peterson was charged with attempted robbery with threat of force. He was also charged Monday with seven counts of fraudulently obtaining controlled substances.

At first, Bill Weiler, co-owner of Sniteman Pharmacy in downtown Neillsville, didn’t believe he was being robbed when a masked man accosted him as he closed up shop Sunday evening.

“I kind of chuckled, ‘This is a robbery?’ and he pushed me and said, ‘Yeah, this is a robbery,’ ” Weiler said Monday.

Because of the close quarters of the back room of the pharmacy, Weiler said that at first he believed the man’s fingers were a pistol, “but then when he pushed me, I pushed him back. I realized it was not a gun.”

Weiler, 55, said he wrestled with the intruder down a flight of stairs. During the fracas, Weiler pulled off the makeshift mask - a stocking cap with eyeholes cut out - and recognized Peterson because he had recently been accused of forging prescriptions at the pharmacy.

Peterson escaped but was arrested late Sunday in Jackson County. He is being held on $2,500 bail in the Clark County Jail and was ordered to appear in court on July 8.

Courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

An Edmonton, Alberta man who had his sport utility vehicle stolen from a downtown golf course earlier this month was surprised to get a call over the weekend telling him he could have the vehicle back for $50.

The man who owns the 2003 Chevy Blazer arranged to meet the mysterious caller at a liquor store Sunday afternoon to make the swap.

Nearby police, who’d been notified by the owner, arrested a man who arrived in the Blazer. Officers also found two stolen licence plates during their search.

Daniel Robert Gorman, 38, was charged with extortion, possession of stolen property over $5,000, and two counts of possession under $5,000.

“The fact the caller actually went through with it is quite unusual, quite surprising,” said police spokesman Wes Bellmore. “It certainly made our job easier. I wish they would all end this way.”

“I guess (the suspect) thought that might be easier than selling the vehicle. But our goal is always to get the complainant reunited with his vehicle and in this case that happened - we’re all happy.”

A man who stole thousands of dollars from his family and used the money for partying and prostitutes was arrested after he called 911 to report that some of the money had been stolen from him, Uniontown police reported.

John A. Beresh III, 20, of Uniontown faces one felony grand theft charge for allegedly stealing $20,000 from a safe in his family’s home on Basswood Avenue NW.

“He (Beresh III) admitted to taking $14,000, and apparently he used it on prostitutes and bought them clothing at Victoria’s Secret, cell phones and everything,” said Uniontown Police Chief Steve Wolf. “He was really good to them, and he took cabs back and forth from Canton and Alliance. He used up all the money except for a little bit.”

The rest was stolen from Beresh early Friday at the Super 8 Motel at 3950 Convenience Cir. NW in Plain Township. He called 911 to report the robbery. When Stark County sheriff’s deputies arrived, he reportedly told them he had taken thousands of dollars from his father and had just been robbed of the remainder.

So the deputies contacted Uniontown police, who picked Beresh up after the deputies worked on investigating the robbery.

Wolf said when Beresh was asked why he took the money, he told police he tired of living at home and fighting with his mother and father.

“He was tired of all that, and just wanted to get out,” Wolf said.

According to a Uniontown police report, Beresh took the money between 2 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. June 10, then walked to the Uniontown Post Office and called a cab to take him to Alliance. Ultimately, he ended up at the Super 8 — and as of Monday night, in the Stark County Jail.

Deputies could not be reached late Monday for further details.

Courtesy of Canton Repository and writer Kelly Hill