If you’re going to steal a gas station employee’s car, don’t come back an hour later to get a fill-up. Investigators say that bit of logic escaped Artemio Castillo and Ernesto Garcia, who were arrested Tuesday night near the Parade gas station. Employee Pam Pease, 49, was sweeping the parking area when she noticed a familiar car pull up to pump No. 7. It was her blue 1994 Ford Escort with a missing hubcap. She had reported it stolen less than an hour earlier. “It just blew my mind, but there they were,” Pease said. “I’m glad it was low on gas.” Another attendant, Vince Nguyen, recognized suspects Castillo, 49, and Garcia, 41, both without known addresses, as the men who had asked him for a ride to Mississippi as he arrived at work shortly before Pease noticed her car was missing. Nguyen asked the men in Spanish why they had returned and they replied that they needed gas, Pease said. He shut off the engine and offered the men water while other employees called 911. The suspects fled on foot and Nguyen followed them through a back alley, Pease said. Two Escambia County sheriff’s deputies and a police dog then took up the chase, catching one suspect in some brush and another across the street from the station. The suspects remained Thursday at the county jail on grand theft auto and resisting arrest charges. Bond was set at $7.500 for each. Jail records did not indicate whether they had lawyers and interviews are prohibited. The public defender’s office does not comment on pending cases.

Sent in by Joey Schwartzman

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman called in the police after a hitman she paid to kill her lover’s wife failed to carry out the job. The 32-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said Friday. The woman contacted a private detective through a Web site last November and paid him 1 million yen in cash to murder her love rival, the paper said. The 40-year-old detective accepted the money and suggested he could carry out the job by chasing the victim on a motorcycle and spraying her with a biological agent in a tunnel. Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target safe and well, the paper said.

Sent in by Joey Schwartzman

A man suspected of robbing a store Saturday died after he was hit by car after leaving the store, according to police. Asheville police said a store customer hit the man after he ran behind the customer’s vehicle. The customer had followed the man from the store after a robbery, said Sgt. Lynn Maxwell with Asheville Police Department. Maxwell said 32-year-old Johnie Jason Waddell died Saturday night at Mission Hospitals. She declined to identify the customer who hit him. The incident occurred on Old Fairview Road not far from the Oakley Food Center on Fairview Road. Maxwell said about 7:15 p.m., a man jumped the counter at the Oakley Food Center and grabbed an undisclosed amount of cash. A store employee and the customer followed the man out of the store. The employee was on foot, according to Maxwell, while the customer was driving a vehicle. “My understanding is they followed him through the Oakley neighborhood,” Maxwell said. Maxwell said not long after the robbery, the customer’s vehicle struck Waddell. She did not know how fast the vehicle was going when it hit Waddell, but said the customer had been backing up. Maxwell said police recovered money believed to have been taken in the robbery. As of Sunday evening, no charges were filed. A police department traffic officer is investigating, and may be talking with the district attorney today. A woman who answered the phone at the Oakley Food Center on Sunday afternoon said employees were not allowed to talk about the incident.
Contact Ball at 232-5851 or .

By Julie Ball STAFF WRITER published: September 12, 2005 6:00 am ASHEVILLE
Newsroom • Submit a News Tip • Ethics Policy • Write a Letter to the Editor • Related news from the Web.
Find it online at Topix.net.

A simpleton in Escanaba, Michigan, called police to report that his 200-pound safe had been stolen. But now he is the one who might face charges, because the safe had nearly pound of marijuana inside. The simpleton told Delta County sheriff’s deputies that someone broke into his home on Aug. 9 and took the safe, which contained some weapons and a collection of silver dollars. Deputies recovered the safe early on Sept. 7, after receiving a tip. The safe was still locked up tight, and when the deputies called the owner (our simpleton, that is) to open it, they found all the items he described, along with the marijuana and $500 in cash. The arrest of the man who stole the safe is pending, Detective Lt. Mike Gierke said.

A 19-year-old man left a very identifying thing at a portable school building when he burglarized it: his name tag. This happened in Albuquerque, NM, where the moron stole a computer monitor, two printers, and other equipment. The tag, which carried the name, “Sam” helped authorities track down Samuel Wilson, 19. Wilson was being held on burglary charges.

Sent in by Joey Schwartzman