Curses, Foiled Again

A woman in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., reported hearing a man outside her bedroom window telling someone on a cell phone, “I’m about to commit a crime.” She awoke her boyfriend, who said he observed the intruder sit down on a nearby deck and continue his call. Later, he heard a glass door breaking. An Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy who responded followed a trail of blood from the glass door to a nearby intersection, where he found Kevin Wayne Weathersby, 30, sitting on a curb bleeding. (Northwest Florida Daily News)

A worker counting the night’s take at a Burger King in Pine Bluff, Ark., told police a man approached with a gun, threatened to kill her and demanded the cash. When he set the gun down so he could put the money in a bag, the worker grabbed it, shot the robber during a struggle, then put him in a headlock and called police, who arrested Jason Robinson, 22. (Pine Bluff Commercial Appeal)

Authorities investigating a bank robbery in St. Cloud, Minn., nabbed their suspect after officials at Mystic Lake Casino observed him depositing cash into slot machines in exchange for credit slips. “In effect, he was laundering his money through the casino,” police Sgt. Martin Sayre said. Casino officials became suspicious because Salamo Nam Rakotojoelinandrasana, 23, was exchanging bills covered with red dye, which the bank used to mark the stolen money. (Minneapolis’s Star Tribune)

When Kenneth Parkerson, 28, sneaked into the screened patio of a home in Coral Springs, Fla., carrying a video camera, he was confronted by homeowner Ireneusz Fajkis, a firefighter who also happens to be a mixed martial arts fighter. Fajkis chased the intruder, tackled him to the ground and beat him up before calling the police. “I picked the wrong house,” Parkerson reportedly told the hospital nurse who treated his wounds. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Curses, Foiled Again

FBI investigators said Lois J. Harvey, 40, handed a hold-up note to a bank teller in Columbus, Ohio, who informed Harvey she couldn’t read it. While trying to explain the note, Harvey noticed an off-duty police officer in full uniform waiting in line behind her. She grabbed the note and hastily left. Informed by the teller what had happened, the officer went after Harvey, who, when caught, tried to eat the note. When the officer arrested her, she coughed it up. (The Columbus Dispatch)

Authorities identified Joshua Tell Warner, 23, as the man who robbed three Oregon banks after receiving calls pointing out that the suspect was a deckhand on a crab boat who appeared on the television reality show Deadliest Catch. Following his arrest at a traffic stop in East Peoria, Ill., Warner pleaded guilty. (Eugene’s The Register-Guard)

Curses, Foiled Again

Minutes after receiving a report that a convenience store had been robbed, police in Suffolk, Va., found suspect Sean Almond, 43, behind the store, having interrupted his getaway to urinate. He had the stolen cash on him. (The Virginian-Pilot)

When Clair Arthur Smith, 42, received a $10 check from Florida Gulf Bank after closing his account, he altered it to read $269,951, then tried to deposit it to another account using a Bank of America ATM. Lee County sheriff’s investigators promptly arrested Smith, who confessed. (Fort Myers News-Press)

Curses, Foiled Again

A sheriff’s deputy in Okaloosa County, Fla., arrested a 27-year-old driver after pulling her over for an improper taillight because she couldn’t spell her name. She said she was Coronica Jackson, but spelled it C-o-r-i-c-a. Her passenger nudged her, and she respelled it C-o-r-n-a-i-c-a. Then the passenger told the deputy it was C-o-r-o-n-i-c-a. He checked the name in his computer, but the photo didn’t match that of the driver, so he asked her to sign her name. She wrote “Coninani Junise,” which was nowhere close to that in the computer system. (Northwest Florida’s Daily News)

Police investigating a burglary at a drug store in Tulsa, Okla., said a surveillance video showed the suspect moving a ladder around inside trying to get out. Each time he climbed into the ceiling, however, he fell though. He climbed the ladder and fell through the ceiling six times before making his getaway on the seventh try. (KOTV News)

Curses, Foiled Again

Robby Rose pleaded guilty to felony cheating in a fishing tournament in Rockwall County, Texas, after he was caught stuffing a one-pound lead weight into a bass to try to win top prize: a bass boat. Tournament officials became suspicious when they placed the fish in a holding tank before weighing it, and it sank to the bottom. “As far as we’re concerned, the case was about a $55,000 boat,” county prosecutor Kenda Culpepper said, “not a 10-pound fish.” (NBC News)

Curses, Foiled Again

Federal authorities charged Gregory Giusti, 48, with making at least 48 threatening phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a seven-week period. According to an affidavit supporting the charges, Giusti used an Internet phone service called Magic Jack to make the calls, declaring during one to Pelosi’s San Francisco district office that “the number I’m calling from is untraceable, so if you’re trying to trace it, have fun.” Authorities promptly traced the call to Giusti.

Curses, Foiled Again

Albert Bailey, 27, and a 16-year-old accomplice phoned a bank in Fairfield, Conn., and said they’d be by in 10 minutes to pick up $100,000 in large bills. Their call warned no dye packs and threatened “a blood bath” if the money wasn’t ready. Bank officials immediately notified police, who showed up in time to stop the suspects after they picked up the money but before they could make their getaway. The robbers got what they wanted but “didn’t expect police to be in the takeout line,” police Sgt. James Perez noted, adding, “You can’t make this stuff up.” (Connecticut Post)

Curses, Foiled Again

Two men tried to rob a man coming out of a convenience store in Medford, Ore., but fled when their intended victim ran back inside the store to call police. Officers arrived and were investigating, when the would-be robbers returned in time for witnesses to point them out. Police arrested two suspects, 19 and 20 years old. (Associated Press)

Curses, Foiled Again

After a car dealership reported a pickup was stolen, police in Lincoln, Neb., arrested a 39-year-old man who had taken the vehicle for a test drive earlier, having provided the dealership with photo identification and his address. After finding the truck parked near the man’s home and arresting him, police said the suspect made a copy of the truck’s key during the test drive and used it that night to steal the truck. (Lincoln Journal Star)