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The Christmas thieving season appears to be in full bloom and local police who have made numerous arrests on burglary and theft charges in recent weeks. • Gerald Michael Frazier, 36, of Sabine, was arrested by Deputy J.A. Lyall of the Logan County Sheriff's Department for daytime burglary, and breaking and entering on Nov. 26. According to police reports the deputy responded to a call from Rum Junction about an alleged burglary, where the victim reportedly shot at the fleeing vehicle of the alleged burglar. "The victim stated he watched the suspect open the door to his garage and go...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Prosecutors won't file charges against an Omaha business owner who shot and killed a suspected burglar over the weekend. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he believes the shooting was justified. The owner of Bazar Latino who shot the man has not been named. Police say 23-year-old Jesus Franco was found dead Saturday morning. His body was in the snow about 30 feet from a south Omaha business that had reported a burglary. The owner told officers he fired his gun during a confrontation with a suspected burglar, who then fled.

An Omaha woman is mourning the death of her boyfriend, a suspected burglar shot and killed by a business owner over the weekend. She believes that business owner should be charged with a crime. Police say Jesus Franco broke into the business near 24th and I streets around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, struggled with the owner and then ran from the scene after being shot. Police found Franco dead a few blocks away, alone in his car. Click here to find out more! Lynn Pecha is overcome with grief. Franco's girlfriend does not believe the story. “It's not right, he didn't...

A southwestern Illinois man claims he shot in self defense when a 17-year-old gang-banger attempted to break into the home where he was staying Tuesday night. Law officers, however, tell another story. They say the 38-year-old shooter fired at the teen from a distance of 75 to 100 feet away. And -- they say -- the teen wasn't trying to break into the house. He was shot while spray painting graffiti on the garage in the backyard. The incident occurred unincorporated Collinsville just down the street from the Fairmount Park race track. The teen was found a few blocks away...

PALM BAY, Fla. -- Some accused teen burglars are lucky to be alive, police say, after they broke into a Brevard County house whose homeowner had guns. Investigators say they are working to find out if the teenagers are responsible for any of the dozens of home break-ins plaguing Palm Bay in the past few weeks. The homeowner told Eyewitness News the suspects are his son's friends. Officers said the suspects broke into the house on Sanger Street in Palm Bay (see map) with a neighbor sitting right outside watching their every move. Homeowner Rodney Halfhide says he was taking...

Many people will sympathize with an Arlington, WA man who fired a couple of shots at a burglary suspect who later turned up dead with jewelry belonging homeowner’s wife in his pocket, because the homeowner has now been arrested for investigation of second-degree murder. Keira S. Earhart was booked into the Snohomish County Jail and is being held there on $1 million bail. The man he shot, Ryan A. Rzechula, 25, of Stanwood, has a criminal record, according to the Everett Herald. What allegedly occurred in this case will need some sorting out, but the basic facts are that Earhart...

TITUSVILLE -- Two burglars attempting to steal a car from a Brevard County home were held at gunpoint by the homeowners. Matthew Clark, 20, and Justin Sheppard, 19, are facing several charges including burglary and grand theft. Authorities say the pair was burglarizing a home near Titusville on Karen Drive when the homeowners confronted them with a 12-gauge shotgun. The woman and her son held the two until police arrived. Clark and Sheppard are now being held on $5,000 bonds.

UPDATED Thursday, September 17, 2009 --- 4:40 p.m. The fiancee of the man who was shot and killed after he broke into a house speaks. Forty-one-year-old Jamie Chen was alone at his home on the 2900 block of Osmundsen Road in Fitchburg Wednesday afternoon when police say Roberto Vega-Gil broke in. Fearing for his life, Chen grabbed a gun. A short time later he shot and killed Vega-Gil as he emerged from the basement. And now the intruder's family is trying to figure out why he did what he did. "This is Roberto and I when we were ready to...

CHANDLER, AZ -- Police say two teens face burglary charges after they allegedly forced their way into a home with a 14-year-old boy inside Wednesday morning. According to a Chandler police report, the teen was alone in the home near Frye and Alma school roads when two men knocked on the front door about 7:30 a.m. Since he didn't know the men, the boy did not answer the door, according to the report. Police said the men then forced their way into the home through a back door and the boy ran out of the house to a neighbor who...

Jackson police are investigating a shooting that may fall under the "Castle Doctrine," Mississippi's law governing justifiable homicide in the defense of a home or business. The shooting took place at approximately 5 p.m. Sunday at Gipson's Discount Foods on Highway 80 in West Jackson. Police say that a man carrying a large knife and a handgun attempted to enter the store through a back door. A relative of the store's owners shot and killed the intruder. Jackson Police Department spokesman Lt. Jeffery Scott said this morning that the shooter lives on the premises, but would not release his name....

An 18 year old burglar was shot in self defense by the owner of an East St. Louis, IL home. Police reportedly say that just 18 year old Michael Holmes III and another person attempted to break in to a home. The home was being rehabbed by its owner, so that the owner, his wife, and their child could move in to the house. The owner, who is said to be a Navy service member, was working inside the house when the two men are said to have forced their way in. The homeowner opened fire in self defense, killing...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009Police say transient stole truck, 19 guns to acquire more beer By Mike Peters Maybe if he just hadn't run through the power lines in north Greeley. Or maybe if the burglar alarm just wasn't set at Big R. Or maybe if the cop hadn't Tased him five times. Maybe today, Cruz Marceleno would have what he wanted all along: beer. Instead, he's in jail. In one of Greeley's biggest burglaries, a homeless Greeley man is accused of stealing a truck, some generators and 19 guns — including six assault rifles — for a total of nearly...

A clever burglar is using potted plants to help plan break-ins in the Lakewood area, according to a media report. hat a burglar is targeting residents while they are on vacation. The burglar determines whether the resident is home by moving large potted plants around the house. If the potted plants remain undisturbed from the move, then the burglar knows the homeowner is away.

Luke Sanchez in court Monday911 tapes in a deadly shooting that has sparked a huge debate over self-defense shed more light on what happened the night Luke Sanchez shot Gary Gabaldon. Supporters, who are trying to get the murder charge against Sanchez dropped, say he was defending himself against a man who attacked with a weapon—and that he was just following the dispatcher's orders to get a license plate number. But was that the case? On the tapes, you can hear a frantic Luke Sanchez tell the 911 operator he had just shot a suspected burglar. He goes on to...

A Belen man is charged with murder after investigators say he admitted to shooting a burglary suspect. He claims he acted in self-defense. Luke Sanchez, 38, was allegedly driving by a business near his home Saturday night, when he saw two men robbing the place. That's when Sanchez said he decided to take matters into his own hands to protect the community and help law enforcement, but that help left Sanchez facing a murder charge. Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera said Luke Sanchez has been frustrated after being robbed several times in recent months. "Sometimes you have to know the...

A bizarre shooting in Belen leaves a former corrections officer dead, and a former Marine in jail charged with his murder. The shooting is once again raising debate over what's considered self defense. The brother of the person who was shot and the suspect's friend each have very different opinions about what happened. The incident happened around 10:15 Saturday night at Enchantment Propane. Evidence of a break-in was still visible on Sunday. The murder that happened in the midst of the burglary is likely going to extend a long-standing debate for years to come. Louie Gabaldon still has a lot...

In a lopsided fight that even Don King would have had trouble promoting, a burglar in Oxford, England, got more than he bargained for when he broke into the home of Frank Corti, a 72-year-old former junior boxing champion.

A burglar took a picture of himself on his victim's cell phone, then left the phone behind, Suffolk police said. They are asking the public for help in identifying him. The burglary was reported to police the first week of June in the 200 block of Holbrook Arch. The burglar tried to make a call with a cell phone in the residence, and took a picture of himself flashing two fingers, police said. He left the phone behind. City spokeswoman Debbie George, a former police lieutenant, said it's common for suspects in crimes to make photos and video of themselves...

A Blountville homeowner held an intruder at gunpoint when he spotted him going into his travel camper Tuesday morning. The Reedy Creek Lane resident told Sullivan County Sheriff's deputies he first thought a relative had entered his camper, which was parked in his driveway. When he discovered the man was a stranger, he went to get his gun. He returned with his pistol to find the man inside his car, which was parked next to the camper, according to a sheriff's office spokesman. The homeowner held the man at gunpoint until deputies arrived to arrest him. Jeffrey B. Welch, 19,...

Judge receives mental update in Pressly case Slaying suspect has confessed three times, prosecutors say BY JOHN LYNCH ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly has “confessed” three times to the slaying, a Pulaski County prosecutor revealed during a court hearing Tuesday. The claim by chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson prompted a challenge from defendant Curtis Lavelle Vance, who said his statements were made under duress because Little Rock police had threatened his life. “That was under extreme pressure,” Vance said. “I had a gun in my face.” Prosecutors denied Vance’s allegations of coercion...

"They been in here three times already-three times in one month and we're just sick of it you know, just sick of it,” Vera Brown said. She says she’s sick of people breaking into her store--V& D Grocery in the 'Booker T' Community in Monroe. Brown says thieves stole everything from candy and cigarettes to toilet paper and drinks. "I knew they [were] coming back, I knew they [were] coming back,” Brown said. So her employees decided to take matters into their own hands.A couple of them spent the night inside the store to catch the thieves... And they did.

The Swift Economy of Colonial Justice Here are just a few incidents of crime and punishment as they were administered throughout the colonies in the years 1768 through 1770 and chronicled by the Portsmouth New Hampshire Gazette. Contrary to what you might assume, crime was not a major feature of colonial newspapers. In this era, correspondents were far more interested in political intrigue and the ideas surrounding the rights of free men. You have to really look, in other words, for a crime blotter, and when crime was reported, unlike today, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end....

A burglary suspect doesn't get far after breaking into one Georgetown home. Just before 2 a.m. Monday, Georgetown Police said Joshua Slone stood at the back door of a house on Citation Court knocking on it. When he didn't get a response. police said Slone kicked in a window and made his way into the living room. Around the same time, the homeowner met Slone with his shotgun and held him inside until police arrived. No one was hurt. Joshua Slone is being held in the Scott County Detention Center facing burglary charges.

Police say one burglar was shot and another stabbed breaking into a Woodbridge home Sunday night. James Baumann Jr., 28, and Jason Lewis Presley, 32, are accused in a burglary in the 15100 block of Georgia Road about 11:30 p.m. Police say one of them was armed with a knife. The 41-year-old resident of the house heard the burglars and went to investigate, said Erika Hernandez, Prince William police spokeswoman. When the victim saw the two men, a fight ensued. Police said the resident grabbed a knife from one of the burglars and stabbed him. Baumann suffered stab wounds and...

The burglars who tried to loot his Bellevue home got a surprise of their own as they began their escape: Rosario had made off with their getaway car. As he puts it: "The good guys win for once." Around 1:35 p.m., Rosario heard what he thought was a knock at the front door. Then — a loud noise. For a second, he thought it might be the Thursday housekeepers, but then he realized it was Tuesday. "I thought, there's something going on here." Rosario, 32, walked up the stairs, peered through a one-inch opening under the door into the main...

BERNIE MADOFF A RIPOFF 'VICTIM' By JAMES FANELLI and ANGELA MONTEFINISE December 28, 2008 -- How does it feel, Bernie? Swindler extraordinaire Bernard Madoff got a taste of his own medicine last weekend when a burglar stole a $10,000 statue from his posh, $9.4 million Palm Beach estate, according to a police report. The theft occurred sometime between 3 p.m. on Dec. 19 and 11:30 a.m. last Sunday, a week after Madoff confessed to ripping off $50 billion from investors in a decades-long Ponzi scheme. The five-foot, copper artwork overlooked the Madoffs' inground pool, and portrays two young lifeguards sitting...

Police investigate a deadly shooting that could fall under the State’s so-called “Castle Law”. Video KVUE's Jessica Vess reports 12/28/2008 More KVUE video View larger E-mail Clip More Video Local/State Videos Tips to help rebuild your retirement plan How to stay healthy after the holidays One dead after apartment fire Police are not saying much right now because they are still investigating the invasion, but we do know that the suspected burglar was shot and killed. It happened at a home about an hour northeast of Austin in Cameron. Milam County Sheriff's deputies got a call around two this morning...

A burglar was shot and killed while looting a house in Sunward Park in Boksburg yesterday morning, police said. Captain Mack Mngomezulu said a 53-year-old homeowner shot the man after hearing people talking inside his house at 3.30am. "The man had been sleeping when he heared the voices. "While searching the house, he was confronted by about five unknown people who tried to attack him ... he then shot one of them," he said. With their accomplice shot, the remaining four fled the scene on foot, taking with them a handbag with a cellphone, R3 000 in cash, bank cards,...

A council is urging allotment holders not to lock their sheds in case thieves damage the structures while breaking in.Tenants have been warned that padlocks can lead to thieves forcing their way through doors and windows of the council-owned sheds to steal garden equipment. Bristol City Council claims its 'Don't Use a Padlock' initiative will save taxpayers' money because fewer sheds will have to be repaired or replaced. Its guide reads: "Don't padlock your shed; it can save the shed being damaged if someone does try to get into it.....

Students stabbed and set alight Two French research students found stabbed to death following a flat fire had been tied up and suffered horrific, excessive injuries, police have said. The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in a ground-floor flat in New Cross, south-east London, on Sunday night. They had suffered a total of 243 stab wounds to the head, neck and chest before being set alight. The biochemistry students had been studying at Imperial College, London. Det Ch Insp Mick Duthie said he had no idea why the students were killed. Fiancee's tribute Speaking...

'Castle Doctrine' Gives Texans Unprecedented Authority to Take Action Against Intruders A Texas man who shot and killed two men he believed to be burglarizing his neighbor's home won't be going to trial. A grand jury today failed to indict Joe Horn, a 61-year-old computer technician who lives in an affluent subdivision in Pasadena, Texas.In the Lone Star state, where the six-gun tamed the frontier, shooting bad guys is a time-honored tradition, and Horn's case centered on a Texas state law based on the old idea that "a man's home is his castle." The "castle law" gives Texans unprecedented legal...

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Green Bay Packers running back Noah Herron thwarted a would-be burglar by hitting him with a bed post during a break-in at his home. Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken said Tuesday that the break-in happened late last Friday and the injured the intruder remained hospitalized but is expected to recover. "Noah Herron used necessary, reasonable and justifiable force in protecting his life and property," Kocken said in a statement. "Herron, the victim in this random home invasion, is cooperating with law enforcement." Herron, 26, missed all of last season with a knee injury. Chief Deputy John...

Father confronted by axe-wielding burglars - but police are too busy to turn up for THREE hoursBy DAVID WILKES - More by this author » Last updated at 00:49am on 29th April 2008  Cowering upstairs with his partner and their two children as a gang of burglars wielding an axe emptied his living room, Mathew Sims wasted no time in calling 999.  But instead of the immediate response he expected, the police told him: "We're too busy to help." Within minutes, the burglars drove off with a haul of stolen property. Scroll down for more... Terrified: Matthew Sims, Sarah Barham...

Last week we had a burglary at our home and a lot of stuff was stolen including several firearms. We live in the Sun Valley area just north of Burbank, California. The break in occurred at noon, when my wife had stepped out for about an hour. A few of the stolen firearms were collectibles-- primo and very desirable, should the thieves have any clue what they got. This is what was stolen: Smith & Wesson model 3420 Airlight .38 hammerless S/N CEZ8580 Smith & Wesson model 686 .357 7-rd cyl. S/N CEY947 Springfield M1 Garand S/N 1881921 Colt Govt....

Yuma police have identified the Yuma man shot Monday morning during a reported vehicle burglary. Robert Cuen, 23, of Yuma was shot once in the lower back after he allegedly attacked another man whose car Cuen allegedly was burglarizing in the 3200 block of Rome Street, police said in a news release. Police said the shooting occurred after Ian Laughlin, 23, was awakened around 5 a.m. by a noise outside his home on Rome Street. Laughlin said he went to investigate and confronted two men trying to burglarize his vehicle, police said. Laughlin told police he was armed with a...

February 1, 2008 -- A burglar posing as a construction worker broke into "60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl's Upper West Side penthouse and carted off more than $100,000 worth of jewelry and electronics, police said.

Three burglars were caught in the act after the victim made a 9-1-1 call from inside her house. Three male suspects broke into her Austin home in the 8900 block of Hunters Trace around 10 a.m. The suspects are 19-year-old Albert Rea, 20-year-old Jesus Rea and 19-year-old Christian Membreno, all arrested and charged with burglary of a residence. Austin police said the victim of this crime did an excellent job by calling 9-1-1 while the burglary was in progress. She hid in a back bedroom and called police while the three burglars ransacked the place. Police released those 9-1-1 calls...

A southwest Harris County homeowner shot and killed a man he discovered climbing into a window of his house at about 2:15 a.m. today, investigators said. Steven Dunbar, 44, died in the window of the home in the 3400 block of Cascadia, Harris County sheriff's homicide Det. Rolf Nelson said. Nelson declined to name the homeowner but said the man, 32, was asleep in the house with his wife, a son, 6, and an infant daughter when he heard a loud noise. "The homeowner says he heard a loud noise, possibly a gunshot, that startled him out of bed," Nelson...

Reuters story- not quoted.

ATLANTA — Police are searching for a mother who may have driven the getaway car for her 12-year-old son and a large group of young teens suspected of committing hundreds of home robberies in the last few months. Fulton County police believe 36-year-old Lakechia Woodard drove the children and a car full of stolen merchandise to a pawn shop in at least one burglary. Detectives have arrested at least 25 teens — including Woodard's 12-year-old son — for robberies in new subdivisions off of Camp Creek Parkway in suburban Atlanta. Police say Woodard has an arrest record that includes fraud...

By ERICA ESTEP 6 News Anchor/Reporter KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A West Knoxville family is calling their dog a hero after he chased off some burglars. But he was stabbed in the process. "Jake," an eight-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever, has a heavily bandaged neck but five days ago, he suffered a traumatic injury. However, Jake's owners didn't even know their home had been broken into and couldn't figure out what had caused their dog's injury. "There was just blood everywhere. He was saturated. I mean, it was all down his chest, both his legs, it had even gotten on down his...

When someone has been arrested more than 20 times for burglary one would think the justice system would find a place to incarcerate him for the rest of his life. Burglars, especially home-invaders, are among the worst type of criminals because they often perpetrate their malevolent crime in the middle of the night when people are most vulnerable. Although it is often said that these nocturnal interlopers are non-violent and only seeking to commit larceny, they are opportunists who will elevate their crime to more serious levels if the opportunity arises and they think they can get away with it....

Police say deported Colombian native with a long rap sheet is back in the area, hiring others to help in thefts Nassau police are scouring the Island to find a man they say was involved in about 20 burglaries in the county in the past three or four months and several more in Suffolk County, Queens and as far south as Atlanta and Florida. Police say Pablo Castro, a convicted thief, recruited day workers from Astoria to carry out daytime burglaries, many in the New Hyde Park and Manhasset areas, said Det. Lt. Raymond Cote, commander of Nassau's Third Squad....

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two men with long rap sheets were on parole when they broke into a doctor’s home, strangled his wife and killed the couple’s two daughters in a fire they set to cover their tracks, authorities said... Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, of Cheshire, and Steven Hayes, 44, of Winsted...arraigned Tuesday on charges of assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, arson, larceny and risk of injury to children. Bail was set at $15 million each, which Judge Christina G. Dunnell said was warranted because of the men’s criminal histories. State officials are re-examining their policies after learning two convicted burglars...

Suspected Burglar Shot By Homeowner by Katherine Doublet 05/23/2007 2:09 pm Comsewogue High School student Jonathon Dilone, 18, of Port Jefferson Station, is being treated at Stony Brook University Medical Center for a non-life-threatening wound to the right shoulder after allegedly attempting to rob a Coram apartment on Tuesday. The accomplice – Michael, 21, also from Port Jefferson -- drove Dilone to the apartment and supplied him with a stolen 9mm handgun before Dilone attempted to rob Merrily Ottomanelli, 30, and her residence, according to police. Holding Ottomanelli at gunpoint, Dilone was reportedly confronted by her 25-year-old boyfriend, Clifton Gilchrist,...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A man accused of breaking into a Daytona Beach home was shot by the homeowner Tuesday night, according to police. Thomas Lockhard, 28, is in critical condition at Halifax Medical Center after being shot just after 10 p.m. at a house on Orange Avenue in Daytona Beach. Police said they responded to a 911 call from the homeowner, whose house had already been burglarized three times this week, and found Lockhard suffering from a bullet wound. "This kid, who is known to the guy who's already filed three police reports, tells him he's going to kill...

   Mark Whiteley ... former burglar has home security advice   Think like a thief this Christmas By LUCY WATERLOWNovember 29, 2006           "BURGLARS are opportunists. Nine out of ten are cowards. They don't want to meet people. They want to be in and out of a house with expensive goods as quickly as possible."  These are 38-year-old Mark Whiteley views on burglars. And he should now, he was one.For the "buzz" of stealing, Mark began thieving when he was just 14-years-old.He started out breaking into homes and schools and went on to make a living dealing in stolen...

A burglar who was shot by a Wilmette homeowner during a 2003 break-in, which set off a national debate over local gun laws, was arrested Tuesday and accused of robbing a house in the same neighborhood....(snip) Morio Billings, 34, of the 7500 block of South Sangamon Street, Chicago, is accused of a burglary Friday of a Wilmette home in the 800 block of Michigan Avenue, stealing a purse, keys and a 2004 Volvo parked in the driveway, police said. Billings was arrested 11 days after his release from prison for the 2003 burglary. (snip) In December 2003, Billings burglarized a...

(CBS) NEW YORK Last April, police targeted a sex-for-money operation at a well-known Brooklyn massage parlor. They sent in an undercover officer to catch them in the act. Instead, the cops involved were the ones who got stung. Pictures taken from a series of hidden surveillance cameras show the undercover officer entering, standing in the massage parlor lobby and then walking out. He spends a total of 43 seconds inside. Yet the officer claimed that during those 43 seconds he was solicited by all eight women working there. Moments later the vice squad moved in and the workers and massage...

ANDERSON, Ind. -- A teenager was being held after he was charged with raping a comatose 92-year-old woman in a city hospital hours before she died. Derek D. Hutchison, 18, of Anderson, was being held in Madison County Jail on $100,000 bond Saturday. Hutchison, who has a 5th-grade education, was arraigned Friday in video court. If convicted of the rape charge, he could face six to 20 years in prison. Anderson police said Hutchison acknowledged "taking advantage" of the woman while she was lying in her bed at St. Johns Medical Center about 16 hours before her death in...