Free Republic

GOLDEN GATES ESTATES, Fla. — A Naples man attempted to take off with a hefty payload after stealing a heavy equipment truck in Golden Gates Estates. According to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO), a Caterpillar front loader was stolen from a property on the 5800 block of Everglades Boulevard North on Sunday. At around 7 a.m. on Sunday, deputies spotted Lazaro Urquiaga Perez driving a truck pulling the front loader on a flatbed trailer. Urquiaga Perez was arrested after deputies matched the front loader with the one stolen earlier in the day. The company from which the front loader...

DUNNELLON, Fla. — A stolen tractor valued at over $50,000 was located in Levy County, according to the Levy County Sheriff's Office (LCSO). LCSO said that on Dec. 14, detectives were made aware that a John Deere front-end loader had been stolen from a job site in the City of Dunnellon and that the tractor may have been hidden in the Morriston area of Levy County. Investigation revealed Anthony Ralph, 42, was in possession of a similar John Deere tractor. A LCSO detective, with assistance from officers with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), responded to the location. When officers...

"We were on our way to the museum with the kids when we suddenly saw a bunch of construction workers run frantically out of the construction site," Rick Eissenstat said Thursday. The father of three who immigrated with his family from Baltimore, Maryland, four years ago, said God saved them from Jerusalem's bulldozer-driving terrorist. "The guy was driving about 30 miles an hour, probably the maximum speed that bulldozer could go," Eissenstat continued. "I tried to back up to get out of the way but cars behind me blocked me." "The right wheel of the bulldozer crushed a taxi cab...

BAALBEK, Lebanon -- People in a village outside this Hezbollah stronghold used a front-end loader's scoop to carry away some of the dead Wednesday after a night of Israeli airstrikes and a commando raid inside Baalbek that residents said killed at least 15 civilians. It was the deepest thrust into Lebanon by Israeli troops since fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah on July 12. Israel said its soldiers killed at least 10 Hezbollah guerrillas and captured five. A crowd of about 50 people from the village of Al Jamaliyeh carried pictures of Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, during a...