Crime Time

Man taking aerials from plane sees his home burgled

Arkansan Steven Lynn, on his first plane ride, wanted to take a few aerial snapshots of his house.

Nothing unusual there.

But looking down he spotted two guys taking stuff out of the home and loading it into a trailer hooked up to a truck.

Wait a minute. The plane dipped lower.

"It didn't seem to faze them that we were buzzing over in an airplane," Lynn told The Jonesboro Sun. "We got down pretty low."

Lynn called an uncle who lives nearby and also 911, according to an AP account. Lynn and the pilot tracked the thieves from above.

Long story short, the burglars were busted and Lynn recovered most of his goods.

He's feeling lucky.

Justin area fire damages house, burns 2 acres

JUSTIN — A structure fire that spread into a grass fire damaged a house and scorched about 2 acres in Denton County on Friday afternoon, a fire official said.
Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Mitchell said the fire was reported shortly before 3:30 p.m. at Texas 114 and Farm Road 156 near a natural gas well. The fire was reported out at 6:30 p.m. No injuries were reported.
Aiding Justin were firefighters from Argyle, Farmers Branch, Haslet, Ponder and Roanoke. The cause of the fire was under investigation, Mitchell said.
-- Marty Sabota

Church aide gets 10 years in child porn case

FORT WORTH — A 27-year-old Fort Worth man who did volunteer work with children at Trinity Chapel Church on Southwest Boulevard in Benbrook was sentenced Friday to 10 years in federal prison on a child pornography charge.
Prosecutors said Derek M. Ripley was sentenced on one count of distributing child pornography. He also was ordered to be under supervised release for life. He pleaded guilty in May.
Authorities say Ripley admitted to using the Internet to distribute three images of boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
-- Marty Sabota

Rattler bites kindergartner

A kindergartner was walking in a field outside his elementary school in Bushland when a rattle snake bit the boy on his calf, the Amarillo Globe-News reports. While school officials rescued the boy and called an ambulance, a custodian whacked the snake to death. The newspaper warns that even a dead rattler can bite, by reflex.  

State will investigate where food program money went

Texas provided more than $1 million to an ex-con to run a summer food program in the Dallas area. Now, the Texas Department of Agriculture will investigate how the money was spent, Texas Insider reports. And in another case of closing the barn door after the horse has left, the Legislature may consider requiring background checks before forking over money for such programs.

Mother of missing baby denied house arrest

The last time 8-month-old Baby Gabriel was two years ago, with his mother giving various accounts of what happened. She first said she smothered her son. The story the Arizona woman now is apparently sticking to is that she gave her son to a couple in San Antonio, according to media reports. She faces charges of child abuse and conspiracy in a case that has riveted people for its similarities to the Calee Anthony case.   

Mexican troops fired on grandfather, grandson from North Texas

At Falcon Lake along the Texas border, a grandfather and grandson from North Texas accidentally crossed into Mexican waters, and when they didn't stop when hailed by Mexican military, troops fired on them to get them to stop, according to TV reports. The Zapata County sheriff is investigating. Names of the pair haven't been released, but no injuries were reported.

Woman charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty gets probation

To move her pets from Idaho to her home in Texas, a woman loaded them in the back of a moving van. In the hot van, the dogs, cats and pygmy goats became badly dehydrated, and by the time they were rescued in Colorado two had to be put down. The Denver Post reports that a judge ruled that the woman's decision to transport them in the moving van was irrational, and he sentenced her to probation and required a mental health evaluation. Doctors had found a tumor in the part of her brain that controls reasoning, the paper reports.

If at first you don't succeed, try again 68 more times

Theater owner James Duffy has been sued 69 times and ordered to pay $24.6 million in judgments for refusing to pay bills, and fraud allegations have followed him across the country, the Naples Daily News reports. Yet time and again he managed to persuade others to take part in business deals. Among his businesses, he once owned a theater in Austin, where an employee said his paycheck bounced five times. Of note, the newspaper reports that Duffy was involved in a Texas civil case that lasted seven years, with Duffy testifying that he had no bank account worth more than $16. All the while, he was expanding his businesses, the Daily News reports.

Fire kills worker, destroys buildings at Scarborough Faire

A Monday night fire that started in a building where a groundskeeper was living killed him and destroyed seven buildings at the festival site near Waxahachie, CBS 11 reports. Two firefighters were injured fighting the blaze, the station says. Cause of the fire is under investigation.