ODDLY ENOUGH: Meth-lab equipment found on game lands

ODDLY ENOUGH

Meth-lab equipment found on game lands

DUNCANSVILLE, Pa.

State police say someone found a homemade device used to make the powerful stimulant methamphetamine on state game lands in central Pennsylvania.

Duncansville police say a resident found the device Sunday and became suspicious when he read a story about methamphetamine labs in the Altoona Mirror newspaper.

Police say the item is an anhydrous-ammonia reactor fashioned out of a gasoline can. It was found on game lands just west of Duncansville, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Duncansville police Chief James Ott tells the newspaper that the device hasn’t been linked to any known clandestine lab, and police don’t know who made it.

The can was frozen, which kept the chemicals from reacting, but the chief says they would have been dangerous had they thawed or been exposed to water.

Wife calls police after seeing photo on TV

BRADENTON, Fla.

Authorities south of Tampa say a man confessed robbing a bank after his wife saw a surveillance photo on the evening news and alerted them.

A camera got a clear shot of the man with a ponytail and scruffy beard robbing the First Bank in Bradenton on Tuesday. The robber got away.

But Manatee County sheriff’s officials got a break Tuesday evening when Afra Sandifar saw a news report about the robbery. She called authorities and told them her husband was the robber.

That’s when 45-year-old Troy Sandifar fled the couple’s apartment.

Deputies stopped his vehicle, but Troy Sandifar refused to get out. They say he ingested what appeared to be drugs before they were able to arrest him. He was taken to the hospital, where authorities say he confessed.

Police: Man stole cop car to be deported

JEROME, Idaho

Jerome police say a man who asked authorities to arrest and deport him to Mexico stole a squad car after his request was denied.

The Idaho Mountain Express reports that 38-year-old Guadalupe Cruz-Vasquez went to the Jerome County Sheriff’s office Monday night and demanded to be deported.

Police Sgt. Duane Rubink says authorities declined to take the Jerome resident into custody, so he walked to a nearby police station, broke the window of a squad car and drove away with the vehicle.

Rubink says a cell phone inside the vehicle helped police track its location near Carey, but police didn’t need to stop it: The car ran out of gas.

He says after that, Cruz-Vasquez finally got his wish.

Associated Press