ODDLY ENOUGH | Calif. women age 65, 72 facing marijuana charges

ODDLY ENOUGH

Calif. women age 65, 72 facing marijuana charges

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.

Two women described by a prosecutor as “marijuana grannies” were jailed on allegations that they were growing hundreds of pot plants in their San Bruno home, authorities said Tuesday.

Aleen Lam, 72, and Virginia Chan Pon, 65, were arrested Friday after neighbors called police to report a burglary, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

When officers arrived, they found the door had been kicked in and nobody was home.

Through the broken door, police could see marijuana growing inside the house, Wagstaffe said.

Police obtained a search warrant and found 800 marijuana plants, $3,000 in cash and an electrical bypass that allowed the women to tap into a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power line to steal electricity, Wagstaffe said.

14-foot walk-through purse shown in Washington state

BELLINGHAM, Wash.

The idea of the oversized purse has grown to new proportions at Whatcom Museum in the Washington state city of Bellingham.

Edison-based industrial artist Ries Niemi has installed his 14-foot-tall “World’s Largest Walk Thru Handbag” sculpture in the Lightcatcher building courtyard.

The open metalwork of the stainless-steel handbag is decorated with images of consumerism and wealth: metal dollar signs, diamonds and $100 bills.

It includes openings on each side to walk through and is accessible to the public without paying for entry to the museum.

The sculpture and some of Niemi’s embroidered art will remain on view through Sept. 11.

Part of the inspiration came from the gigantic drive-through tree stumps of the Northwest, as well as the ever-expanding size of women’s purses.

Cellphone ‘pocket dials’ 911; NY suspects caught

CLAY, N.Y.

An ill-timed, inadvertent 911 call led police to three larceny suspects overheard planning break-ins in upstate New York.

Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh says police already looking for a suspicious person got the unlikely assist when one of the men “pocket dialed” his cellphone’s emergency number while driving near the scene of an earlier heist.

As a dispatcher relayed the conversation to deputies, the men discussed their plans, described their surroundings and even commented, “There go the cops now.”

Walsh says that was enough for a deputy to turn around and stop the Kia Sportage full of tools stolen from a business in the Syracuse suburb of Clay. The dispatcher then heard the driver being asked for his license and registration.

The men arrested April 26 face grand-larceny and stolen-property charges.

Associated Press