ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Police say Pa. hotel maid took 13 pills from Room 13

INDUSTRY, Pa.

Police have charge a former maid with stealing 13 painkiller pills from Room 13 at a family-owned western Pennsylvania motel.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for 34-year-old Adria Maceross, of Industry, who was charged by Beaver police with stealing the drugs March 1.

Police say the owners of the Willows Inn on Route 68 contacted them after guests complained about money and prescription drugs being stolen from their rooms last month.

So Beaver Police Chief Dan Madgar tells the Beaver County Times that police installed a camera, disguised as an alarm clock, Feb. 13 in Room 13 to see who was behind the thefts.

On March 1, police say they saw Maceross put a pill bottle in her pocket and say she later confessed taking 13 pills in it that day.

Thief returns $800 from 1980s Michigan burglary

HASTINGS, Mich.

A burglar expressing guilt about stealing $800 from a western Michigan store three decades ago has repaid the money, plus some interest.

The anonymous thief sent a note and $1,200 in $100 bills to the Barry County sheriff’s department in Hastings, and they arrived Monday, WOOD-TV reported.

The writer admitted breaking into the Middle Mart on Michigan 37 in Thornapple Township north of Middleville about 30 years ago.

In a letter packed with emotion and spelling errors, the writer asks for “help in locating a man” to whom the writer owes the money.

“Anyways, I did a very bad thing that I am shamed of and have lived with this guilt,” the writer said. “I can’t begin to say how sorry iam but have lived with this guilt too long,” the letter went on to say. “If you do find him, please tell him that I was afoolish stupid man when I did that and iam sorrie.”

The letter was unsigned and had no return address.

The $1,200, while it includes interest, falls short of making up for the loss in the dollar’s purchasing power over the intervening years. The stolen $800 would be worth about $1,800 today, based on changes in the consumer price index.

WOOD-TV said the former owner of the store, now called Greg’s Get-N-Go, confirmed it was broken into in the 1980s. The store was sold in 1988.

Undersheriff Bob Baker said the letter and cash came as quite a surprise.

“This doesn’t happen every day,” Baker said. He said the department isn’t interested in reopening the case because of the time that has passed.

Associated Press