Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times Police Log - Thursday, February 20th, 2014:

A man reported that someone stole about a dozen iPad Minis from his apartment, valued at nearly $6,000. He told police he was preparing to send them to his friends in China because the electronics are cheaper to purchase in the United States. He guessed that the burglar entered through his unlocked front door.

Daily Breeze (Torrance, California) – Police Log: Beach Cities – February 18^th, 2014:

El Segundo:

Residential burglary: Police took a report Feb. 12 from the 700 block of Lomita Street. Entry through an unlocked door. Firearms and jewelry.

The Journal Times (Racine, Wisconsin) - Mom charged with prostitution, child abandonment — left kids alone to meet 'john' – February 17^th, 2014:

A Racine mother spent her 22nd birthday on Monday being charged with prostituting herself so she could pay rent. Investigators said Brittney D. Booker allegedly left her 2- and 5-year-old children home alone to meet with her client, who turned out to be an undercover investigator posing as a john.

Booker allegedly told investigators she paid $3 to post the online ad and “intended to use the money she earned to pay rent.” The complaint didn’t state on which website her ad was placed.

Booker asked investigators to check on her two children, giving them two different addresses. She later said they were home alone, sleeping on the couch with the door unlocked, according to the complaint. At 1:55 a.m. on Sunday, officers found them asleep on the couch inside the home, which they described as “filthy.” They reported that the children “smelled unclean,” the complaint stated.

Booker was to appear in court Monday on the charges, but a woman with a similar name was incorrectly brought to the hearing room from jail. That woman is not charged with misdemeanor prostitution.

The Sharon (Pennsylvania) Herald – Men accused of targeting Amish home for burglary – Feb. 16^th, 2014:

Two men, including a former Amish man, have been charged with burglary for preying on an Amish homestead and stealing a number of firearms.

Emanuel S. Schwartz, 22, and Wendell J. Horst, 18, both of 1961 N. Perry Highway, Fairview Township, each have been charged with burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass.

The Amish victim who lives in the 1500 block of Airport Road, Fairview Township, reported Dec. 15 that a .270-caliber rifle, a muzzleloader, three other rifles, two shotguns and three pair of rubber boots were stolen from his home, state police said.

Schwartz said he and Horst entered an unlocked door and stole a muzzleloader, a .270 and other guns, police said.

Kansas City (Missouri) Star Magazine – “Why I love living in small-town America” by Cindy Hoedel – February 15^th, 2014:

At Strong City Grocery Store, the teenage clerks start carrying sacks of groceries out to my car before the cashier is even done ringing them up. The first time, the girl returned with a puzzled look to tell me my car was locked — a city-slicker mistake. It took several times of trying to tip the kids who loaded the sacks into my car to learn that they would not take the money. They were polite but firm in turning it down. “We do that for everyone,” one girl said. Another time a young man said, “Thanks, but I don’t need that.”

Unlike in Kansas City, I know the UPS guy in my town by name. We have an agreement that if I’m expecting a package and not home, I leave the kitchen door unlocked and he puts my stuff inside.



There are also a few teens in town who happily and competently do odd jobs. When word got out that I needed eight large, deep holes dug for planting fruit trees, a 15-year-old from down the street came driving up in his pickup truck with a rifle on the front seat, asked me to show him where I wanted the holes, and set to digging. He was done two hours later and asked for $14, but I gave him more.

But of all the great old-fashioned service experiences I’ve encountered in my corner of rural Kansas, my favorite is a couple in their late 80s and early 90s who still farm and keep a refrigerator full of fresh eggs in their unlocked detached garage. You drive out to their farm just past the cemetery on the outskirts of town, let yourself into the garage, take your cartons of eggs and drop the money ($1.50 per dozen) in a rusty coffee can. They reuse egg cartons that customers bring back, so it’s a zero-waste operation as well as the best orange-yolked farm eggs around.

Inland Valley (California) Daily Bulletin – “Man pleads guilty to sexually assulating woman in Ontario home” – February 14^th, 2014:

A man who armed himself with a replica gun and sexually assaulted a woman inside her Ontario home in 2012 is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

Earlier this month, Daniel Anthony Aguirre, 21, accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to sodomy by force and rape by force or fear, according to court records.

Aguirre previously pleaded not guilty to those charges, as well as assault during the commission of a burglary, burglary, threatening a victim, and attempted burglary, according to court records. The remaining charges will be dismissed at time of sentencing.

Officers responded to the 200 block of North Vine Avenue in Ontario following a report of trouble at the residence.

They discovered a man, later identified as Aguirre, got into the home through an unlocked door and confronted a 41-year-old woman. Police say he pointed a realistic-looking handgun at the woman then attacked her.

PLEASE NOTE: I have reproduced the article as written, with the word "assaulting" spelled incorrectly in the headline.

Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times Police Log - Thursday, February 13th, 2013:

Police arrested a 24-year-old Oregon State University student, Skylar Lorange Keith, for allegedly entering an unlocked apartment, knocking over lamps, breaking the glass window to the resident's microwave by punching it, and getting blood on the floor, walls, counters, sofa, kitchen table, chairs and door. Medics transported Keith to the hospital and police cited him at the hospital on charges of first-degree criminal trespassing and second-degree criminal mischief.