By ,
Published January 13, 2015
A friend with wheels is a friend indeed.
That's what Nicholas L. Cabot of Cleveland must have thought when he persuaded a buddy to give him a ride to a bank — which, according to police, Cabot promptly robbed.
Cabot, 64, allegedly approached his 70-year-old neighbor, whom police did not name, on Monday morning, Aug. 2, and asked for a lift to suburban Willoughby.
"I got a 10:30 doctor's appointment," the neighbor said Cabot told him, according to WEWS-TV of Cleveland. "And we can go to the bank."
So the two men, friends for 50 years, piled into the neighbor's green Mazda and set off.
First stop was a Bank One (search) branch in Eastlake, where police said Cabot handed a teller a note reading: "This is a holdup. I am armed, so don't force me to take a hostage or hurt anyone."
He quickly received a bag with $2,000 in cash, according to The News-Herald of Willoughby, and then told the teller, "Have a nice day."
Cabot and his chauffeur proceeded to the doctor's office, but unfortunately, their bank detour had made them late. The appointment had to be rescheduled.
"So we start coming home ... and there was four or five police cars behind me," the neighbor told WEWS. "I ask Nick, 'Did something happen?' and he didn't say nothing."
Eastlake Police Lt. Bill Gutowski told The News-Herald that Cabot was financing a crack cocaine habit and faced up to 13 years in prison.
He said the neighbor would not be charged.
— Thanks to Out There reader Meg M.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Officials in an Adirondack town have rejected a request that a road in a new subdivision be named Notsi — pronounced "NAHT-see."
On Tuesday night, the town board in North Elba — which includes the village of Lake Placid — sent the request back to the Essex County Enhanced 911 (search).
The agency had wanted two new roads in the John Brown subdivision to be given the Cherokee names of Atali — which means "mountain" — and Notsi, which means "pine tree."
But town officials objected to the second name, saying it sounded too much like "Nazi."
The county's 911 office was asked to find more appropriate names. It's not clear why names from an American Indian tribe from outside the region were chosen.
The John Brown subdivision is named for the famed abolitionist who tried to spark an armed slave rebellion just before the Civil War. He is buried just outside Lake Placid.
All King's Horses, Men Called In on Search
INDIAN SHORES, Fla. (AP) — Humpty Dumpty doesn't sit on the wall. But thieves are to blame, instead of a fall.
A 3-foot bronze Humpty sculpture that has adorned the beachfront home of Hugh Smith and his wife, Diana Fuller, vanished last weekend. They desperately want him back.
"He was kidnapped," Fuller said. "We're waiting for a ransom demand."
The couple ordered the piece two years ago from an artist who specializes in making sculptures of the nursery rhyme characters.
They specified Humpty's size, his expression and even the colors he should wear. They paid $5,112 for the whimsical, 60-pound piece they bolted atop a pillar of a concrete wall.
The couple is offering a reward for his safe return.
"We will not only bolt him, we will secure him back to his wall," Fuller said. "We will pen him up. There's always one bad egg who spoils it for everyone else."
Missing Dad, Husband Turns Up Alive, Well and Very Far Away
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man thought to have disappeared while hiking in southwestern Utah has been traced to Australia, Washington County sheriff's officers said Tuesday.
Bryan Butas, 35, of St. George, Utah, reportedly planned to go hiking alone July 30 in an area near Leeds. His car was found the next day near the Oak Grove campground in Dixie National Forest (search).
Sheriff Kirk Smith said investigators found that Butas had purchased a plane ticket on July 20 and flew from Los Angeles to New Zealand and then to Sydney on Aug. 2. He was then traced to Cairns, Queensland.
Smith said the information all came together on Monday, the day the search was canceled.
He said Butas was not under arrest because no crime had been committed, but a civil action could be filed to get Butas to pay the costs of the search and investigation, which a preliminary estimate put at about $20,000.
Butas' wife and three children recently moved to Ohio and Butas had been said to be planning to join them in December.
U.S. Postal Service 'Disposes of' Wayward Snake
DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A typical early morning trip to the post office turned into a frightening experience for a Dothan ENT employee when she found a live corn snake (search) hiding under the mail.
The non-poisonous snake, measuring between two and three feet long, slithered into the business post office box that Jean White regularly checks, sending her screaming hysterically for help.
"I reached in there and got some mail, and when I reached back in, I saw it under my mail. I saw its tongue," White said. "I screamed and I hollered and I screamed and hollered some more. Then I started hollering 'snake!'"
She said it took a few minutes for employees to figure out who would remove the snake from the post office box.
After removing the snake, employees called Dothan Animal Control, which disposed of it.
"In my 33 years working with the postal service, I thought I had seen just about everything, but I've never seen or heard of anything like this happening before," postal employee Steve Simmons said.
He said he did not know how the snake got into the post office box but speculated that it came from outside, seeking a warm, dry place.
He said he does not believe it was a prank.
UPS Gets Wayward Snake Safely Home
O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — A 9-foot albino Burmese python (search) has arrived at its new home after startling a United Parcel Service driver who found it curled up among packages in his truck last week.
The python was taken to the St. Charles County Pet Adoption Center after Brian Adams encountered it while making deliveries in suburban St. Louis.
News reports about the find caught the attention of David Ostermeyer, who hadn't received a python he ordered from a dealer in Pennsylvania.
Ostermeyer, 19, of suburban O'Fallon, told Theresa Williams, director of the division of humane services for St. Charles County, that he has a male albino python and ordered the female so he could breed them.
Ostermeyer told Williams he got the delivery last week but discovered the box was empty. He said he tried to flag down the driver and then put in a claim with UPS.
Adams, 41, remembers delivering an overnight-air box to Ostermeyer's address earlier on the morning that he found the python, but didn't notice anything unusual.
Later, after stopping for another delivery, he saw what he first thought was a stuffed animal or rubber snake.
After he saw scales and realized it was alive, he called animal control. The 31-pound snake was prodded into a cloth mailbag and taken to the pet adoption center.
On Friday, Ostermeyer picked up the python after going to the shelter with proof of his ownership — a receipt, the UPS tracking information and the empty box.
The python was shipped in a plastic container that was taped shut and placed inside the box. Williams said the tape was intact but the container cracked, and the cardboard box had a couple of tears in it.
UPS, meanwhile, is investigating. Although the company accepts some live animals for shipment, snakes aren't on its list.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
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