Thieves Caught Thanks to Web Cam

A Louisville, Ky., woman couldn't believe what she saw this past Tuesday afternoon — two teenagers breaking into a house.

Even better, the house was hundreds of miles away.

The woman was looking at the live video feed transmitted by a friend's home Web camera in Deltona, Fla., reports WKMG-TV of Orlando.

The unnamed woman watched as the purloining pair began removing electronic equipment from the house, so she did the logical thing — called the Volusia County Sheriff's Office (search ).

"I would have called 911, but I'm calling from out of state," she told a sheriff's dispatcher. "I'm watching a friend's from a Web cam, and two men just broke into his house. They’re in the house right now."

Two minutes later, the thieves noticed the Web cam and put something over it. Unfortunately for them, the witness had already given sheriff's deputies good physical and clothing descriptions.

By the time the cops came, the burglars had already fled the scene, but a neighbor's call about a man in her bushes yielded a 13-year-old male suspect. A 17-year-old male was found hiding in the woods by police dogs. The electronic equipment was recovered.

"It's a great testament to today's modern technology," said Volusia County Sheriff's Office spokesman Brandon Haught.

— Thanks to Out There reader Ken T.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — It's not often someone asks police to arrest him, but that's what happened last week in Williamsport.

Police say 27-year-old Patrick McCarty did just that before 1 a.m. on July 6.

McCarty allegedly told police he wanted to be arrested "for being stupid."

When police told him that wasn't a crime, he took police to his apartment and handed over marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

McCarty is being held now in lieu of $10,000 bail on drug charges.

— Thanks to Out There reader Sarah S.

Woman Gets In Trouble for Thinking of Baiting Tiger

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A woman who offered to use her 5-month-old pig as bait to lure a tiger that escaped from the home of an actor who once played Tarzan will be cited for animal cruelty, officials said.

Linda Meredith, of Loxahatchee, put the pig in the trunk of her car and drove to the neighborhood where officials were searching for the tiger shortly after she heard of its escape.

Meredith asked officers to grab the hind legs of the pig, named Baby, or twist its ears so it would squeal and attract the tiger. The officers declined her offer.

Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control Director Dianne Sauve said Meredith will be cited for transporting the pig in her trunk.

"I was appalled," Sauve said. "Carrying an animal in a trunk in 90-degree heat, where it's probably 140 degrees inside, is not acceptable."

Suave said she planned to meet with county sheriff's officials Thursday to determine specific charges.

Meredith said the trunk of her Cadillac is air conditioned, and she was planning to eat the pig when it is full grown.

"I can't believe they have the gall," she said. "I was just trying to help the tiger find his way back home."

Following a 26-hour search, the tiger, which belonged to actor Steve Sipek, was shot and killed Tuesday after lunging at a wildlife officer.

Ring Gets Back Into Family After 60 Years in Ground

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A 1937 Burlington High School class ring is going to be returned to a descendant of the woman who apparently lost it in her backyard decades ago.

Beverly Mae Lord and her family lived for a time in the 1940s at the house where the ring was found earlier this year by the current owner, who dug it up while gardening.

Dori Weigand, who found the ring, said she believed the owner must have been a woman because the tiny ring hardly fit on her pinkie finger. The initials "BML" offered the only clue.

Weigand called The Burlington Free Press where an investigation using an old BHS yearbook, a marriage record, an online Social Security database and old issues of the newspaper led to the identity of the ring owner and her children.

"Oh, my God!" said Lord's younger daughter, Linda Rosario of St. George, Vt., when told about the discovery of the ring. "I bet she lost that years, years ago."

Lord married Larry Smith in 1940 and the couple had two daughters. Rosario said her father owned different gas station/repair garages in the area, and the family moved around Burlington several times.

Eventually, the two-story home with a carriage house in the rear passed out of the Lord-Smith family, Rosario said.

"She always worked in the garden," said Jean Sieving, Smith's older daughter, from her home in Fremont, Ohio. "She was always gardening."

Larry Smith died early in 1992. Beverly Smith died in 1999.

"It was probably just one of those things that was long forgotten," Sieving said of the class ring.

Forgotten, perhaps, but no longer lost. Weigand said she's going to arrange a meeting with Rosario so she can give the ring to its rightful owner.

"It'll get to be in its family again," Weigand said. "I'm just so happy that it's been recovered from the ground. It's sort of a resurrection."

Great-Great-Granddaddy Was a Ruthless Barbarian

LONDON (AP) — A London restaurant offered male diners the chance to learn whether they were descended from the rampaging Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (search ) — and win a free meal in the process.

"We've had Mongolian people who've traveled across London to give us their details," said Hugo Malik, bar manager of Shish (search ), which gave away one DNA test at each of its two London branches for a week.

"They said, 'Granddad always used to tell us we were descended from Genghis Khan.'"

Granddad may have been right. Oxford Ancestors (search ), the firm that is doing the testing, says as many as 17 million men in Central Asia share a pattern of Y chromosomes within their genetic sequences, indicating a common ancestor.

Since Genghis Khan conquered vast tracts of Asia and Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries and sired many offspring, it was assumed that the men share his genetic fingerprint.

"He was an all-conquering tribal leader," said David Ashworth, a geneticist and chief executive of Oxford Ancestors. "He took their cities, he took their land, he took their women."

Oxford Ancestors offers DNA testing to people seeking to trace their genetic roots.

The Genghis Khan test is part of a plan to map patterns of Y chromosomes, the genetic material handed down from fathers to sons that changes little over generations.

Women have two X chromosomes, while men carry one X chromosome and one Y — so only men can take the Genghis Khan test.

"At certain markers on the Y chromosome, if it matches the Genghis Khan pattern, then on the balance of probability you are descended from the Great Khan," Ashworth said.

Shish, which specializes in grilled kebabs, said it was offering the tests to honor Mongolia's decision to reintroduce surnames, banned under the former Communist government.

Genghis Khan's descendants should "feel a sense of pride that they are descended from such a successful leader of men," Ashworth said.

Men who have the "Genghis Chromosome" will get a free meal at Shish.

Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.

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