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Mike Pingree

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July 15, 2001

IS IT ME, OR DID THE RIDE JUST GET BUMPIER? California police put a spike strip across the road to stop a teenager they were chasing after he stole a sport utility vehicle. The strip flattened the tires, but the kid continued to drive another 12 miles on the rims. 
It was not until the vehicle skidded into the median strip that the kid surrendered.

THANKS FOR THE RIDE: A teenage boy snatched a 79-year-old nun's purse at a shopping center in Dunedin, Fla., and then ran to the nearby highway and flagged down a car to spirit him from the area. Unfortunately for him, he was picked up by retired New York State trooper John Coyne, who is, by nature, a suspicious man. He noticed police activity at the mall, so he took the thief to the motel where he wanted to go, and then returned to the scene of the crime and told the officers. 
The lad was soon arrested.

BUT WE MUST MAINTAIN STANDARDS: Students at a veterinary college in Patna, India, were preparing to blatantly cheat on an exam when school authorities confiscated their books and notes. In response, the angry students attacked the principal, Prof. Mani Mohan Prasad, with hockey sticks, and then, as he tried to drive away, followed him on motorcycles and threw gasoline bombs at his car. 
He suffered burns.

HEY, THERE SHE IS, THAT'S HER! A pistol-wielding woman robbed six banks in Munich, Germany, in less than three hours, but was arrested because the series of alarms brought hundreds of police officers into the area. The endeavor was pretty much doomed from the start. 
She didn't attempt to disguise herself in any way, and, in fact, wore a distinctive black raincoat with yellow and white triangles, which kept her from blending in with the crowds in the streets.

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? It has been a trying time in the very tiny suburb of Lake Okabena, Minn. There has been name-calling, property disputes and a general sense there that the people there just don't like each other. In fact, the wealthy neighbors have been attacking each other with everything from garden hoses to BB guns to pickup trucks. The police chief is mystified, calling the situation "something you would expect in a neighborhood that is not so upscale." It all came to a head when one man made an anonymous complaint to officials that his dentist neighbor drilled people's teeth while drunk.
 The dentistry board found the charge to be unfounded, and the alleged complainant was convicted of criminal defamation.

Mike Pingree writes another Looking Glass column in the Boston Sunday Herald. You can read it by clicking here:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists.html

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