Dispatches from Kentucky

Facebook photo of gas theft from police car leads to arrest

There it was on Facebook for all to see - Michael Baker with a gas can, a siphon hose stuck into a police cruiser and a middle finger raised defiantly.

Among those who saw it were Jenkins Police officials. They arrested 20-year-old Michael Baker on Monday and charged him with theft by unlawful taking.

A marriage proposal in southern Indiana concluded with a shock late Wednesday, when the hot air balloon carrying the future bride and groom hit a power line and knocked the pilot unconscious, a sheriff's office spokesman said.

The airborne proposition was heading for a happy end, as the balloon began to land at about 8 p.m. in Sellersburg, Indiana, just north of Louisville, Kentucky.

"When the basket touched the ground, the female said 'yes' to the engagement," said Major Chuck Adams with the Clark County, Indiana Sheriff's office.

But they had landed on a patch overgrown with tall grass, so the pilot and balloon owner, Dallas Beall, who owns a jewelry store in Louisville, boosted the balloon "and tried to land again, and that's when it hit the wires," Adams said.

The basket holding the passengers made contact with the power lines.

An electric shock knocked Beall out, who fell into the bride-to-be, giving her an electric jolt as well. The future groom gave Beall CPR, possibly reviving him.

"The pilot was conscious when my officers arrived on scene," Adams said.

The pilot and bride-to-be were transferred to local hospitals, said Dennis Blake, emergency dispatcher in Clark County, Indiana.

Both were treated on the scene for burns, said Adams, who did not believe the injuries were life threatening.

A Louisville man was arrested after he stabbed his roommate during a dispute over the cleanliness of the suspect's room, according to police.

Police were called to the home the men shared in the 1700 block of St. Louis Avenue around 9:45 Monday night on a report of a man stabbed in the abdomen. The victim was taken to a hospital. His condition is not known.

Investigators said James M. Stephenson, 51, told them he was tired of his roommate complaining about the state of Stephenson's room, so Stephenson grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed him.

A 36-year-old Louisville man was arrested Saturday morning after police said he set a toilet on fire at a Speedway gas station and claimed he did it for “religious reasons.”

James Crittenden was arrested at a Kroger store next to the Speedway near the intersection of Jane Street and Brownsboro Road. A Louisville Metro police report said after the man set the toilet on fire he was screaming at customers at the Kroger, and when police tried to arrest him, he threatened an officer.

Employees at the Speedway, 2300 Brownsboro Road, told officers that they confronted Crittenden after he set the toilet on fire and he told them he did it “for religious reasons,” the report said. Officers said Crittenden was found with a lighter when he was arrested.

Officers said Crittenden’s eyes were bloodshot and he smelled of alcohol when he was arrested. The incident happened at about 10:07 a.m. Saturday.

Crittenden was charged with public alcohol intoxication, disorderly conduct, terroristic threatening and first degree arson.

Saturday’s incident wasn’t the first time Crittenden had been in trouble with the law in recent days. On July 25 he was arrested at a Value Market on Bardstown Road after being accused of huffing 10 cans of Reddi-wip at the store and saying that the U.S. Constitution gave him the right to do so, an LMPD report said.

Officers reported that Crittenden was “intoxicated on nitrous oxide from huffing the Reddi-wip,” the report said. He had “extremely slurred speech” and was unsteady on his feet, it said.

Crittenden, who had already been banned from the store, was huffing the whipped cream cans in the aisles of the store, which was “causing alarm” to customers, the report said.

The total value of the cans of Reddi-wip was $26.90, and while Crittenden offered to pay for them, officers said he only had $7 in his pocket.

Crittenden told officers that he was huffing the cans in an attempt to “wake up,” and that the Constitution “allows him the authority to huff Reddi-wip,” the report said.

He was arrested and charged with theft by unlawful taking, public intoxication via a controlled substance, second-degree disorderly conduct and third degree criminal trespass.

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. (AP) -- An eastern Kentucky health inspector says he has shut down a restaurant after finding road-kill in its kitchen.

Paul Lawson told WYMT-TV that he went to inspect the Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg after customers complained to the health department that it appeared employees had brought in a dead animal. Lawson said he immediately shut the place down.

Lawson said the restaurant owner's son apparently picked a dead deer up from a roadside and brought it to the eatery. Lawson said the owner reported he didn't plan to serve the animal to customers; he planned to feed it to his family.

The inspector said the owner wasn't aware of health regulations, and will not face any fines.

He said the restaurant can reopen if it passes another health inspection.

Benfolio wrote:Nothing wrong with that, people bring home dead deer all time here.

If you kill a deer with your car, you can claim it with law enforcement. And if you don't want it, anyone else can claim it as well.

Venison is tasty tasty meat.

JaysonAych wrote:"Home" is the operative term. Bringing an animal that was recently struck by a car and left in a ditch from said ditch straight into a restaurant is something else all together.

Call it a mother's intuition, but Kimberly Wilkinson says she knew something wasn't right.

"I waited at his bus stop for over an hour and 15 minutes and his bus never showed," she said.

That's when she says she trusted her gut instinct and made some phone calls to find out what was going on with bus number 1051.

Swerve wrote:I hope they start using that woman's psychic abilities to solve local crimes. She's being wasted stuck at bus stops for hours at a time.