Thieves

Meat thief preys while family prays By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer CEARFOSS - Mike Eby returned home from church on Sunday to find his house had been broken into and his freezer cleaned out. The theft came exactly two weeks after a similar misfortune befell his cousin, who lives a couple of miles away. "That is really weird," Eby said Monday. Eby lost 75 to 100 packages of hamburger and other meat that he recently had butchered, according to Maryland State Police.

Week of Dec. 25, 1955 Measles and mumps chopped several percentage points off the elementary school attendance record here last month. One of the biggest outbreaks of childhood diseases in recent years pulled the county-wide attendance average under last year's November average, school officials reported. Quite a few good watchdogs will not permit any person or animal about the premises without their owner's permission. But Timmy, the pet of the G.H. Smith family, Big Spring, just about takes the cake in this respect.

Shoplifter pulls knife, escapes FREDERICK A shoplifter who produced a weapon Sunday evening fled the Hecht Store in the Francis Scott Key Mall with a bag full of Ralph Lauren polo shirts, Maryland State Police said. Spotted taking the merchandise by security personnel, the man was approached at the door. Two other employees also came to help when the man pulled a hunting knife from his pocket, police said. The robber then grabbed his shopping bag and fled the store, possibly meeting two other men in a gold-colored Toyota Camry.

gregs@herald-mail.com Ron Byrd's used car lot and auto repair center on the Dual Highway has been targeted three times in the last week by thieves, who got away with one pickup truck and two stereos, Hagerstown City Police said Tuesday. A 1978 brown Datsun truck with no license tags was reported stolen Monday morning, said Hagerstown Police Lt. Margaret Kline. Police running a special check Monday night at Byrd Tyre at 1720 Dual Highway found a motor running on another truck, but a police dog scan failed to turn up anyone, Kline said.

Police chief supports Zook in Pa. judicial race To the editor: As the chief of the Shippensburg (Pa.) Police Department and a retired state police sergeant with more than 40 years of combined experience, I write this endorsement. I have had the opportunity to work with many judges in several Pennsylvania counties. Each judge approached his duties in his or her own unique way. No one person is perfect in all they do - neither judge nor police officer. However, there are several qualities I look for in a judge.

As Memorial Day approaches, Tri-State-area cemetery owners are bracing for what has become a morbid holiday tradition: stealing from the dead. "It's about as low as you can go," said Bill Divelbliss, manager of Rose Hill Cemetery on South Potomac Street in Hagerstown. Flower bouquets also have been known to disappear from one gravestone and reappear on another, according to cemetery officials. From Christmas sprays and Memorial Day wreaths to vases of fresh flowers and potted annuals, it seems nothing is sacred to cemetery thieves.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - 'Tis the season for theft, according to local law enforcement officials. And even charities are targeted. On Monday, someone stole a jar of money collected for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program from Wolfe's on the Square in Williamsport. The donation jar was full when it was stolen, said Jack Slick, owner of Wolfe's on the Square. Shoplifting and other thefts always seems to rise during holiday shopping times, Lt. Mark Knight of the Washington County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thieves have stolen a cross in the Mojave Desert that was built to honor Americans who died in war, less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the religious symbol to remain on federal land. The 7-foot-high cross was stolen late Sunday or early Monday by thieves who cut the metal bolts that attached the symbol to a rock in the sprawling desert preserve, National Park Service spokeswoman Linda Slater said. Authorities had no immediate motive for the theft but Slater said possible suspects range from scrap metal scavengers to people "with an interest in the case," Slater said.

scottb@herald-mail.com Thieves described by Martinsburg (W.Va.) City Police Sgt. Brian Yost as "obviously professionals" took jewelry from two businesses in Tri-State area malls Sunday, he said. The unknown thieves took jewelry from Whitehall Jewelers in Martinsburg Mall and Reeds Jewelers in Valley Mall near Hagerstown, Yost said Sunday. The two thefts are believed to be related, Yost and Washington County Sheriff's Cpl. Daniel Faith said Sunday. The crimes also are believed to be related to a reported attempted robbery in a mall in Chambersburg, Pa., on Sunday.

SHENANDOAH JUNCTION, W.Va. -- Like other parts of the country, thieves who steal valuable catalytic converters from cars have struck the commuter train parking lot in Duffields, W.Va., and Jefferson County Sheriff Everett "Ed" Boober told county officials Thursday he is working to combat the problem. The pollution-reducing converters contain platinum and palladium, and have become highly valuable as metal prices climb, officials said. Thieves typically use battery-operated saws to cut the converters from beneath cars, and can fetch up to $300 for the devices, Boober said.