Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know you Needed

Chicago police officers lose case and $7.7 million for false arrest
CHICAGO — A nurse who helped a Chicago police officer from a wrecked squad car and was later accused of stealing a weapon has been awarded $7.7 million by a federal jury for false arrest.
In November 2002, a car ran a stop sign in Rachelle Jackson's neighborhood, slamming into a squad car. According to her attorney, Jackson, who was walking nearby, found the officer behind the wheel unconscious and the passenger, Officer Kelly Brogan, dazed.
She pulled Brogan from the wreckage. Soon after, police approached Jackson and told her that the driver's weapon had been stolen.
Jackson was accused of the theft. She was charged and spent more than 10 months in the Cook County Jail awaiting trial. Her case was later thrown out by a judge and Jackson sued the city of Chicago.
Defense attorney Andrew Hale said the amount the jury awarded Jackson was "excessive."
Click here to read more on this story from The Chicago Tribune.
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Man wore a diaper full of heroin
Frank Keys Jr. faces up to 40 years in prison after he was found cruising down the highway with more than 200 grams of heroin in the diaper he was wearing, federal officials said.
Keys, 38, of New Orleans was charged Friday by a federal grand jury. He got in trouble June 3 in St. John the Baptist Parish, north of New Orleans, when sheriff's deputies pulled over the car he was in for a traffic violation, according to court documents.
The deputies and Drug Enforcement Agency special agents got permission to search the car, and a drug sniffing dog alerted them to the car's passenger side.
The occupants were ordered out of the car, and patted down. During the pat-down, "officers felt a large hard object in the pants area on Keys," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.
Keys told officers he was wearing a diaper and when they asked if there was anything in the diaper, he "shook his head affirmatively."
Officers then removed a package containing about 257 grams of heroin from the diaper.
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Man gets 3 years in prison for stealing 840 frozen pizzas
HAMILTON — Steven Proffitt, 47, pleaded guilty last week to breaking and entering spanning three years. He cut locks off refrigerated trucks at Kraft Foods in Monroe and loaded hundreds of pies into his pickup truck.
On July 5, 2006, 240 frozen pies were stolen. Another 240 were taken Feb. 9, 2007. On Feb. 16, 252 were stolen and on March 21, he loaded 108 DiGiorno rising crust pizzas into his Chevy S-10, according to court records.
Monroe police were alerted about a theft in progress the night of March 21. Proffitt, in his truck loaded with pizzas, sped past officers, eventually crashing into a fence. He managed to eluded them, leaving behind the truck, pizzas, chain cutters and tools.
Two days later, he reported his truck stolen to the Butler County Sheriff's Office. Police arrested him a few days later at a residence in New Miami.
"We have him and his truck on tape," county assistant prosecutor Jason Phillabaum said.
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Robbers Fleeing Police End Up In Freezer
East Price Hill, Ohio -- A pair of robbers in Ohio on Friday discovered it's best to know the layout of the place you're robbing.
Police said the two men entered a Domino's Pizza and demanded money.
A witness saw what was happening and flagged down two police officers from a district headquarters -- which was just down the block.
When police arrived, they said Marcus Brewster, 21, and a 16-year-old boy tried to run out of the store. Instead, police said, they ran into a freezer, where they were arrested moments later.
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Mysterious 'Gas Men' dole out cash at the pumps
Plainville, Conn. They don't climb tall buildings in a single bound, but the mysterious "Gas Men" are super heroes to some fed-up motorists. The unknown duo were dressed in sunglasses, baseball caps, khakis and matching green golf shirts when they gave Gayle Kilburn a $100 bill on Thursday as she filled up her car at a Citgo in Plainville.
They also handed her a card that read "Re-Fueling Our Community" and was signed "The Gas Men."
Kilburn says she was stunned by the gesture and at first thought it was a stunt with Monopoly money. She later realized it was real cash and used it to fill her tank.
She said the Gas Men also helped five or six other customers.