Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know You Needed

Deputy suspended over Burger King beef

A Florida deputy sheriff was suspended after an incident that began when his wife got the wrong order at Burger King, officials said.

Polk County Deputy Jason Platt was given a 16-hour suspension for asking restaurant employees for their identification and also summoning a Lakeland police officer to get involved in the beef.

"I find it disturbing that a deputy sheriff would tarnish the image of the Polk County Sheriff's Office by getting involved in a dispute over a cheeseburger order at Burger King," Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Widner wrote in a memo on last month's incident.

The incident began when Tara Platt got the wrong order and occurred last month at a Burger King. She called her husband, who contacted Lakeland police and then showed up himself and asked the staff for ID.

"The worker asked why I needed her information," Deputy Platt wrote in his own version of the events. "I advised her it was in reference to the disturbance that occurred with a customer."

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Burglar took empty gumball machine

Police in Ohio is puzzled by a burglar who they say broke into a convenience store and took nothing but an empty gumball machine.

Detective Bob Walton in Martins Ferry says the machine held no coins or gumballs. He also points out that the thief early Thursday didn't touch liquor bottles or cartons of cigarettes displayed nearby.

Surveillance video shows the man hurling a brick or sandstone through a store window, then entering and running directly to the 4-foot-tall gumball machine at the back of the store. He fled through the same window.

Walton says police in the eastern Ohio community along the Ohio River can't figure out a motive.

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Car stolen from NJ in 1975 recovered in Calif.

A classic muscle car stolen from New Jersey's largest city nearly 36 years ago has been recovered on the other side of the country.

A Santa Maria, Calif., man bought the 1969 Chevy Camaro SS from a seller on eBay in February. But Keith Williams contacted the California Highway Patrol after certain features of the car didn't match the model.

Police discovered the vehicle was stolen from Newark, N.J., on July 8, 1975.

The original owner, Janice Maffucci, said the car was stolen from the post office where her father worked. She can't believe the vehicle was recovered.

Maffucci says she plans to sell the car.

Police are tracing the registration in hopes of finding the thief.

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Girlfriend turns in Ho-Hum bank robbery suspect

Investigators say a man suspected in bank robberies in four Western states was turned in by his girlfriend after a failed attempt to win her back.

Adam Lynch confessed to being the so-called "Ho-Hum bandit" to his girlfriend, Julia Lundstrom, at an Irish bar in downtown Denver.

Jefferson County sheriff's investigator Tom Acierno said the relationship was unraveling and they met as Lynch tried to win the woman back.

Lynch reportedly owed Lundstrom more than $11,000 and explained that recent deposits into her bank account came from the sale of stocks and bonds. She didn't buy it and Lynch reportedly confessed to the bank robberies in an effort to come clean.

The FBI believes Lynch hit banks in Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Cheyenne, Wyo.

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