Bank error in your favor

A New York man who discovered that millions of dollars had mysteriously appeared in his bank account, and withdrew more than $2 million, has been arrested on charges of grand larceny, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Benjamin Lovell, 48, pleaded innocent on Tuesday to charges that he withdrew money from a Commerce Bank account that had been opened by someone with the same name, prosecutors said.

The account belonged to Woodlawn Trustees Inc, a Delaware property management company, and was listed under the name of its finance director, who is also named Benjamin Lovell, court papers said.

Lovell had just $800 in his own Commerce Bank account when he went to make a deposit, but a teller, mistaking the Woodlawn account for Lovell's personal account, told him that his account contained more than $5 million, prosecutors said...

--Reuters

Georgia brewheisters steal 2,600 cases of beer

Sounds like some south Georgia crooks have been stocking up for a big holiday bash.

Thieves took tractor-trailers loaded with beer and swiped the suds twice within the past week, authorities said.

Dougherty County authorities are investigating a report of a missing 53-foot-long trailer that was loaded with more than 2,300 cases of beer. Police said the beer disappeared sometime between Dec. 21 and Thursday...

--USA Today

Missing Big Boy statue found on top of high school

Students arriving at Gahanna Lincoln High School on Monday morning were greeted by a 7-foot statue of a rosy-cheeked lad that was pilfered from a Frisch's Big Boy restaurant.

The 200-pound fiberglass figure of the chubby boy in red and white suspenders was reporting missing Saturday morning from its concrete base, only to turn up on the roof of the school in the Columbus suburb, police said.

Officers believe it may have been a prank by seniors, Gahanna police Lt. Jeffrey Spence said. No arrests had been made.

A school maintenance crew removed the statue with a forklift and returned it to the restaurant, Spence said. The statue, valued at $7,000, was not damaged...

--USA Today

Man charged with stealing $250,000 worth of Skittles

A little candy can add up to a rainbow of trouble.

A man caught removing tires from a truck has been charged with stealing the tractor-trailer containing $250,000 worth of Skittles, police said.

Seven pallets of the 28 in the truck are still missing, authorities said. Alan Chavez, 22, has been charged with first-degree felony theft. It was unclear Monday whether he had a lawyer...

--CNN

Man accused of stealing 26 cars to see girlfriend

Whenever Antonio Moreno wanted to see his girlfriend, police say, he'd jump in a car and drive right over.

But there was a problem. The 26 cars Moreno jumped into all belonged to someone else, according to authorities who arrested the 31-year-old near his Inglewood home on Wednesday. They said he was behind the wheel of a 1987 Toyota Camry when they found him.

Since January, police said, Moreno had been stealing Toyota Camrys and Nissan Sentras by using a simple device that starts Japanese cars of a certain age. Acting on a tip, members of a regional auto-theft task force took him into custody.

Some cars were stolen in Inglewood and abandoned in Santa Barbara, police said, while others were taken from Santa Barbara...

--USA Today

Woman arrested for shoplifting blames crime on irritable bowel syndrome

A woman arrested for shoplifting has blamed the crime on irritable bowel syndrome, authorities said. Helen Gallo, 61, of Clearwater, was arrested Sunday after allegedly shoplifting from a Cape Coral grocery store, The Daily Breeze of Cape Coral reported.

Gallo reportedly told authorities that she could not wait in line because she has irritable bowel syndrome, according to the newspaper...

--ABC News

Border cops recover 1,000 stolen wedding gowns

U.S. border police found 1,000 wedding gowns stolen from a cancer charity and crammed into a truck trying to get into Mexico, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

The donated dresses were on their way to Los Angeles to a fundraiser for the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation in November when they were stolen in Scottsdale, Arizona, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

Inspectors in southern Arizona recovered the dresses late last week when they inspected a tractor trailer that had been denied entry to Nogales, Mexico, by Mexican customs officials...

--Reuters