Mid-Daily Items: Fire destroys topless coffee shop

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The Associated Press

June 8, 2009

Anonymous The Daily Item Mon Jun 08, 2009, 10:49 AM EDT

Donald Crabtree, of Vassalboro, Maine, went to local official last Wednesday about making his coffee shop more like a strip club. A deliberately set fire destroyed his home and business — a topless coffee shop — just hours after he made his pitch to the local officials. He hopes to rebuild but until he does he is going to have clothed waitresses collect donation in the parking lot. Under town zoning rules, Crabtree would need a new permit to start operating his business from a trailer or other structure on the property in Vassalboro, just north of Augusta. Crabtree tells the Kennebec Journal newspaper he’s going to set up a tent instead and have employees hand out free doughnuts and coffee next to a collection jar.

— If you plan on robbing a bank make sure your getaway car has enough gas. Authorities say they’ve arrested two suspected bank robbers after their getaway vehicle ran out of gas. Daytona Beach (Fla.) police say 38-year-old Randall Fredric Walker went into the Riverside National Bank last week and demanded money from a teller. After leaving the bank with the money, authorities say Walker jumped into a Jeep Cherokee driven by 35-year-old Jason Warren Dietrich. The two didn’t get far before the vehicle ran out of gas. The men got out of the sport utility vehicle and left the area separately. But police found the abandoned SUV and traced it back to Dietrich, the registered owner. Both men face bank robbery charges. They were being held on $50,000 bail.

— Moms if you don’t want your daughter dating someone try to be tactful about it. Authorities in Adelanto, Calif., arrested a woman for allegedly trying to kidnap her daughter’s boyfriend and haul him away to Northern California. A sheriff’s spokeswoman said that two women went to the young man’s home and tried to tie him up with duct tape. The victim told authorities the women said they were taking him to get him away from one of the women’s 21-year-old daughter. Authorities said both women were arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping. Officials said the girlfriend was later arrested for investigation of dissuading a witness and extortion for allegedly trying to get her boyfriend to recant his statements on the kidnapping to authorities.

— It is never to late to graduate. A 90-year-old suburban Chicago woman who dropped out of school to help her family during the Great Depression now has her high school diploma. Eleanor Benz left Chicago Public Schools’ Lake View High in 1936 during her senior year to take a job. Over the following decades she moved to the suburb of Gurnee and had 15 children, 54 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Benz attended night school for typing and bookkeeping, but she recently told one of her daughters that never completing high school was one of her greatest disappointments. Her children contacted Lake View, and the school approved Benz’s diploma. Last week, at her 90th birthday party, Benz’s family presented her with the diploma and a 2009 gown and cap with a 1936 tassel. Congratulations Eleanor.

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Mid-Daily Items Blog

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Mid-Daily Items: Fire destroys topless coffee shop Donald Crabtree, of Vassalboro, Maine, went to local official last Wednesday about making his coffee shop more like a strip club. A deliberately set fire destroyed his home and business — a topless coffee shop — just hours after he made his pitch to the local officials.

— If you plan on robbing a bank make sure your getaway car has enough gas. Authorities say they’ve arrested two suspected bank robbers after their getaway vehicle ran out of gas.

— Moms if you don’t want your daughter dating someone try to be tactful about it. Authorities in Adelanto, Calif., arrested a woman for allegedly trying to kidnap her daughter’s boyfriend and haul him away to Northern California.

— It is never to late to graduate. A 90-year-old suburban Chicago woman who dropped out of school to help her family during the Great Depression now has her high school diploma. Eleanor Benz left Chicago Public Schools’ Lake View High in 1936 during her senior year to take a job.

June 8, 2009 1 Photo
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