• Obama teleprompter thief gets seven years in prison

    Jason Reed / Reuters file

    President Obama is seen through the screen of a teleprompter as he meets members of the audience following remarks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Jan. 25, 2012.

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A Virginia man was sentenced to seven years in prison for swiping President Obama's teleprompter and a truckload full of other White House press gear.


    Eric Brown pleaded guilty to theft of government property in January. The 49-year-old Richmond man had a history of drug use according to court papers, and was a suspect in about a dozen other truck thefts.  

    “If I had to sum up Mr. Brown’s character, it would be that he’s a thief,” U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney said at the Thursday sentencing, according to The Associated Press.

    Brown picked up the White House communications staff van from a hotel parking lot in October 2011.

    The man did not immediately realize whose van he had stolen until he began unloading the vehicle, prosecutor Laura Taylor said. Brown somehow missed the presidential seals on the exterior of the truck, but realized the mess his sticky fingers had gotten him into when he discovered the teleprompter, sound system, and other press office equipment, she said.

    “The theft of government property is a serious offense,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Roderick Young said. “It’s all the more serious when the property belongs to the White House Communications Agency.”

    Reuters contributed to this report.

  • Skateboarding cad swipes cash from Girl Scouts

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

     

    By Chloe Stepney, NBCLosAngeles.com

    A boy riding on a skateboard snatched more than $550 from a Girl Scout troop Sunday as he rolled by their cookie stand at a San Bernardino County, Calif., grocery store.


    After a full day of selling cookies outside of a Stater Brothers store in Phelan, the scouts began breaking down their selling stand, police said.

    They were nearly done with the task when the teen, who had lingered near the girls' stand, reached out and grabbed their money bag, which contained $552, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Cpl. Randy Naquin said.

    Read more at NBCLosAngeles.com

    One of the girls ran after the thief, but fell down while running and sustained minor scrapes.

    The Girl Scouts told sheriff's investigators that they do not know the boy who stole their money, Naquin said.

    The boy (seen in surveillance video above) was described by Naquin as a white juvenile, wearing a blue beanie and blue-and-grey striped shirt.

    However, Stater Brothers shared surveillance footage with the Sheriff’s Department, which is working to determine whether the video is good enough quality to assist in identifying him, Naquin said.

    “Phelan is a very small community, and pretty much everybody knows each other,” said Naquin, who said a clear photo of the suspect will help officers identify and arrest the culprit.

  • Ex-con robs bank allegedly hoping to get caught

    By Vignesh Ramachandran, Staff Writer, NBC News

    It is usually never a thief's intent to get caught in the act. But for a seasoned robber in suburban Illinois, getting arrested may have been exactly what he wanted, according to local media reports.


    A criminal complaint states 73-year-old Walter Unbehaun entered a bank in Niles, Ill., Saturday morning and gave a teller a note announcing a robbery, the Chicago Tribune reported. The man reportedly revealed a silver gun and told the teller: "I only have six months to live and have nothing to lose. I don't want to hurt you."

    The teller handed over $4,178 in cash, and surveillance cameras at a nearby restaurant captured Unbehaun leaving the scene, according to the Tribune.

    Authorities eventually arrested Unbehaun, of Rock Hill, S.C., on Sunday in North Chicago, the Tribune reported. He had been previously convicted of a 1998 bank robbery, the newspaper added.

    The criminal complaint says Unbehaun told police he wanted to spend the rest of his life in prison, according to the Tribune. He claimed he'd spent most of his adult life in prison and "wanted to go back as he felt more comfortable in prison than out," the complaint reportedly noted.

    This is not the first time someone has asked to be locked up. Last month, a Bremerton, Wash., woman asked a cop to take her to jail even though she hadn't committed a crime, the Kitsap Sun reported. When the officer declined, she hit him in the nose with a soda bottle and was later booked for felony assault, the newspaper added.

    Also last month, police say a 30-year-old homeless man broke windows in a county office building in Troy, N.Y., with the hope to get a year in jail, timesunion.com reported.

  • Report: Suspect in Conn. jeweler murder kills self

    By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

    A man suspected of killing a jeweler in the tony town of Westport, Conn., last month and stealing $300,000-worth of diamonds has killed himself in a Spanish prison, according to The Hartford Courant.

    Andrew Robert Levene, 41, of West Haven had been arrested in Spain and charged with shooting and killing 65-year-old Yekutiel Zeevi at Zeevi’s office in a shopping center on Dec. 8, after pretending to buy several diamonds.

    Levene fled the U.S. on a flight from Philadelphia to the Netherlands and then went on to Spain, authorities alleged.  He was arrested by Spanish national police on Monday, NBC News reported. 

    According to The Hartford Courant, a source said law enforcement officials in Connecticut were notified Thursday that the 41-year-old former Army Ranger had committed suicide. Authorities were trying to determine the cause of death.

    Levene had training in the use of weapons, according to an affidavit and had family members in Connecticut and New York, NBCConnecticut.com reported.

    Read the original story by NBCConnecticut.com 

    Earlier story: Spanish police arrest suspect in shooting of Conn. jeweler

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News