NO SHOES ON THE CARPET!

…….people start buggy-jackin’ the Amish

JAMESPORT, Mo. (AP) — A suspect in a gas station robbery forced an Amish man at gunpoint to use a horse and buggy to take him to a trailer home in Jamesport, where he was found hours later hiding in a nearby shed, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.

Draper Scott Richardson, 26, of Breckenridge, was charged Tuesday with two counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon. Those charges stemmed from the robbery Saturday of a gas station in Chillicothe that led to shots being fired at bystanders and highway patrolmen, officials said.

He was being held at the Livingston County Jail on $1 million bond.

Patrol Sgt. Sheldon Lyon said that after the robbery, civilians chased the men, who had fled on foot, but one of the suspects fired shots at the pursuers.

Troopers took up the chase after the men took off in their car, officials said, and the suspects fired several shots at the officers. Two patrol cars were hit by bullets, the patrol said.

The fleeing car hit spike strips that had been placed in the road and came to a stop. One of the suspects, David Michael Searcy, 22, of Chillicothe, surrendered after a patrolman fired a shotgun at him, the patrol said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Highway Patrol responded to the Jamesport trailer after getting a report of a stolen Amish buggy. The patrol and the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department evacuated nearby homes, blocked off streets and called for a school lockdown as they surrounded the trailer.

Troopers unsuccessfully tried to reach Richardson by phone in the trailer.

After using a bullhorn to order Richardson to come out of the trailer, officers fired about 25 canisters of tear gas into the trailer. An hour later, they found him in a nearby shed.

STLtoday

In case you haven’t seen it…..

This is going to be a hilarious knock-off of There Will Be Blood, which you’ll probably need to see to get most of the humor.

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been moving into a new place over the last couple of weeks.  During this time, I’ve had no Internet and no cable to occupy my free time.  So Friday, I decided it was time to make good on one of my goals for 2008, to read more.  I stopped by Barnes & Noble and picked up two books to start me off, James Patterson’s Cross and Nick Laird’s Utterly Monkey.  I’m a novice reader and had no rhyme or reason to buy either of these books except I’ve been interested in the Alex Cross character simply from the movies or from word of mouth.  And Utterly Monkey was a bargain book that sounded interesting.

So having nothing to do on Saturday but wait for DirecTV to come and tell me that I couldn’t have my satellite due to a big ass tree, I picked up Cross and settled into my oversized leather chair which is almost too comfortable to read in due to me wanting to take a nap.  Wow, that was a really long run on sentence.  The first thing that you notice about the book and probably Patterson’s writing style, is that the chapters are plentiful and generally only lasting 2 or 3 pages.  Patterson also does a good job of sinking you into the story, combining with the short chapters, helps the story flow pretty quick.  Which is good, because if a book doesn’t have my attention within the first 30 pages, I won’t usually continue it.

So Cross is a character continuation from a group of previously published books, most recognizable is Along Came a Spider.  The book switches from a 1st person perspective of the main character, Alex Cross, and a third person of Michael Sullivan.  Alex Cross is a DC cop, FBI agent, and a private practice therapist who juggles the complexities of being a single parent and a top-notch investigator.  The book follows him as he investigates a serial rapist/murderer who may have also been involved in the murder of his wife.  Michael Sullivan is a hit-man, a sadistic killer, and the serial rapist that Cross is hunting.  He also goes by the name, the Butcher of Sligo, for obvious reasons.  His specialty is killing and/or raping young professional women and them having them live in fear that if they talk, he returns with his tool of choice – the scalpel.

The book is intense and I found it hard to put it down once it got going.  Maybe I should have starting reading Patterson’s books when Alex Cross was first introduced.  I’m not sure if they are written in chronological order or as separate stories with the same main character.  I’m sure I’ll find out though as I intend to read the books in series.

Next up, Utterly Monkey.