Massachusetts police are investigating the discovery of large quantities of drugs found inside merchandise from two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, local police said Wednesday.

According to the Tewksbury Police Department, a contractor late last week discovered two 50 pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at a Home Depot (Research) store in Tewksbury, said Chief of Detectives Lt. Dennis Peterson.

The estimated street value of the marijuana is around $145,000, Peterson said.

Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the state. According to the Southwick Police Department, a plumber on Monday purchased a vanity in western Massachusetts in which he later found 3 kilograms of cocaine and around 40 pounds of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.
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Tewksbury Police and DEA officials conducted a search Tuesday of around 12 Home Depot stores statewide and found other bathroom vanities that contained drugs, Peterson said, though he would not elaborate on how many items were discovered.

In each incident being investigated by Tewksbury Police, all of the merchandise boxes originated from a Texas location and were distributed through one undisclosed Massachusetts warehouse, Peterson said.

“I’m sure the packages were being shipped to the distribution center and someone was supposed to intercept them,” Peterson said. “So that person either wasn’t on duty that day or the packages were marked wrong.”

Via CNN

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Illusionist David Copperfield magically escaped getting robbed.

After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts center Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car, the police report said.

Two armed robbers allegedly got out of the car demanding the group’s belongings. An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with 200 euros, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield refused to empty his pockets, the report said.

Copperfield said he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“Call it reverse pic-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the license plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested shortly after and the assistants’ property recovered. They were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

[Source: AP]

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BEIJING – Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing’s heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China’s capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city’s skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to “alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality,” Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north. Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

[Source: AP]

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of “Wild Hogs,” a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group’s use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell’s Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the “Wild Hogs” movie.

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OLDEN TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) — A man was shot and injured when his hunting partner mistook his elbow for a squirrel, authorities said.

Michigan State Police said George Arthur Sikkenga, 64, of Muskegon, Michigan was wounded Sunday morning in Golden Township, in Michigan’s west-central Lower Peninsula.

Sikkenga was wearing camouflage clothing except for an orange hat, which he had covered with a hood after sitting down behind a tree, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.

His clothed elbow was all of him that was visible when his friend, Gregory Scott Wood approached from behind the tree and fired his weapon, which the Ludington Daily News described as a .17-caliber rifle.

Sikkenga was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Police were investigating the shooting.

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SHERIDAN, Colorado (AP) — A couple planning to set off their own Super Bowl pyrotechnics accidentally blew up their own car while transporting a balloon filled with an explosive gas.

Norman Frey, 46, and his companion suffered busted eardrums in the explosion Sunday as they drove to a party for Super Bowl XL, according to the Arapahoe County sheriff.

The balloon had been filled with acetylene, a flammable gas used in welding, and it had rolled across the back seat, possibly causing static electricity that ignited the gas.

The explosion broke windows, bent doors outwards and pushed up the roof about a foot.

“Looking at the car closely, it’s amazing that these people weren’t killed,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.

Several people reported the explosion, but when a deputy arrived, Frey and the woman had abandoned the vehicle.

The license plate led them to Frey, who faces a felony charge of possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices. The woman will not be charged, authorities said.

[Via CNN]

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PRINCETON, Minn., Jan. 31 (UPI) — Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape.

Sharkey is wanted in Indianapolis on the charges on which bond has been set at $100,000, the Princeton (Minn.) Union-Eagle reported.

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey’s arrest Monday.

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Specifics of the Indiana charges against Sharkey were not known immediately.

[see story]

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