Newshound

Drug Dealer Calls Police When Robbed

A LONG Island man had to know he would be arrested when he called the police to report he had just been robbed during a drug deal that went wrong.

Nassau County Police say 23-year-old Christopher Canonico called the police at 8pm last Wednesday to say he had just been robbed in North New Hyde Park.

Police say Canonico was set up by two women who agreed to buy heroin at a local gas station. While they were sitting in Canonico's car, a third person with a gun came up to the car and robbed him of $340, a mobile phone and wallet.

Police say Canonico is charged with criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance. The women and man with the gun are charged with robbery.
 
Man Makes Over 6,000 Obscenity-Laden Calls

A ROMANIAN man has been fined for making 6,442 profane phone calls to an emergency number, police said last Thursday.

The 24-year-old man, who lives in a village in southern Romania, was identified in February and fined $223 in April after a check-up showed he was mentally sound, said Daniela Salaoru, police spokeswoman for Ialomita county police.

Police did not identify the caller. But the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper said he was a well-digger, and reported that he called the 112 emergency number from November to January to swear at the operators. He used a prepaid mobile phone, which does not immediately make it possible to identify the caller, it said.

The newspaper said he denied he was the culprit. It reported that his mother said he was a loner and that she saw him talking on the phone a lot, but did not know with whom.

Romanian authorities say that over 90 percent of calls to 112 are hoaxes or non-emergencies. In November, the European Union, which Romania joined in 2007, threatened legal action against Romania for deficiencies in its 112 system, mainly the failure to locate callers who use mobile phones.

Romanian authorities say the system will begin to locate mobile callers this summer.
 
Burning Love

LAWRENCE WATERHOUSE pulled out all the stops — and all the candles — when he proposed marriage to his girlfriend in the gazebo outside his suburban home.

"He had set it up very, very nicely," New York Fire Chief Andy Metz said Thursday. "He had candles in the trees, candles and dogwood petals along the path, a chandelier with votive candles."

Waterhouse's girlfriend said yes to the romantic Wednesday night proposal, and the couple left town early Thursday for a holiday, Metz said. Unfortunately, at least one of the candles stayed lit.

"We got the call about 7:15am, and when I got there five minutes later the gazebo was fully involved in flames," the chief said. "Luckily, nothing else burned."

Metz tracked down Waterhouse at a JFK Airport and told him about the fire, but advised him to continue with his trip.

"Nobody was hurt, so I told him to go ahead with his vacation," the chief said. "He gave me his brother's number, and the brother told me about the proposal."

The chief said the fire was "a unique event."

"We've had candle fires, of course, but I can't remember one at this level of romance."