Would-Be Robbers Return Wallet to Soldier

(NEWSER) - Thieves in Milwaukee knocked off a jewelry store yesterday—only to be robbed of the loot themselves as they made their getaway, the Journal Sentinel reports. Police say the two suspects were confronted and robbed by at least four men as they left the store. Cops managed to arrest the original robbers, plus two of the others, but the jewels and money have not been recovered. More»

Police see spike in home robberies

(NEWSER) - See those stories about panicked residents of Greece pulling their money out of banks ? Yeah, criminals did, too, and now police are warning people about a wave of break-ins and home invasions, reports Reuters . In fact, police broke up two crime networks from the former Soviet republic of Georgia suspected in 300 Greek burglaries in recent months. More»

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel finds hundreds of cases wrongly downgraded

(NEWSER) - Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn had great news for the city in February: Violent crime had fallen for the fourth straight year. Except it hadn't, reports the Journal Sentinel . Its investigation found that the police department misreported at least 500 incidents since 2009. In many cases, aggravated assaults—which count toward the "violent crime" stat—got downgraded to simple assaults in the record books, even though they clearly met the more serious criteria. The newspaper had FBI crime experts review the cases. More»

100 homes evacuated after dummy Hellfire drops

(NEWSER) - The Army is investigating how a dummy Hellfire missile managed to become detached from an Apache helicopter to fall in a Texas neighborhood on Tuesday. A soldier's kids spotted the missile as it fell into a field around 8pm and told their dad, who contacted the military. Some 100 homes in Killeen, near Fort Hood, were evacuated for close to an hour while Army technicians examined the missile and determined it was inert, reports AP . More»

Barrett aims to unseat Wisconsin governor June 5

(NEWSER) - Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has won a hard-fought primary campaign to become the Democrat who will seek to unseat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election June 5. Barrett—who was defeated by Walker in November 2010—beat nearest rival Kathleen Falk 58% to 32%, despite the millions of dollars labor groups spent in a bid to defeat him, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . With the election just four weeks away, polls show Walker and Barrett in a dead heat, but Walker has raised more than $25 million, while Barrett's campaign now has less than $500,000 on hand. More»