Crime Blotter: Mouse Soup Extortion Plot

— -- A mother and her son allegedly hatch a mouse trap for Cracker Barrel; three bunnies apparently wanted more than Easter eggs in their basket; and Ohio's "panty bandit" may be caught. It's a band of alleged bandits in this week's Crime Blotter.

Alleged Mouse Soup Extortion Plot

N E W P O R T N E W S, Va. — A mother who alleged that she found a mouse in her soup is accused with her son of planting the mouse in an alleged plot to extort money from the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain.

Carla Patterson, 36, and Ricky Patterson, 20, have been charged with attempted extortion and conspiracy to commit a felony after they allegedly tried to force Cracker Barrel to give them money in settlement over the apparently staged mouse soup incident. On May 8, Carla Patterson said she was eating a vegetable soup at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Newport News when she scooped up a small dead mouse.

After the discovery, Cracker Barrel stopped serving its vegetable soup. But a company investigation found that the mouse did not come from the Cracker Barrel kitchen and did not die in the soup. Cracker Barrel officials said their probe found that the mouse succumbed to a fractured skull before it was in the soup, that it didn't have soup in its lungs and that it showed no signs of being cooked.

In statement, Cracker Barrel said Patterson and her son had been in discussions with the company and sought "a large sum of money" in exchange for photographs of the mouse and an admission her son had planted it. These factors all prompted Cracker Barrel officials to take their suspicions to the office of Newport News Commonwealth attorney.

Cracker Barrel said it would resume serving its vegetable soup.

Alleged Bunny Bandits

N A S H U A, N.H. — Three Easter Bunnies apparently wanted more than eggs in their basket.

Nashua, N.H., police say three women — Kari Zeger, Dyanna Seavey and Julie Carder — stole money from a portrait company when they took turns posing as the Easter Bunny in children's photos at a mall. The women worked for the Noerr Programs company, and investigators say they stole more than $3,500 in payments at the Pheasant Lane Mall in March.