Crime Blotter

--> -- JAIL BAIT

LA CRESCENT, Minn. A man hauling a load of night crawlers said he was kidnapped, held at gunpoint and assaulted by four people who then stole his bait-hook-bound cargo.

An investigation ensued, involving law officials from Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as the FBI.

Ruzdi Veliovski of Ontario, Canada, said that four people hit him in the head and stole his cargo of 250,000 night crawlers in Indiana. He said they let him go and gave him back his van in La Crescent.

Split four ways, that would have been a clean take of 62,500 earthworms each.

But police said Veliovski pulled the old bait-and-switch routine.

He was no victim, police said. He had actually sold his cargo to a bait dealer in Waterloo, Iowa, according to police.

The suspect was charged with filing a false report and obstructing the legal process. He was released on bail.

INFRINGING SYRINGE BINGE

COLUMBUS, Ohio

A sandal-clad woman sitting at a table at the Ohio State University Library was apparently jabbed in the foot with a syringe, authorities said.

The victim, Weidong Zhu, 33, was seated at a table at the main library when she felt liquid on her foot and then sharp pain, said campus police Chief Ron Michalec. When she looked down, she saw a man under the table and blood on her foot.

Dwight Pannell, 35, was stopped as he was leaving the library. Officers found a syringe on him and 17 others in his vehicle, Michalec said.

“It was unprovoked and there’s no real motive at this time,” Michalec said.

The contents of the syringe are still unknown, but authorities said they do not think it was a drug. Zhu was treated at a hospital and released.

Pannell was charged with assault and possession of criminal tools. He could face up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

LIMOUSINE LAWLESSNESS

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

A teenager emerged from a stretch limousine, walked into a Sacramento bank last week and talked to the manager about withdrawing money from a dead relative’s account.