Crime Blotter: Pig Fights Off Robbers

— -- Beware of Pig

MINNEAPOLIS — This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, but Arnold, he became the crime-fighting pig of Clinton Avenue.

The 300-pound pet became a star attraction of the Minneapolis neighborhood after he saved his owner's bacon last February when two men accosted in her garage.

"I had left the side door open," his owner, Becky Moyer, said. "Pretty soon I felt this thing in my back like a gun." They went into the kitchen where Arnold was lying on the floor, and when Moyer began screaming, the pet pig sprang into action.

"He swung around and grabbed the guy right in the calf muscle." The man yelled, "There's a [expletive] pig in here!" and they ran out, Moyer said. Her other porcine pet, a 165-pound purebred Vietnamese pot belly named Axel, cowered under a chair.

"He was squealing as loud as I was," the 54-year-old remembered.

Police haven't arrested anyone in the incident, but it helped Arnold win an award from the Minneapolis police department, and made him a mascot in the crime-plagued Stevens Square neighborhood where Moyer lives.

"Everybody in the community knows him," she said. "They bring him all kinds of treats."

She explained she received Arnold about a year ago, as a gift from a "romantic friend." He was only 10 pounds at the time, she noted.

Moyer says she still doesn't have an alarm system for her home, but feels safe with Arnold around. And for those concerned about their own safety at home, she has some advice: "Buy a pig."

Stop! Thief! Come Back With That Garage!

DETROIT —

Becky Moyer confronted thieves hiding in her garage, but four people in a Detroit neighborhood were apparently more ambitious: they tried to steal an entire garage.

Residents in the east-side community near Detroit City Airport said that the group - three men and a woman - hoisted the white, two-car garage onto a Ford truck and tried to drive off.

"What they did was jacked it up put it on a truck and pulled out and left it there," said Chris Gaddis, a neighbor. "I guess when it hit the curb it got stuck."

"They were stealing the whole garage, the whole garage was on the back of a pick up, they had it jacked up and everything," said another neighbor, Kim Turner. "It was just unbelievable."

The group abandoned the garage in the middle of the street and drove off after the structure's support beams began to collapse.

No one was injured in the incident and no arrests have been made.

"There's an investigation going on," said Officer Robert Carlton, a Detroit police spokesman.

Residents and police say thieves have stolen aluminum siding from vacant homes and buildings in the area, and suspect the garage-nappers may have hoped to salvage parts off the structure.

Crying Foul

HILTON HEAD, S.C. —

A robber broke into sobs as held up an art store in Hilton Head, S.C., police say, but they were apparently only crocodile tears.

Earl Lee Swinton is expected in court this Friday to face armed robbery charges stemming from the heist earlier this month in the coastal resort town.

As he demanded money from the owner of the ArtWare store, Swinton gave an emotional explanation for his actions, saying he needed $250 to make a payment on the trailer he shared with his three children, police and the owner said.

The shop owner said Swinton appeared genuinely upset. He began to cry, she said, when she gave him $260 and told him to use the extra $10 to take his children to a Dairy Queen. He had told the woman he was carrying a gun, but as they continued to talk, he admitted he wasn't armed.

The store owner, who asked not to be identified, told Swinton he could pay her back later. She convinced him to sign an I.O.U. slip and leave his watch as collateral.

Authorities say, however, that Swinton simply made up his sob story, and they believe he does not have any children. When the shop owner called police, they found the suspect had just bought cigarettes and beer with the money.

"The weeping robber is a liar," said Beaufort County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Szpanka, noting that Swinton has been convicted of robbery and domestic abuse.

She said that apparently Swinton had intended to use to the money as partial payment to a girlfriend who spent $1,000 to bail him out of jail on an unrelated charge.

Crime Blotter, a weekly feature of ABCNEWS.com, is compiled by Oliver Libaw. ABCNEWS affiliate WXYZ in Detroit contributed to this report.