News From the Crime Blotter
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L A S V E G A S
A 31-year-old Las Vegas man found at theairport with lizards in his underwear was fined $500 and sentencedto three years probation for smuggling.
Don D. Astorga, an auto detailer and reptile collector, offeredno explanation before or after his sentencing on Friday about why he was traveling with nine dead and three live lizards in his pants. Two of the lizards were monitors —a federally protected species.
Astorga was arrested June 9, 1999, at McCarran International Airport by a Las Vegaspolice detective who later testified he became suspicious aboutstrange bulges in Astorga’s crotch.
A voluntary search turned up 12 young lizards and an egg wrappedin tube socks. The longest of the animals was about 12 inches long,police said. The three that survived the airplane trip later died.
Astorga provided various accounts of where he got the animals,saying first that he obtained them in the Philippines and laterthat he bought them at a pet store in Los Angeles, police said.
Las Vegas, Reptile Capital
L A S V E G A S
Sending stuff via e-mail and snail mail isfine. Using snake mail, on the other hand, isn’t.
Edward Tierney, 73, was found guilty Tuesday of two misdemeanorsfor mailing a venomous rattlesnake to an undercover law enforcementofficer in Pennsylvania.
Tierney was accused of violating Nevada law by transporting andselling a rattlesnake without the permission of the NevadaDepartment of Wildlife.
Robert Croll, an officer with the Pennsylvania Fish and BoatCommission who was posing as a customer, paid $204 for tworattlesnakes after responding to an ad Tierney placed on theInternet last year.
Tierney mailed the first snake to Croll in a small cardboard boxon Aug. 5, 1999, evidence showed. Two more followed.
Tierney will be sentenced March 6. Public defender ReneValladares said his client plans to appeal.
Adding Insult to Robbery
A L B U Q U E R Q U E, N.M.
When it comes to describing bank robbers, the FBI has been known to be less than tactful.
The agency is looking for a woman with “a bad hairdye job and a very large derriere” and a man with “an unusually large nose” as suspects in three Monday bank robberies, Supervisory Agent Doug Beldon said.
Beldon said the woman, wearing a darkknitted cap, dark slacks and a red Christmas-decorated sweater,robbed a Bank of America in the early afternoon. A woman who robbeda First Security Bank around 2:15 p.m. matched the descriptionexcept that she was wearing a white hat and coat, he said.
The woman was described as being in her 30s and about 5-foot-2 and 165pounds.
The man, meanwhile, robbed a Wells Fargo Bank around noon, lessthan a block from the Bank of America robbed by the woman.
Conclusive Proof of Innocence
D O N I P H A N, Mo. Authorities dismissed murder chargesagainst two young men who had bragged about killing a man and buryinghim in the Mark Twain National Forest, after their “victim” wasfound alive in Arkansas.
Last month, Adam W. Wuesthoff, 17, and Karl R. Wright, 20, werecharged with first-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old PaulHiggs, who had not been seen for several weeks following anargument with the suspects outside the southeast Missouri town.
“One of the suspects told more than one person that he had shotand killed Paul Higgs and buried him in the woods,” Ripley CountySheriff Mike Cochran said. “That’s where we got started.”
Police spent five days looking for a body, but were unable tofind one. Still, murder charges were filed against Wuesthoff andWright. They were dismissed Tuesday when Higgs was discoveredliving in Arkansas.
“I met with him and talked with him,” Cochran said. “He wasoff in Arkansas and didn’t know anyone was looking for him.”
Cochran described Higgs as a loner who had been living with one ofthe suspects in late October but was asked to leave. Cochransaid Higgs told police both suspects fired shots at him before heleft.
Crime Blotter is a weekly feature of ABCNEWS.com. This week’s briefs came from The Associated Press.