$6-heist

THERMAL, California (AP) — They say crime doesn’t pay. For one robber in California, it did-but not much.

Authorities in Riverside County say a woman with a gun robbed 11 customers at a market and got away with $6.

A Sheriff’s Department statement says the woman was armed with a semi-automatic pistol when she went to La Chicanita Market in the town of Thermal on Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela says the woman confronted 10 customers in the store and also demanded money from one person who was entering the market. She then fled in an old car.

Nobody was hurt.

‘Midnight Knitter’

WEST CAPE MAY, New jersey — Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town.

An unknown person dubbed The Midnight Knitter by West Cape May residents is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness.

Mayor Pam Kaithern says police are looking into the guerrilla crocheting, which technically is against the law because it is being done on public property without permission.

The mayor and many residents admit they’re enthralled by the rainbow of colors that has popped up.

Resident Susan Longacre takes a walk each morning in Wilbraham Park, where several tree branches and light poles have gotten the treatment. She thinks it’s great.

Even those who aren’t thrilled admit the yarn is better than spray-painted graffiti.

Book 45 years overdue returned to library

LONDON, England (AP) — It’s common to return a library book late-but not by half a century.

Staff at a British library say they were surprised and puzzled when they received a book that was 45 years overdue through their mailbox.

Alison Lawrie, the principal assistant at Dinnington Library, near northern England’s Sheffield, says the Penguin first edition copy of “Quartermass and the Pit” by Nigel Kneale was due back on October . 15, 1965.

She says the borrower remains a mystery because the library records don’t go back that far, and the sender didn’t attach a letter or note with the book.

Lawrie said Friday the sender need not worry about a hefty fine.

She says: “If the person who returned the book wants to come forward, we’d love to know the story behind it.”

A deadly practice

LANCASTER, Massachusetts — Maple syrup producers are under fire for tapping maple trees in Central Massachusetts cemeteries.

The Worcester Telegram reports last Monday that at least two cemeteries in Lancaster and one in Petersham have sap buckets on trees that stand along side rows of tombstones.

Athol Public Works Director Douglas Walsh said a recent investigation of tapped trees in Chestnut Hill Road Cemetery found that the culprits were neighbourhood kids.

In Lancaster’s Old Settlers and Eastwood cemeteries, the Lancaster Cub Scout Pack 9 tapped trees as part of a project after receiving permission.

But Lancaster selectmen said they didn’t know cemetery trees would be tapped and they received several calls about it.

Walsh said tapping trees along roads is normal, but in cemeteries it’s “a little tacky”.