TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Not only did Mayor Bill Bunten miss a tree while throwing a snowball at it, he also violated a city ordinance.

Kristen Aberle, of Thawville, Ill., wrote to Bunten after the little-known Topeka ordinance was pointed out as a “Dumb Law” in her government class.

“I thought somebody was pulling my leg,” the mayor said. “But I checked, and she’s actually right.”

Bunten admitted his fastball missed the tree by about 30 feet, but he said that didn’t make his crime any less serious.

“After I write to you, I am going to the police station and report myself and throw myself on the mercy of the court,” Bunten said in a letter dated Dec. 27. “After that, I’m going to have an ordinance drawn up to repeal this Dumb Law lest our already-crowded prisons are filled up with children who, while making a snowman, got carried away and had a snowball fight.”

Violators could be fined up to $499 and jailed for 179 days for breaking the rule, which also prohibits stones and “other missiles.”

Bunten said he asked the city’s attorney “to draw up an ordinance to delete that part of it about snowballs.”

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MOUNT GILEAD, Ohio (AP) – A pair of bank robberies proved that blood isn’t always thicker than water.

A woman helped police arrest her brother in a 2001 heist after they charged her with robbing the same bank three years later.

Tricia Owens, 33, of Edison, told police she got the idea from her brother after she was charged with robbing the First Federal Bank in Mount Gilead, about 40 miles north of Columbus.

She agreed to record conversations with her brother, Rodney Houghton II, which led to his Dec. 21 arrest.

Houghton, 30, was charged with aggravated robbery in the Nov. 19, 2001 stickup after authorities searched his Columbus home. He is free on bond pending a grand jury review.

Owens was convicted of aggravated robbery in the Sept. 9, 2004 holdup. She is serving a five-year prison sentence.

“It’s not unusual to charge siblings with the same crime,” police Chief Brian Zerman said Tuesday, “but it’s usually at the same time and not three years apart.”

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VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Authorities are putting the bite on the city’s new dog owners starting next week.

Under new city laws, liability insurance will be mandatory for Vienna dog owners who have canines born after Jan. 1.

Policies must have minimum coverage of $864,000. They are meant to pay for legal, hospital or other costs arising from any damage or injury caused by the dogs.

Those caught without insurance could be forced to pay fines of more than $4,000.

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MEDINA, Ohio (AP) – It could have been a perfect getaway. After all, who would suspect that a person with a purloined roast would flee in a stolen golf cart?

Samuel Dottore, 45, told a judge he intended to drive the cart about 40 miles from Medina to his home in Cleveland.

Dottore even stopped for gas. But police searching for him as a suspect in the swiped meat nabbed him and the frozen roast.

Dottore pleaded guilty to theft Tuesday in Medina County Common Pleas Court. He was released on bond until his sentencing, which is set for Feb. 13.

About two months ago, Dottore met a couple in a bar the same day he was released from jail after serving a sentence for petty theft. The couple told police they invited Dottore to their home and were later driving him to a motel when he pulled out the frozen meat. They said they dropped him along a roadside and returned home.

Police said Dottore then stole a golf cart from King George Service Co. and tried to ride out of town on it.

Dottore does not have a listed telephone number and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Paul Grant, declined comment Wednesday.

AP-ES-12-30-05 0724EST

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