Thieves

CLEVELAND (AP) — Thieves have returned a historical marker that stood near the Cleveland house where two high school classmates created the Superman character in 1933. The executive director of the Glenville neighborhood's development corporation, Tracey Kirksey, tells The Plain Dealer newspaper the undamaged marker was left outside a fire station and found by police Monday morning. The marker honors Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. A saw was used to remove the aluminum plaque from atop a pole last month.

Police are calling the theft of 76 catalytic converters from an Elkhart company the biggest theft of its kind in the city. The converters were discovered missing Tuesday morning from Glaval Bus, a division of Forest River RV. Company officials said the converters were cut off bus chassis and likely taken by a group of people using power tools. Larry Witmer, Glaval Bus service manager, said each converter is worth about $1,000. While the company's insurance should pay to replace the parts, the theft will cost Glaval production time.

SOUTH BEND - A South Bend woman, fed up with people breaking into her car, is putting her frustrations on display for the entire neighborhood to see. Kerri Curtis, who lives in the 1300 block of Marquette Blvd., posted a large cardboard sign in her yard this week reading: “You stole everything, now leave us alone. " “I'm just trying to let people know that we're tired of our neighborhoods being taken over by criminals,” she said. The most recent break-in occurred on Tuesday, Curtis said, when a thief or thieves stole cigarettes, sunglasses, and mints from her car, which was unlocked and parked in her driveway.

STOCKERAU, Austria (AP) - Austrian police say thieves have made off with an unusual heist - 21 tons of mustard and ketchup. The loot was in a semitrailer parked in a lot over the weekend northwest of Vienna. Police say the truck driver showed up Monday to deliver his cargo only to see the trailer missing. Police assume the thieves were more interested in the trailer than its contents. Authorities had no price tag for the stolen condiments but said the trailer was worth about 15,000 euros - more than $22,000.

DETROIT (AP) - Authorities say thieves crashed a sport utility vehicle through the front of a Detroit gas station, shot a worker inside and stole an ATM. The robbery happened early Monday on the city's east side. The employee reportedly was shot in the arm and was expected to survive. The SUV was left at the gas station. WWJ-AM reports the ATM was later found along with a burned-out vehicle at the Packard plant in Detroit. Police were searching for the thieves.

SOUTH BEND -- A South Bend church is without its sound system Sunday morning after thieves took off with the equipment early Sunday morning. According to a church official, Our Lady of Hungary Church, which is in the 800 block of West Calvert Street, was burglarized early Sunday. Police investigated for quite some time Sunday morning but were not able to pinpoint a suspect. The crime is still under investigation.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. - It's bad enough thieves stole a family's dog, but the kicker is they left a note explaining why.  READ THE LETTER HERE Adriana Perez has her hands full with three daughters ... 14-, 2- and 4-months-old. Then, there's Aspen, an Alaskan Husky. He's like the son she never had. "He likes it when you give him ice cream," said Adriana, Aspen's owner. So where's Aspen now? "I looked out the window, he wasn't there," said Anna Karen Lugo, Adriana's daughter.

Police say thieves walked into the Jared's Galleria of Jewelry at University Park Mall, scoped the place out for 45 minutes, and reached behind the jewelry case to take two diamonds. The entire crime was caught on surveillance cameras. Police say the three suspects cased out two other jewelry stores. Their suspicious behavior there raised a red flag. Two men and a woman walked around these stores and set their coats down on the jewelry counter. Inside two stores, the distraction did not work.

SOUTH BEND -- Crews were on the scene of Concrete Asphalt Recycling in South Bend Sunday attempting to cap a propane leak believed to have been caused by a burglary. According to South Bend Police dispatch, officers were called to the business in the 2900 block of Lathrop Street just before 11 a.m. on the report of a burglary. While police were investigating, it was discovered that a 500-gallon propane tank on the grounds had been damaged by an excavator. It is believed that the person responsible for the burglary crashed the excavator.

ELKHART COUNTY  - A WWII veteran's Purple Heart was stolen from an Elkhart County home. Thieves broke into the home on Thrash Lane where they stole a TV, computers, jewelry and the military medal. "It just makes me mad that someone could come into my house and take his Purple Heart that he fought in World War II for," homeowner Robert Border said. "My wife was going to make a shadow box for him so we could hang it up in his house and now we can't do that. " It was Wednesday afternoon when the Border family found their house in shambles.  The missing Purple Heart belongs to a family friend, 89-year-old Junior Cramer. The Borders only had the medal for a couple of days and were planning to build a display for the medal to give to Cramer as a gift. According to Robert Border, Cramer was in the Army during WWII and received his Purple Heart after he was shot in the back.

SOUTH MILFORD -- Police are trying to figure out why someone would steal a jar of cash meant to help sick children. According to the LaGrange County Sheriff's Department, a pair of thieves worked together to swipe a charity donation jar from a counter at the South Milford Landing gas station and convenience store earlier this week. “I think that's sickening,” said Marsh Miller, a store employee who watched the security camera footage which she said shows a man and woman stealing the money meant to help kids with muscular dystrophy.

WHITE PIGEON, Mich. (AP) - Authorities say a pickup truck with four flat tires that hadn't run for five or six years was reportedly targeted by thieves in southwestern Michigan. MLive.com reports ( http://bit.ly/S72UwN ) Monday that the truck was taken during the last two to four weeks in White Pigeon, about 80 miles south of Grand Rapids. The St. Joseph County sheriff's department says the red, 2000 Dodge had a 100-gallon aluminum fuel tank in its bed along with an aluminum toolbox.

SOUTH BEND - A South Bend woman, fed up with people breaking into her car, is putting her frustrations on display for the entire neighborhood to see. Kerri Curtis, who lives in the 1300 block of Marquette Blvd., posted a large cardboard sign in her yard this week reading: “You stole everything, now leave us alone. " “I'm just trying to let people know that we're tired of our neighborhoods being taken over by criminals,” she said. The most recent break-in occurred on Tuesday, Curtis said, when a thief or thieves stole cigarettes, sunglasses, and mints from her car, which was unlocked and parked in her driveway.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. - It's bad enough thieves stole a family's dog, but the kicker is they left a note explaining why.  READ THE LETTER HERE Adriana Perez has her hands full with three daughters ... 14-, 2- and 4-months-old. Then, there's Aspen, an Alaskan Husky. He's like the son she never had. "He likes it when you give him ice cream," said Adriana, Aspen's owner. So where's Aspen now? "I looked out the window, he wasn't there," said Anna Karen Lugo, Adriana's daughter.

As if Mother Nature wasn't cruel enough to area fruit farmers with warmer temps and then repeated hard freezes after trees budded this spring, someone(s) decided one area farm should have 33 less apple trees. Van Buren County police are reporting Sauer Farms, on 15 th Avenue in Bloomingdale, had 33 Golden Delicious apple saplings uprooted and stolen overnight May 9-10. The trees, roughly 3-feet tall with ¾-inch trunks, were recently planted in the farm's north field near 45th Street and 15 th Avenue.

Police are calling the theft of 76 catalytic converters from an Elkhart company the biggest theft of its kind in the city. The converters were discovered missing Tuesday morning from Glaval Bus, a division of Forest River RV. Company officials said the converters were cut off bus chassis and likely taken by a group of people using power tools. Larry Witmer, Glaval Bus service manager, said each converter is worth about $1,000. While the company's insurance should pay to replace the parts, the theft will cost Glaval production time.

Copper thieves strike again. Police said someone hit a vacant building on Nimtz Parkway in late January, stripping the entire building of its copper wiring. Our source said about a $120,000 worth of copper was stolen. He said the thieves probably got around 20 to $30,000 for it at the scrap yard. The aftermath of the copper robbery was graphic. The wiring was completely cut out of the machinery at the Bowne Printing Company in South Bend. WSBT was told another printing company R.R. Donnelley bought out the Bowne building on Nimtz Parkway in early 2011.

ELKHART COUNTY  - A WWII veteran's Purple Heart was stolen from an Elkhart County home. Thieves broke into the home on Thrash Lane where they stole a TV, computers, jewelry and the military medal. "It just makes me mad that someone could come into my house and take his Purple Heart that he fought in World War II for," homeowner Robert Border said. "My wife was going to make a shadow box for him so we could hang it up in his house and now we can't do that. " It was Wednesday afternoon when the Border family found their house in shambles.  The missing Purple Heart belongs to a family friend, 89-year-old Junior Cramer. The Borders only had the medal for a couple of days and were planning to build a display for the medal to give to Cramer as a gift. According to Robert Border, Cramer was in the Army during WWII and received his Purple Heart after he was shot in the back.

DETROIT (AP) - Authorities say thieves crashed a sport utility vehicle through the front of a Detroit gas station, shot a worker inside and stole an ATM. The robbery happened early Monday on the city's east side. The employee reportedly was shot in the arm and was expected to survive. The SUV was left at the gas station. WWJ-AM reports the ATM was later found along with a burned-out vehicle at the Packard plant in Detroit. Police were searching for the thieves.

STOCKERAU, Austria (AP) - Austrian police say thieves have made off with an unusual heist - 21 tons of mustard and ketchup. The loot was in a semitrailer parked in a lot over the weekend northwest of Vienna. Police say the truck driver showed up Monday to deliver his cargo only to see the trailer missing. Police assume the thieves were more interested in the trailer than its contents. Authorities had no price tag for the stolen condiments but said the trailer was worth about 15,000 euros - more than $22,000.