Nation briefs 10/5/06

Thieves use hot-wired forklifts to steal ATMs

PHOENIX -- Leave the gun. Bank robbers have found an easier way to make off with other people's money: Around the country, thieves have hot-wired forklifts at construction sites, chugged up to banks and scooped up their ATMs, with all the cash inside. ATM manufacturers have been working on ways to stop the heists, and sometimes the money involved is so small it hardly seems worth the risk. But that hasn't discouraged thieves this summer in such states as Arizona, California and Georgia. They have pulled off or attempted such thefts at least 21 times this year in the Phoenix area alone. Since the 1990s, thieves have used forklifts to steal ATMs in Indonesia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland and Estonia, as well as the United States.

Mother wants Ga. county to ban Potter books

ATLANTA -- A suburban county is being asked to ban Harry Potter books from its schools. Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction series are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion. Board of Education attorney Victoria Sweeny said that if schools were to remove all books containing reference to witches, they would have to ban "Macbeth" and "Cinderella." "There's a mountain of evidence for keeping Harry Potter," she said, adding that the books don't support any particular religion but present instead universal themes of friendship and overcoming adversity.

Ex-Marine, wife claim Powerball jackpot

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Fort Dodge couple who bought three Powerball tickets during a pit stop for soda came forward Wednesday to claim the $200 million jackpot. Tim and Kellie Guderian bought the winning ticket Sept. 23 at a Kum & Go store in Fort Dodge. They discovered their good fortune the following evening, as Kellie read off the winning numbers to an awe-struck Tim. "What a stroke of luck," Tim Guderian said. "It seemed like a dream." According to the Iowa lottery, the odds of winning were about 140 million-to-1. Tim Guderian, 36, served in the Marines during Operation Desert Storm and works as an automotive detailer in Fort Dodge. His wife is a sales associate at Wal-Mart.

Second judge refuses to dismiss Karr's porn charge

SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- A judge refused Wednesday to grant a second request by the defense to dismiss the child pornography case against the one-time suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. John Mark Karr's lawyers had argued that prosecutors deliberately withheld information they learned from Karr's ex-wife. Lara Knutson had said she wasn't sure that the computer on which the suspected illegal images were found was working at the time investigators seized it. A prosecutor said she hadn't deliberately withheld anything, and Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau agreed, saying Karr "should have had knowledge of the state of the computers," making the defense's reliance on Knutson unnecessary. Last week, a different judge refused to toss out the misdemeanor case after the defense sought dismissal based on a loss of evidence.

Parents charged with kidnapping bride-to-be

SALT LAKE CITY -- A pre-wedding shopping trip for a 21-year-old bride ended with felony charges against her parents, who she says kidnapped her and drove her 240 miles to Colorado, trying to talk her out of the nuptials along the way and holding her until she missed the ceremony. "I've never had a case quite like this," Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson said Tuesday after charging Lemuel and Julia Redd with second-degree felony kidnapping. Bryson said he met with the couple's daughter, Julianna, and her now-husband, Perry Myers, before charging the parents. "It is strange that parents would go to that extent to keep an adult daughter from marrying the man that she had chosen to marry," he said.

-- From wire reports