A Sex Tape, Threats, and Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

The Theft: The slippers, adorned with sequins and glass beads, were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Their whereabouts remained a mystery for 13 years — until the FBI recovered them in 2018.

The Recovery: The agency never disclosed exactly how it tracked down the slippers. The bureau said a man approached the slippers' insurer in 2017 and claimed he could help recover them but demanded more than the $200,000 reward being offered. It took the FBI another year and a sting operation to recover the most famous shoes in cinema.

Perp No. 1: The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, 76, pleaded guilty to theft of a major artwork. He admitted to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum's door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off "one last score" after turning away from a life of crime. According to his attorney, Martin had no idea about the cultural significance of the ruby slippers and had never seen The Wizard of Oz. Really? He reportedly dumped the slippers after someone told him the rubies in them weren't real. He couldn’t tell the “rubys” were sequins-Really? He had the shoes for a total of two days.

Perp. No. 2: Now, six years later, another name has been added to the crime. Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, of Crystal, Minnesota, was charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering. The indictment says that from August 2005 to July 2018, Saliterman "received, concealed, and disposed of an object of cultural heritage," and that Saliterman knew the slippers were stolen and threatened to release a sex tape of a woman and "take her down with him" if she didn't keep her mouth shut about the them. Interestingly enough - even after the slippers were recovered, the FBI told everybody who was involved at the museum to keep their mouths shut about the recovery. The case is still very active

The Slippers: have since been returned to Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who'd loaned the pair to the museum before they were stolen. They are now in the possession of Heritage Auctions and there are plans to take the shoes on a worlds tour before putting them up for auction. Heritage Auctions places the slippers' market value at about $3.5 million. Garland wore several pairs during filming, but only four authentic pairs are known to remain. The other pairs are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, and a private collector. newser.com; mprnews.org

$28,000 Gas Glitch

There's no such thing as a free lunch, or free gas, or maybe there is. For six-plus months, one enterprising woman exploited a glitch via her rewards card that scored her nearly $28,000 in gratis gas.

A software update in. November 2022 at Lincoln's Pump and Pantry in Nebraska managed orders and reward cards, and it was made at the request of customers and staff. Unbeknownst to the company, however, the update was exploitable. It allowed anyone who swiped a rewards card twice to put the pump into a demo mode. From there, the user could pump gas for free.

The station eventually got wind of the work-around and figured out that one card in particular had been used... a lot. Police say it was used more than 500 times between November 2022 and the following June, at which point the station fixed the glitch.

The station estimates that 7,413.59 gallons were pumped via that one rewards card, at a cost of more than $27,800 in total.

The suspect, 45-year-old Dawn Thompson, “shared the exploit with a second woman as well. She paid Thompson $500 to pump $700 worth of gas using her magic card.

Ironically, because the card was not being used in the traditional manor, Thompson only accrued minimal rewards points. 1011now.com

Finders-Keepers

A Connecticut man says it felt like he won the lottery when he discovered a bag with nearly $5,000 in cash lying in a parking lot. So, he decided to keep it. Three months later, Robert Withington, 56, of Trumbull was charged with larceny.

It turns out the bag was marked with a bank's insignia and was found outside the bank. An employee in the Trumbull Tax Collector's office had "inadvertently dropped on the ground outside of the bank" and Withington had picked it up. A police officer had escorted the town employee to the bank, but apparently neither had noticed the bag being dropped. There were also "numerous documents" inside identifying the rightful owner of the cash as the town of Trumbull.

"It's not like this was planned out," Withington told Hearst Connecticut Media. "Everything was in the moment and it was like I hit the lottery. That was it. I walked out onto the parking lot, saw something on the ground and there was no one around so I picked it up," Withington said. “But I did nothing wrong. I just found a money bag. It was just a big joke. They wasted my time. They slandered my name. It was very upsetting.”

When Withington appeared for a scheduled court hearing, and a state prosecutor informed him that all charges were being dropped. The state prosecutors office declined to comment. Withington had already given the money back.
ctpublic.org; newser.com;