Some of our nominations are from news sources and we have some great entries from the Burbank and Honolulu IAPE classes, but the grand prize comes from Fresno, CA.

Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1999
Cow Art at Stockyards Site is Lost, Corralled
By Megan O'Matz and Marla Donato, Tribune Staff Writers.

For a while Sunday night, it looked as if the Chicago stockyards may have claimed another cow. One of the city's 300 painted bovines was discovered missing Sunday morning from its grazing point by the old stone gate at the entrance to the long-defunct Chicago Union Stockyards.

The cow, part of the city's "Cows on Parade" exhibit, even made the evening television news. The cow was painted like a clown. Students painted it yellow with bright red polka dots and rosy red cheeks. It is being referred to by police as "Chuckles the Cow."

It wasn't hard to spot. "Fifteen minutes after the news, police got a call," said a Deering District police officer. It was unclear from police reports if the cow had been damaged, but evidence technicians were sent out to collect evidence.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
February 3, 2000
Flag Theft

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Police are looking into who climbed a 90-foot flagpole to swipe the American flag and hang in its place a yellow banner decorated with activist insignia.

"You' d have to be quite a climber to climb that slippery pole, but I can't think of any other way to do something like that," said Dave Coleman, district chief with the Eugene Fire Department. The Fire Department Wednesday dispatched a ladder truck to take the banner from atop the pole at Skinner Butte. Police said the yellow banner is in the police evidence locker, and investigators familiar with activist symbols are examining it.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire, February 28, 2000
Man's ashes languish at police station for 8 years
PENSACOLA, Fla.

Jessie L. Armstrong has been with the Pensacola Police Department so long that employees have jokingly promoted him to sergeant. Armstrong, however, is nothing more than a pile of ashes in a brown plastic box that has been stored in the evidence vault since 1991. "You can't walk in there without saying 'Hi' to him," said police Lt. Bob Cotita.

A cleaning crew found the box in a vacated apartment and turned it over to police. "Other than his name, there are no markings on the box, so there's no telling where in the United States he came from," said property management supervisor Cindy Sclease. "We opened the box when he first got here, but there was nothing to identify him." "The guy who left him didn't care," Sclease said. "But hopefully a family member will find him."

The Honolulu IAPE class had some interesting entries. One that is typical Hawaii is a shark-bitten boogie board in the Honolulu Police Department property room of Evidence Custodian Gail Linear. A little more bizarre is the skull in a coffin in the property room of Evidence Technician Lorraine Suehiro of the Honolulu FBI office. The Hawaii Division of Conservation and Resources has a black-tailed deer under the protection of Eric Kawamoto, while Investigator Lloyd Shimabuku' s Attorney General's Office property room has some confiscated boa constrictor skins.

The F.B.I. was well represented at the Burbank (CA) IAPE class recently, and they have the variety of evidence that you would expect from a national organization. Evidence Technician Karen Franklin from their Washington, D.C. office has a stuffed brown bear, while Evidence Technician Deborah Cole from the Los Angeles Office has a stuffed ostrich. Following the animal theme, Property Clerk Silvia Mendoza from the Delano (CA) Police Department has some poisoned oysters.

From the same class we learned of a WWII machine gun in the property room of Property Manager Bob Newman of the Ridgecrest (CA) Police Department, and a 200 year-old wooden cross maintained by CSO Julie Freitas of the Santa Clara (CA) Police Department. Sheriff's Service Officer Robin Guzman from Riverside County (CA) has an official jeweled mask from the Taiwanese government. Almost as old is a Civil War saber held by Public Safety Officer Chris La' 0 from the University of San Diego (CA).

The grand prize winner has to be Property Supervisor Rhyss Twitty, from Fresno (CA) Police Department. He and Fresno P.D. Sgt. Joyce Vasquez also attended the Burbank IAPE class and shared that Ronald McDonald had been living in their property room for a while.

Following the class Rhyss sent this picture and a note. He reports that they offered him the use of a computer to use as he waited for his caretakers. He said (with his tongue in his cheek) that he took to it like a fish to water, then mentioned that he had been recovered from the bottom of a local high school swimming poo1. Although a suicide note was recovered, Rhyss says, "Alas, due to poor internal techniques, said note was destroyed by one who does not place much value in great historical documents." Ronald now has been released from her custody, and "is facing a bright future on the talk show circuit just as soon as he is released from Atascadero State Hospital."