Police seek public’s help in purse-snatching case

Lawrence Police are seeking the public’s help in solving a rash of recent purse-snatchings.

They need help identifying a car seen leaving the parking lot of Kohl’s, 3240 Iowa, after the most recent robbery in which an 82-year-old Perry woman’s purse was grabbed.

Police believe a black male suspect in his 20s took the woman’s purse about noon Feb. 18, then fled in a black four-door car captured on video by the department store’s surveillance cameras.

Police say the suspect was a passenger in the car. They are also looking for the driver.

Police also are investigating two other cases in which elderly women were robbed of their purses in daylight: one Jan. 26 in the parking lot of Dillon’s, 3000 W. Sixth St., the other Feb. 3 outside Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine.

Anyone with information on the vehicle in the picture or either of the two suspects is asked to call Lawrence detectives at 830-7430 or the anonymous CrimeStoppers line at 843-TIPS.

Crime

Kansas City considering banning public urination

Kansas City, Mo. — Answering nature’s call in a public space may be distasteful and a public health threat, but it’s not illegal in Kansas City — yet.

City officials are trying to change that.

City Atty. Galen Beaufort has proposed a new ordinance that would make it a crime to urinate or defecate on sidewalks or in alleys and parks, or elsewhere in public view.

Beaufort said the only current way to prosecute that particular kind of offense is with a charge of indecent exposure.

The council is expected to vote on the measure March 4 — just in time for the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Higher education

KU pharmacy group named chapter of year

A student pharmacy group at Kansas University has been named national chapter of the year for the third time in four years.

The National Community Pharmacists Assn. picked the KU group over 50 others in competition last semester. Each chapter submits a report outlining its community service and professional development programs.

The KU chapter has volunteered to provide bone-density screenings at local hospital community health fairs and assisted pharmacies across the state with glucose and cholesterol screenings.

Turnpike

Two injured as semi crashes into toll plaza

Emporia — A tractor-trailer carrying cardboard boxes struck a toll-booth barrier and rolled on its side early Thursday, sending two people to hospitals.

Neither the truck’s driver, Fernando Lima, of Las Vegas, nor Amado Santana, of Miami, a passenger in the truck’s sleeper compartment, suffered life-threatening injuries. Both men had been treated and released by Thursday afternoon. Neither of the two toll workers were injured.

The Kansas Highway Patrol said that about 12:20 a.m., the truck was approaching the Interstate 35 toll plaza in Emporia when it failed to negotiate a curve in the road, striking a barrier wall between two toll booths. The truck tipped over and slid, coming to rest against several toll booths and blocking three of them.

Gasoline prices

Pump Patrol seeks deals

The Journal-World has found Lawrence-area gasoline prices as low as $1.58 at SITE, 946 E. 23rd St., and Citgo, Ninth and Iowa streets.

If you find a lower price, call 832-7154.