Three Pennsylvania Stories
The former live-in caretaker of a Pittsburgh-area mansion will stand trial on charges he drank more than $102,000 worth of old whiskey that he was supposed to be guarding.
A district judge ordered 62-year-old John Saunders, of Irwin, to trial on theft charges after hearing from the owner of the South Broadway Manor Bed and Breakfast.
The owner found nine 12-bottle cases of whiskey hidden in the century-old mansion built by industrialist J.P. Brennan after she bought it last year. The Old Farm Pure Rye Whiskey was produced in the early 1900s and appraised at more than $2,000 a bottle.
After Saunders moved out last March, the owner discovered 52 empty bottles and police found Saunders’ saliva DNA on some of the bottles.
Saunders’ attorney argued the value of the whiskey was “pure speculation.”
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Bigger than a Bread Box
A woman has given birth to a nearly 14-pound baby at a western Pennsylvania hospital.
Doctors at Armstrong County Memorial Hospital near Kittanning say they don’t keep official records of the largest baby ever birthed at the facility, but say Mark and Michelle Cessna’s daughter born July 11 is the largest they can recall.
“Little” Addyson Gale Cessna is anything but, weighing in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 25 inches long.
The couple is from Rural Valley, not far from the hospital which is about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
The Cessnas told KDKA-TV that doctors believed the baby would be above average, but even so, they were told to expect a child about 11 pounds.
Addyson Gale was delivered by C-section and joins two brothers.
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Long, Tall Harry
Police say a western Pennsylvania bank robber was long and tall, but probably not named Sally — despite outward appearances.
Instead police in Richland Township, near Johnstown, believe the robber was a 6-foot, 6-inch man who was wearing a wig and women’s clothes when he handed a teller a note demanding money at the First National Bank branch about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11.
Police say the suspect was wearing a straight-haired red wig, black dress and shoes, and was carrying a handbag.
Police Chief Michael Burgan says the bank still has to run an audit to determine how much money is missing.
Police wouldn’t say if the man had a weapon, but say nobody was hurt as the teller complied with the robber’s demand.