Ad For Hire

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - An unemployed Connecticut woman has taken her job search to the side of a highway.

Pasha Stocking, of East Hampton, has rented a billboard along Interstate 95 in Bridgeport. The sign includes her photo and the message, "Hire Me!" It directs people to her Web site, http://www.hirepasha.com.

Stocking, a 37-year-old single mother, was laid off in June. She says has tried everything to land a new job in marketing and design. She also is interested in executive assistant positions.

Stocking says she got the idea from a Milwaukee man who did the same thing.

She says she's paying for the ad with money she had been saving to buy a home. She won't say how much she spent, but the billboard company says on its Web site that a similar sign costs about $7,000 a month.

Split-N-Run

STOCKTON, Calif. - A suspected bank robber is behind bars after a woman whose car he hit during the getaway declined a share of the booty to keep quiet. According to investigators, a 46-year-old man walked into a branch of Bank of the West at noon Thursday and handed an employee a note demanding money.

Investigators said the man fled with the cash, but a few minutes later collided with another car. The driver told police that the man explained he had just robbed a bank and offered her a share of the take to keep quiet.

The woman called police. The man was arrested on suspicion of robbery

Tattle Tips

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The Albuquerque Police Department has turned to the want ads for snitches.

An ad this week in the alternative newspaper The Alibi asks "people who hang out with crooks" to do part-time work for the police.

It reads in part: "Make some extra cash! Drug use and criminal record OK."

Capt. Joe Hudson says police received more than 30 responses in two days. He says one tip was a "big one" but wouldn't elaborate.

An informant whose tip helps officers arrest a drug dealer could earn $50. A tip about a murder suspect could bring up to $700.

It's not the first time department has run ads. In a program 10 years ago, police received so many calls they turned the phones off.

Granny Robber

CINCINNATI - Police in Ohio have arrested a 68-year-old woman on a bank robbery charge - and they want to know if she's the so-called "Granny Robber" they've been seeking since last May.

Police in the southwest Ohio town of Franklin say a woman handed a note to a teller in a Huntington Bank branch Friday and made off with an undisclosed amount of money.

Officers said Barbara Joly of Middletown was arrested a short time later and they say she fit the description of the woman who robbed the bank.

Investigators say Joly had sunglasses and a scarf with her.

They won't say if those items were worn by the robber in Friday's bank holdup, but that is how an older woman was dressed during four bank robberies in the area since May.

I Luv $$$

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) - A Burlington woman awaiting a court of appeals ruling on an earlier conviction for forging her mother's checks has been arrested for allegedly doing it again. The woman, 43, was sentenced last summer to 15 years in prison but is free on bond while the case is being reviewed by the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Last week, she was arrested again on charges she stole checks from her parents. She also was accused of stealing another woman's credit card.

Police say the woman took at least 15 checks and wrote them out for about $850

Tattletale Robber

YORK, Pa. - Police say a central Pennsylvania man tried to rob a bank - but tellers' empty cash drawers thwarted his attempt. Springettsbury Township Police Lt. Scott Laird said the tellers were waiting for their cash drawers to be filled when a man entered a Susquehanna Bank branch Thursday morning and demanded money. The first teller fainted and the next two showed him their empty cash drawers.

Laird says the robber then threatened to file a complaint with bank management before leaving.

A customer at the drive-through called 911. A 48-year-old man was arrested about 10 blocks away and was held in the York County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail. He was charged with criminal attempt to commit robbery.

Jail Or $7.00?

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - A woman decided to go to jail rather than pay her bill at a Fort Pierce Waffle House restaurant. The total she went to jail over: $7.45. According to a police report, Maryanne O'Neill, 66, ordered coffee and a sandwich at a Waffle House restaurant on Saturday but refused to pay the bill.

The report said an officer asked her to pay or go to jail and she refused.

A jail official said she was released Monday from the St. Lucie County Jail. She was charged with obtaining food or lodging with intent to defraud, a second degree misdemeanor.

If convicted of a second degree misdemeanor she could face up to 60 days in jail and a fine of $500.