Garage Door

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. A food delivery driver was robbed at gunpoint as he tried to deliver Chinese food at about 11 p.m. on March 5 near the 400 block of Schwartz Avenue, in Towson, police report. The robber stole cash and the Chinese food and fled. Towson Ensor Avenue , unit block, on March 9. Man's car towed for illegal parking.

The following is compiled from police reports. The Columbia Flier includes descriptions of perpetrators only when the description makes identification possible. East Columbia Cobblefield Drive, 8600 block, between 7:30 a.m. and 5:40 p.m. May 26. Entry gained. Video game system and sound system stolen. Good Lion Road, 9400 block, between 4 and 4:55 am. May 26. Entry gained through garage door. Laptop, television and video game system stolen.

IT'S BEEN THREE years since I have danced. Three years since I have broken a sweat at the gym. Three years since I have run and jumped with my kids. Fact is, it's been three years since I have walked. On Feb. 12, 1997, I awakened in the early morning with strange shooting sensations in my legs. I had had the flu for about week but had no idea that this seemingly ordinary bug would put me in a wheelchair, possibly for the rest of my life. Six hours later, knife-like bolts of pain shot their way up my legs to my waist, permanently relaxing my muscles as the paralysis stopped short of the need for a ventilator.

There is nothing like a home and garden show to make you want to start from scratch on your own home and garden, and the 27th Maryland Home & Garden Show this weekend at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium is no exception. "I wish I'd thought of that." "Honey, we should think about doing that." And "Can I have your card?" will be the catchphrases at the Cow Palace until the show closes at 6 tomorrow night and we are all left with only our daydreams. There are more than 500 exhibitors in more than 160,000 square feet, and that's a lot of ground to cover.

The following is compiled from police reports. It is the Baltimore Messenger's policy to include descriptions only when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Baltimore City Police Department's Northern District at 410-396-2455. Yellowwood Avenue 4800 block, between 6:20 and 7 p.m. Nov. 14. MacBook, purse, ID, driver's license, ATM card, credit cards stolen from unsecured office at Ruscombe Mansion.

ONE RECENT MORNING a six-foot male sauntered down the alley behind my house, walked into my garage and rode off with my 8-year-old daughter's brand-new bike. A girl's bike, I should add, the kind of thing I as a boy would never have been caught dead riding. I would rather have walked barefoot on a highway of upended Legos.It was only a bike theft. Not a rape or murder, thankfully, but the pettiest sort of crime, one that has become as common an occurrence in my neighborhood as a summer thunderstorm.

Methodist church robbed in Mount AiryAn intruder who stole brass candle holders and a fire extinguisher from a Mount Airy church during the weekend also used the building as a temporary home, Howard County police said.Howard Chapel United Methodist Church, at 1970 Long Corner Road, was robbed between Thursday and Sunday, said Sgt. Carl Layman. The robber entered the church by smashing a window pane in a door. Police concluded that the thief stayed overnight because a couch had been moved.

Over the years, I've developed a few skills as a troubleshooter. When friends or family have problems with computers, I can often solve them. If a light or appliance won't turn on, I know how to make sure there's power in the outlet - and even rewire a lamp or wall switch in a pinch. I also spent two decades nursing a variety of small engines on lawnmowers, weed-whackers, snow blowers and the like. So I was pretty confident of my ability to solve common household technology problems - until I was bushwhacked by a garage door opener.

Four burglaries in which thieves used garage door openers to enter garages over the last three days are probably related, Howard County police say.The first case occurred in Scaggsville and the next three in Ellicott City, according to police.In a typical "garage door" burglary, intruders enter unlocked garages or get garage openers from unlocked cars in the driveways. The burglars press the electronic opener, hide to see if residents respond and then return and steal property.According to police, the recent incidents include the following:* Between 10:30 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, someone used a garage opener to get into a garage in the 10400 block of Rosemont Drive in Scaggsville, entered the adjacent house through an unlocked door, took keys to a 1994 Dodge Caravan and drove it from the garage.

Howard County detectives say they will charge two men and a juvenile arrested in Prince George's County last week with a string of eight garage burglaries in the Columbia area this year.Sgt. Steve Keller, a Howard police spokesman, said officers applied for warrants charging Larry Eugene Smith, 22, Rodney Lee Smith, 28, and a 17-year-old Odenton boy with 10 counts of burglary, 11 counts of theft and one count of destruction of property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.Howard police are investigating whether the suspects may have committed as many as 20 such crimes in Howard County dating back to October, Sergeant Keller said.