Crime Time

Police arrest 'elf' who tells Santa he has a bomb

Nothing so merry about this elf.

Police in Georgia have arrested a 45-year-old man in an elf suit who they said told a mall Santa that he had dynamite. The Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta was evacuated, but no dynamite was found.

Police said the elf, identified as William C. Caldwell III, was not a part of the mall's Christmas staff. He's being held without bail.

-- Lance Murray

Teacher arrested after classroom standoff claiming to have bomb

Police in the Bronx say they've arrested a teacher seeking revenge against the principal for disciplining him by barricading himself in a middle school classroom and threatening to blow the building up, the New York Post reports.

The incident started at about 8 a.m. Eastern time at JHS 145. No bomb was found, police said.

-- Lance Murray

Car thief finds bomb-laden van and calls the cops

I'm not sure you can call a car thief a hero, but a car thief in Brooklyn, N.Y., may have averted a big disaster when he discovered a van laden with explosives that may have been parked on the city street for more than five months.

Yikes.

Police believe the van belongs to a Chinese national already jailed in Connecticut and who was caught with nearly identical homemade bombs.

The car thief drove the van to a remote location and then called a police officer he knew from a previous run-in. Police say they don't expect to charge the car thief, the New York Post reported.

-- Lance Murray

Police: Bomb-plot teen said he wanted to kill Jesus

A South Carolina teenager accused of planning to blow up his high school told authorities that he wanted to die, go to heaven and then kill Jesus.

Federal prosecutors told a judge Tuesday that Ryan Schallenberger, 18, made those statements to police.

The teen is accused of plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction, a charge that carries a possible life in prison upon conviction. Prosecutors say his statements indicate the boy needs a psychological evaluation. They have a point.

-- Lance Murray

Teen faces weapon of mass destruction charge

A prosecutor in South Carolina says that an 18-year-old high school student will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction for allegedly plotting to blow up his school.

The charge carries a possible life sentence.

Ryan Schallenberger, who was turned in by his concerned parents, also faces two lesser federal charges.

Federal authorities say that the teen had planned to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in Chesterfield, S.C.

Schallenberger's parents called authorties after discovering he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate -- a bomb ingredient -- and police later found his journal that contained threatening writings and the plans to his school.

-- Lance Murray