Burglaries

. -- When the first thief drove off with nearly a ton of rock salt last month, pilfered from a road de-icing firm's supply stored behind a strip mall, local police officers in this affluent Chicago northwestern suburb were flabbergasted. "It was so strange," said Buffalo Grove Police Commander Steve Husak. "Salt?" Then, as winter storms continued to bombard the Midwest with snow and sleet, there were reports of a second salt heist.

A grand jury here Monday cleared a Pasadena, Texas, man in the shooting deaths of two suspected burglars as they left his neighbor's house -- a case that stirred a national debate over whether he was a vigilante or a hero. Joe Horn, 62, shot the men on Nov. 14 after he called authorities and declared his intention to open fire on the suspects with his 12-gauge shotgun.

A burglary suspect who died in police custody in Long Beach over the weekend was allegedly hit with a shotgun butt by residents who restrained him before officers arrived, authorities said Monday. Deshoun Kenyon Torrence, 18, of Lake Elsinore died Saturday night after a scuffle with a resident and a neighbor of an apartment complex in the 600 block of Elm Avenue, authorities said. The cause of death has not been determined.

Serial burglar Ignacio Pena Del Rio gave up his tools of the trade, and on Tuesday had six months shaved off his prison sentence. Pena Del Rio, known as one of Los Angeles' most industrious and prolific cat burglars until his arrest in 2006, agreed to authorities' unusual request. He starred in a 70-minute video in which he disclosed all his techniques for a Los Angeles Police Department training video.

For 60 years, happy diners at the now-shuttered Homestead tacked dollar bills to the walls, dated and inscribed with a line or two to mark the occasion. A tradition in the high-desert hamlet of Inyokern, it made the cozy, wood-paneled restaurant a place to remember. So when a man last week used 10 of the bills -- some inked with the word "Homestead" -- to pay part of a court fine, a clerk remembered.

LAPD detectives were hunting Friday for a thief who made off with an estimated $2 million worth of jewelry after ransacking the Mulholland Estates mansion of socialite Paris Hilton in a brazen overnight burglary. In what may be one of the city's highest-dollar home break-ins this year, a security guard called police shortly after 5 a.m. Friday to report a burglary at Hilton's house in a gated community nestled in the hills of Sherman Oaks.

Two men were charged Wednesday with the shooting deaths of a man and his 17-year-old daughter on New Year's Eve. Matthew Koontz, 33, faces two counts of murder, including the special circumstance allegations of multiple murder and murder during a burglary, which could make him subject to the death penalty if convicted. Jonathan Blackwell, 26, also was charged in the slayings. Koontz was arrested a few hours after the shooting. Blackwell remains at large.

A Texas teenager has a bullet in the middle of his forehead -- and some prosecutors would love to have a look at it. But the lawyer for the teen -- who could face life in prison if convicted of attempted capital murder for his alleged role in a burglary and shootout last year -- is refusing to allow surgeons to remove the potential evidence in the case, which is lodged 2 inches above his client's eyes.

Students and teachers in at least 19 Los Angeles schools returned from winter break last week to find burglars had smashed locks and windows, seized computers and sprayed graffiti on walls, incidents that highlight a trend of vacation break-ins. Los Angeles Unified School District police say there are about 400 burglaries at district campuses per year, resulting in millions of dollars in property damage or stolen equipment.

Two men are facing possible murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting Sunday of a 15-year-old boy during an alleged burglary in Bellflower. The confrontation occurred shortly before sunrise when the boy and an alleged adult accomplice were spotted by a 57-year-old man near the rear of his property on Park Street, just north of the 91 Freeway, authorities said. Jerry Cress told investigators the suspects were trying to break into a shed.