Release of bobcat rattles zoo's cageLatest break-in prompts city to

By James Carlson

Meanwhile, Joe Kamer, the zoo's acting veterinarian, arrived near the Pallas cat exhibit where Johnson the bobcat was lounging.Thursday marks the second time city officials are examining zoo security since August."He found a little friend over there," Kamer said. "They were buds there for a while."The 26-pound bobcat named Johnson was discovered missing around 6:30 a.m. and was captured about four hours later. He was uninjured.Funding such a position, however, may be difficult as the city is considering whether to eliminate at least 60 jobs in an effort to close a $4 million shortfall.At that time, someone cut a chain on an exterior gate near the Gage Shelter House, walked to the bobcat exhibit and broke the lock hasp, releasing the animal.Kamer said the elephants had thrown around the wagon that was tossed into their holding area.New technology is available but is costly, he said, and ultimately the extent of security at the zoo will be determined by dollars and cents and how much money the city has to spend on it.Asked about any connection between the August break-in and Thursday's, Bevens said: "There are some similarities between the two crimes, so that's something to be considered. We're treating it as a burglary and processing the crime scene."By 9:40 a.m., the zoo was open and the children walked through the grounds.Zoo workers rushed the animal into a carrier and toward the animal hospital on the grounds.The second shot pierced a rear leg, and the cat went down.Officials say someone cut a hole in the chain-link fence around the zoo grounds, made their way to the bobcat exhibit and broke two lock hasps to release the cat.Topeka police Capt. Darin Scott said officers make "a lot of patrols" in Gage Park, including at night, and routinely check the perimeter of the zoo while making their rounds.About 40 minutes later, one of 30 searchers from the police, animal control and zoo spotted the bobcat about 30 yards from his pen in an exhibit area near the Tropical Rain Forest.Lying on the grass with a dart gun's long barrel balanced between the planks of a wooden fence, Kamer shot once toward the bobcat about 15 feet away and landed a glancing blow.Bevens said the city is discussing security options but didn't want to divulge details so as not to tip off vandals.Then-director Mike Coker said he was considering adding surveillance and changing locks and security systems.Scott suggested the best option may be to have a security person walk the grounds at night.City officials are again pledging to review security at the Topeka Zoo after the facility was broken into early Thursday and a bobcat was released for the second time in nine months."You can always do more," city spokesman David Bevens said of precautions at the zoo. "To what degree we do more, we will discuss that."James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com and tweets at twitter.com/carlson_james.Unconscious, the bobcat was examined and given a routine checkup. Johnson was back in his cage by 12:30 p.m., Kamer said.The vandal or vandals also cut a hole in fencing around the arctic fox exhibit and threw a plastic wagon in the elephant exhibit. The fox didn't escape.Bevens described the bobcat as "domesticated, docile and declawed" and said the children were herded out of the zoo after finding the cat again.Not all parts were recovered, he said, and he worried what digesting some of the pieces could do.The zoo was closed in the early stages of the search Thursday morning, and a group of preschool students from the Head Start program and the adults with them initially were told they wouldn't be able to tour the zoo because of the loose cat.The Capital-JournalA vandal or vandals entered the zoo Thursday about 20 feet north of the Gage Shelter House, this time cutting a hole in the fence down from the gate.The Capital-Journal's Thad Allton, Phil Anderson and Steve Fry contributed to this report.

James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com and tweets at twitter.com/carlson_james.

Zoo broken into again; cart stolenZoo victim of another break-in;

By James Carlson

The break-in marks the second in two weeks and the third since August. On May 6, someone or a group of people cut through the chain- link perimeter fence by the Gage Shelter House and let a bobcat out of its cage. It was found inside the zoo grounds within a couple hours. A hole also was cut in the arctic fox enclosure and a toy wagon was thrown in the elephant exhibit during that incident.Topeka police officers were called at 8:30 a.m. Monday to the southeastern quadrant of the facility where a hole was cut in the exterior chain-link fence big enough for someone to exit on the golf cart at a high speed, leaving tire tracks.A vandal or vandals broke into the Topeka Zoo over the weekend for the second time in as many weeks, this time stealing a golf cart.THE CAPITAL-JOURNALJames Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com and tweets at twitter.com/carlson_james.The arctic fox never left its cage.Bevens said authorities are treating Monday's crime as an act of vandalism and burglary.A nearly identical incident occurred last August, when someone broke a gate near the shelter house and let the bobcat loose."We need to do something soon because it's being targeted by one if not more individuals," he said.

James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com and tweets at twitter.com/carlson_james.

Letters to the editor

Fence repairs

The government raised Social Security withholding taxes in the 1980s to accommodate baby boomers who are coming to retirement age now.JAMES L. BERTRAM,TopekaOn the Fourth of July, Eagle Auto Wash offered full car washes to all active military personnel and all retired veterans with valid identification. My husband, a retired veteran of World War II and the Korean conflict, found time between rain showers to go receive a free car wash.DAVID HEWITT,TopekaI would not be supporting him if I did not believe he was reliable on anti-abortion issues. I would not have a "Moran for Senate" sign in my front yard if I did not trust that he would continue to legislate on the side of the unborn.WINNIE PAYNE,TopekaBut the figures were similar, or even higher, during the Great Depression. The gross national debt climbed to a high of about 120 percent of GDP during President Franklin Roosevelt's administration as the country pulled itself out of a depression while fighting World War II.Save Social SecurityThe last time I checked, the fund was still being raided.A neighbor who inquired told me it was done so grass would not grow up into the bottom of the fence.Fighting for what is ours is a much better course than working at Walmart when we're 70.As an anti-abortion activist and past officer of Coffey Countians for Life, I'm disappointed when any anti-abortion legislator turns on another to garner votes.So I wonder quite a bit when I hear Republican leaders like Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, suggest raising the retirement age for Social Security to 70. Others would eliminate the program because of debt woes.Perhaps someone at the school district, who must be much smarter than me, would care to explain the reasoning here. I have heard it said that when dollars are few, you just don't buy T-bones.Patriotic washTiahrt misleadsTo those who have been worrying about the national debt in relation to gross domestic product, some number crunching shows our gross federal debt is about 88 percent of GDP, which is certainly a very high figure.DALE FREE,BurlingtonInstead of meekly letting our leaders tear down and steal our Social Security, how about we choose to fight, tooth and nail, anyone who would take it from us after we have paid our dues into it literally all our lives?Other anti-abortion groups felt the legislation would prevent more abortions. Kansans for Life, for instance, disapproves of Moran's votes on that matter. With anti-abortion advocates disagreeing, he chose to vote upon the advice of Right to Life of Kansas. For Tiahrt to claim Moran is for abortion rights because he voted against legislation he believed might result in more abortions is absurd.Moran has a strong record of anti-abortion votes. He is endorsed by the very conservative Family Research Council. He helped pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and many other pro-life bills.A Tiahrt ad claims Moran is not anti-abortion because he voted against parental notification for abortion legislation two decades ago. The truth is he voted against the legislation on the advice of Right to Life of Kansas and several other strong anti-abortion legislators because he was advised it might result in more abortions due to parents pushing their daughters to abort.A good chain link fence was removed recently from the north side of McClure Elementary School, 2529 S.W. Chelsea Drive. An 18-inch strip of concrete was then poured. New posts were installed that will support another chain link fence. Quite a lot of labor was needed to do this entire job. Why?I have long been a fan of Reps. Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran, two good, conservative House members now running for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Sam Brownback. In recent weeks, I've been disappointed by purposefully inaccurate and misleading advertising by Tiahrt's campaign.I don't recall any history lessons where there was a major debate about the survival of Social Security during the Great Depression or World War II.The concrete alone cost $1,000. Topeka Unified School District 501 has terminated teachers due to financial problems. Wouldn't a fast application of Roundup have solved the problem with much less expense?Unfortunately, various branches of the government have been "borrowing" from the fund in vast amounts over the last decades.

WINNIE PAYNE,Topeka

Vehicle RPG Nets Saving Lives, Weight, and Dollars, QinetiQ Says

By B.C. Kessner

Soldier testimonials have begun appearing in the press, providing glimpses of the effectiveness of the nets developed jointly by the company, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Office of Naval Research. One example described how a 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry vehicle patrol was ambushed recently in Afghanistan."If you get engaged and you've got barred or slat armor, now you're talking about welding, brackets, bolts...you've got to pull all that stuff off, and that takes time," he added."With RPGs, you're looking to dud the round...if you can deform it in some way it prevents the shaped charge from coming forward," Barrett said.Terms where RPGNets could be more appealing than the alternatives include, size, weight, cost, and simplicity.The U.S. troops returned fire and maneuvered, causing the enemy to break off the attack. Afterward, what amazed the soldiers, and their leaders, was that the M-ATVs with QinetiQ's netting had taken three direct hits by insurgent RPGs and none had penetrated the trucks, the officer wrote."The worst effect of the insurgents' RPG fire was that I got my bell rung a bit," Army Pfc. Joseph Sweat from Smithville, Tenn., who was driving one of the above-mentioned 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry M-TAVs, said in the recent Army article published in Clarksville Online."There is a bit of a giggle factor at first, and we say, 'Really? Go shoot it,'" Bob Barrett, director, strategy and business development, QinetiQ Technology Solutions Group, told Defense Daily last week. "Once they do, it's like, 'Wow!'"[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]According to Barrett, the nets are installed at about half the standoff distance from the skin of the vehicles as compared to that of slat armor, reducing the overall profile of the vehicle.Barrett described the system's cost as significantly lower than that of bar armor.QinetiQ North America has not been able to talk openly about the capabilities of its net-based tactical vehicle system for defeating rocket propelled grenades (RPG), but word has been getting out that the simple, inexpensive solution is saving soldiers' lives, a company executive said last week.However, competing systems based on welded brackets and steel rods could be caught in QinetiQ's nets when it comes to cost, weight, and performance, Barrett said at the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.While anti-RPG nets and slat armor cannot block all of the effects of a high-speed projectile exploding near the shell of a vehicle, they are certainly making such attacks more survivable.QinetiQ has provided thousands of M-ATV kits, and the company is working on several variants of Strykers, Barrett said. "We have done kits for the French VBCI, and the Polish Rosomak...[and] we currently have a HMMWV prototype kit," he added.Shaped charges are designed to detonate at a specific standoff distance from the warhead's charge to the target. The focused explosive energy compacts the charge's metal lining and shoots it forward in a high velocity jet. To penetrate armor as designed, the RPG round needs to hit the skin of the vehicle because the standoff distance is from the trigger at the tip of the round to the point where the shaped charge begins. Deflecting, deforming, or causing the round to detonate at a non-optimal standoff distance and angle increases the survivability of the vehicle and its crew.According to the company, the nets perform at levels equal to, and in some cases exceeding, bar armor solutions.The netting is also simple to install. QinetiQ has patents on a "super strength Velcro" used to mount the system, Barrett said. "If a soldier gets into an engagement, once he gets back to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) he can peel this net off and put on another one. For an entire M-ATV's worth of nets, you can probably put it all in a big Hockey bag.""The nets are obviously saving soldiers, and that's the best thing about it," Barrett said.The principle behind QinetiQ's RPGNets is the same that led to the rigging of standoff chain-linked fences around Vietnam-era tactical vehicles, and more modern slat armor solutions: keep the RPG from going high order and punching its shaped charge warhead into the soldier's vehicle compartment."The other piece is during the engagement," Barrett said. After a rocket propelled grenade hit, a section of netting typically loses only about 10 percent of its small cylindrical metal nodes, he said. "You've still got about 90 percent of the netting remaining, so you've got multi-hit capability," Barrett added.An Army officer from the 101st Airborne Division wrote that the mine- resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) all-terrain vehicles (M-ATV) were engaged by insurgents' RPGs and small arms from within about 100 meters.

[Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

Chase ends in crash; driver being sought

By Ann Marie Bush

at (785) 295-1207Light bars lit up the area as officers located the vehicle identification number, searched the vehicle and took notes.Ann Marie Bush can be reachedSeveral officers were at the scene of the crash.Topeka police officers attempted to pull over a blue and silver GMC pickup Monday evening in the 1400 block of S.W. Clay for a routine traffic stop.The driver of the truck led officers on a chase that ended when the truck struck a chain-link fence in an alley behind a residence in the 1700 block of S.W. Western shortly before 6 p.m.The identification of the driver isn't known, Gilchrist said. No one was injured."It was a stolen truck," said police Lt. Scott Gilchrist.The man fled on foot, and a K-9 unit was brought in to assist in the search.or ann.bush@cjonline.com.Officers were still searching for the man at 8 p.m.THE CAPITAL-JOURNALAnyone with information about the incident can call Crime Stoppers at (785) 234-0007.

or ann.bush@cjonline.com.

SUV crashes into house

By Phil Anderson

Ward said the man who lives in the home told him he had just gone to the garage moments before the vehicle came crashing through the wall.The driver of the vehicle -- identified as the daughter-in-law of the home's residents -- was taken to a Topeka hospital by American Medical Response ambulance for observation. Police said her injuries weren't believed to be serious.The vehicle left rubber marks as it sped west up the driveway, over a chain-link fence and into the front of the home, going through the living room and coming to rest with its front end in the kitchen.No other injuries were reported, including to two people who were inside the home at the time of the accident.Ward then looked across the street and saw that a Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle had crashed through the front of his neighbor's one-story home at 3521 S.E. Adams.Upon their arrival on the scene, police and fire crews found the vehicle was about 10 feet inside the residence, facing southwest. The vehicle left skid marks in the driveway adjacent to S.E. Adams before it ran over four steel chain-link fence posts in the home's front yard, then crashed into the home.At first, he said, he thought it was his wife hitting her car's brakes after she had left the residence, but when he looked outside, he saw she was fine.Alan Ward was in his southeast Topeka home Thursday morning when he said he heard a loud screech outside.Police at the scene said the vehicle had been backing east out of the driveway onto the 3500 block of S.E. Adams when it was placed into drive and suddenly surged forward.THE CAPITAL-JOURNALThe home sustained extensive damage to its east, or front, side, as the vehicle took out the home's front door and a section of the wall with windows.The man's wife, meanwhile, was sitting at the kitchen table, Ward said. The vehicle crashed into the table, he said, and missed the woman by about 3 feet."Thank God everyone's all right," Ward said. "In all of this, the only thing that counts is I get to see my neighbors again."As Topeka police and fire crews investigated the accident, Ward spoke with a man who lives in the home, grateful he was unharmed.No serious injuries were reported in the accident, which was reported about 7:45 a.m. Thursday.Phil Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1195 or phil.anderson@cjonline.com.Topeka police Cpl. Louis Cortez said that the residents' daughter- in-law had been at the home moments before the crash to pick up an item and was preparing to leave in the sport utility vehicle."As she was backing out," Cortez said, "she put the car in drive and somehow, it just took off."

Phil Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1195 or phil.anderson@cjonline.com.

Car theft suspect tries to walk his way out of arrest

A man who stole a Ford Explorer, crashed through a business's chain-link fence and took off running Wednesday morning tried to act like he was out for a stroll when officers caught up with him, Colorado Springs police said.

The trouble started about 11:30 a.m. when someone boosted a Ford Explorer that was left running unattended outside a home near East Dale Street and East Hills Road, police said. The car thief drove away, but lost control and slammed into a building in the 400 block of Tia Juana Street in the Knob Hill neighborhood.The suspect had removed a Carhart jacket and yellow button-up shirt in an apparent effort to escape attention, but he couldn't help that witnesses got a good look at him during the brief crime spree, Thomas said.-Dean Williams, 20, had removed his winter coat and stripped down to an undershirt by the time officers spotted him on Circle Drive after the crash."He hit a curb, blew a tire and took out my fence," said Tom Kendall of Stang's Body Shop at 402 Tia Juana St.Call the writer at 636-0366.As the hit-and-run driver jogged away, the owner of a nearby plumbing business followed alongside in a vehicle, telling him "it'll be easier" to give up, Kendall said."He didn't want to listen," Kendall said. "He just wouldn't quit."Williams was calmly walking south on Circle Drive when he was arrested near the 7-Eleven store at Pikes Peak Avenue, police said.The sport utility vehicle - with a damaged front-end and a flat tire on the right, rear side - was returned to the owner, Kendall said.Kendall said the pickup caused $2,000 worth of damage.Williams surrendered without incident, Thomas said."He was just walking down the street like nothing had happened," said police Sgt. Randy Thomas.Police are holding Williams on suspicion of aggravated motor vehicle theft and hit and run.

Call the writer at 636-0366.